Phuket Bike Week – the big biker event – may be some months away (it takes place around the Thai New Year, in April), but in the meantime the island’s bikers are planning an event to raise money for charity.

The Phang Nga Bay Regatta, which has been a key event in the Southeast Asian yachting calendar, was in danger of collapsing after its founder and main organiser, photographer and publisher John Everingham, declared himself to be unable to help with the 2011 event.

Phuket is not exactly a world centre of European-style classical music, but it does have its moments.

Now there’s more good news for lovers of brews: Patong’s first microbrewery is up and running, and the beer’s lovely.

The Famous Beach Club, with its own deejay station looming over all, its long inviting pool with, at the far end, a large raised sala and, along one side, comfortable tents for lounging in.

It was shuffling room only in some parts of the old town as tens of thousands of people thronged the streets of the old town of the annual Phuket Old Town Festival.

The Phuket International Boat Show (known as Pimex) keeps growing. And the boats on show keep getting bigger and more gorgeous. Topping this year’s list is the new Sunseeker 40-metre, which wowed the crowds when it was first seen at the Southampton International Boat Show in the UK in September.

The Chairman of Central Plaza Hotels Suthikiati Chirathivat – who’s also a director of Central Pattana, which owns Central Festival Phuket among other things – came to Phuket at the weekend with a couple of dozen Bangkok journalists to check out his latest creation, the 262-room 2.3-billion-baht Centara Grand Beach Resort on Karon Beach.

The Phuket King’s Cup, which takes place from December 4 to 11, just keeps growing. Last year set a record with 111 entries. This year entries are already heading for 100. And it’s not just the number of yachts that’s growing. It’s the size of them.

Members of Southeast Asia’s Peranakan (overseas Chinese, also known as Baba-Nyonya) community are very active in preserving their heritage and a central part of this is the annual Baba-Nyonya Convention, which rotates through the various Peranakan centres of Phuket, Penang, Singapore, Melaka and Medan. This year’s, the 23rd, will be staged in Phuket, at the Royal Phuket Marina, next Sunday, November 21.