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.

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.

That calendar is out. At a big bash at Cape Sienna hotel in Kamala on November 5, attended by hundreds of Phuket’s local glitterati, dressed to the nines, the ladies of the Women’s Will Power group (WWP) launched their calendar for 2011, aimed at raising funds for the Phuket Shelter for Children and Families, a haven for abused women and children.

Phuket is leading the charge as tourist arrivals into Thailand climb out of the 2009 doldrums.

The Indigo Pearl Resort and the Dusit Laguna Resort have both scored awards in the annual “Oscars of the travel world” – the World Travel Awards.

The owners of the Phuket International Academy (PIA) are to open, not one, but three boutique hotels in the next 13 months.

Soccer-playing staff of Mom Tri’s Boathouse hotel get a very special ending to their annual tournament: a visit by Thai national team manager and former Man U hero Bryan Robson.

In a promotion that might just be interpreted as a swipe at discount airlines such as AirAsia and its own sibling airline, Nok Air, Thai Airways International (THAI) has announced hefty discounts for passengers flying between Bangkok and Phuket anytime from now until March 31 next year.

The girls – er, sorry, the women – of the Women’s Willpower Group are at it again, creating a new sexy calendar for charity. Exclusive Phuket Observer pictures.

In the blue corner, Absolute Resort Management. In the red corner, the other Absolute, from Bangkok, Absolute Hotel Services.