Hundreds of people turned out today (August 15) to take part in or watch the parade that was the highlight of the Phuket Baba Wedding organised by the local Peranakan Association.

This is the fourth Central Food Hall in Thailand. There were two in Bangkok, and will be again when Central World is reopened, and there’s a third in Pattaya. The Phuket branch definitely raises the bar locally.

Local ladies tuned out in their very best traditional outfits and lots and lots of jewellery for the second Phuket Traditional Costumes Contest at the Provincial Museum near the Heroines monument today (August 8).

There can be little doubt that AirAsia has had an effect on the bottom line at Thai Airways International, offering discounts that the Thai flag carrier has not even tried to match. Now Thai has a plan to fight back.

Twang. Thunk. Robin Hood was good at it. So was William Tell – he could split an apple at 100 paces. Henry V of England won the battle of Agincourt 600 years ago in great part due to his archers. Closer to Thailand, Phra Narai in the Ramayana was an astonishingly good archer.

Phuket Observer believes that Liberty, a cliff-top dwelling on Millionaires’ Mile, may be the most expensive home yet offered in the Phuket luxury home market.

Jaguar Cars has chosen Phuket over everywhere else in Asia for the regional launch of its new luxury, superfast XJ model, which has an electronically limited top speed of 266 kmh and a 0-100 kmh time of 4.9 seconds.

After tourism and rubber, property is the third-biggest industry in Phuket, so sellers of homes on the island – who have been looking at blank order books thanks to the global financial crisis and the Red Shirt violence in Bangkok – will be happy to know that Thailand’s ranking for the transparency of its real estate market has improved, giving buyers increased confidence.

Western films set in Thailand up to now have all pretty much had the same characteristics: The stars are Westerners and Thailand is simply an exotic backdrop. Thai actors and actresses are all taxi drivers, gangsters or gogo girls.

Bitter/Sweet, which had its Thailand premiere in Phuket last night (June 11) as part of the Phuket Film Festival, deliberately sets out to break that mould.

Centara Hotels & Resorts will open its new Centara Grand Beach Resort Phuket at Karon Beach in October this year, its fourth hotel in Phuket.