INSIDE - Phuket People

It’s been a long time coming, but this year a Thai woman will finally be allowed to compete for the Miss Bikini International Crown.

For the first time ever, there are Russian volunteers at Region 8: a subdivision of the Immigration Department charged with patrolling touristic areas and providing assistance to travellers.

As Harry David Plant walks to his Birel 100cc Go Kart, he is unrecognisable from the animated and amiable 7-year-old boy from just minutes earlier.

THE BRAND NEW, much anticipated and simply gorgeous Chicky Net website was relaunched last month.

Recent international jewelry exhibitions, held at Phuket shopping malls Jungceylon and Central Festival, have been labelled a sparkling shopping success by the throngs of shoppers who came to peruse the stalls and see what the latest in Thai jewelry-fashion looked like.

An increase in direct flights between the often compared islands of Phuket and Bali are sure to highlight the differences and similarities between the holiday destinations. We pitch the same questions to Bangornrat Chinaprayoon, Director of Tourism Authority of Thailand, and Yoman Suwidjana, Deputy Chairman of Bali Tourism Board to see who fares best.

In certain parts of England during the 1980s, women danced around their handbags, their accessory cleverly doubling as a focal point to centre their moves around and acting in lieu of an able-bodied or willing partner.

The ‘Sixth Phuket’, due to open in November 2011, aims to be the first lifestyle shophouse in Patong.

38-year-old Thai sculptor, Sunti Pichetchaiyakul, placed an impressive 25 out of 1,713 competing artists in ‘ArtPrize’: billed as the world’s largest art competition in Grand Rapids Michigan, last month.

The Phuket Shelter for Children and Families has been taking care of Thailand’s impoverished children, abused women and abandoned babies since 1994.