THE VAST staff at Phuketwan and our friends are now debating the merits of the Phuketwan Awards of the Year. In other words, the two of us are talking.

As usual, though, agreement is not easy to come by. So we'd like to call on readers to help us to give every likely candidate for every award a reasonable chance. This is, after all, a celebration of the Best of Phuket

Here are the award categories and a few details of what we are looking for. If you know of a worthy candidate for any award, please tell us who or what it is, and why.

Then we will go ahead and make the awards, probably ignore every piece of good advice, as usual.


PAST winners have been Dibuk Restaurant, where French meets Thai in Phuket City, and Kan Eang 2, the seafood eatery on Chalong Bay. Previous winners are excluded from the 2009 title. Value and taste are the two important criteria here. While we are happy to pay for a good night out, or a fine lunch, we draw the line at footing huge prices. If you know of a good restaurant that does not charge the earth, please tell us all about it. We like to eat, too. Tell us all your secrets.


PAST winners have been Destination Air seaplane shuttle (business) and the Big Buddha (attraction). We are looking for contributions that add good new ideas or services, or as with the Big Buddha, a new attraction that will boost tourism and enhance the island's appeal for decades to come. The range is broad, and the benefits to the island need to be obvious. The bolder the concept, the better.


PAST winners have been Red Mountain golf course and Ao Po Grand Marina. Phuket's future as a sporting destination clearly begins with golf and yachting, and diving is the other one that completes the Big Three. This doesn't have to be a sporting thing, though. A new idea that saves money or reduces any one of Phuket's long standing social problems could make a good candidate. Don't hold back . . . tell us what you think.


ONLY one past winner for this one, Sala Phuket. The award was introduced last year, and we hope we can find a suitable winner this year. The winner need not be a new resort, it could be an older resort with a new injection of life, or a timeless resort with quality at its core. Sala Phuket made flat fashionable. What, in your opinion, is the standard-setter among resorts for 2009? We can stretch it a little to the ''Greater Phuket'' region.


PAST winners have been Promchote Traivate, who made Phuket people healthier with a community exercise campaign as well as providing a tourism future for local villages, and then Phuket airport general manager Wing Commander Wicha Nurnlop, who saw Phuket through the tough period following the 2007 air crash, proposed a five billion baht expansion, and weathered the storm of two airport invasions, one on Phuket and the other at Suvarnabhumi. This is for people who excel at what they do, with the island's best interests at heart.