Even though the island was now clean and safe there was very few tourists here, I would have said that there was about 50 of us. Which for an island which has around 2000 rooms was of great concerns for the locals. It was heartbreaking to be watching CNN and BBC news on the island which was reasonably immaculate considering what had recently happened, yet rather than the news channels broadcast how well the locals and tourists had cleaned up and got pretty much all of the coastal towns, villages and islands up and running again. The news channels were still telling people to stay away and were showing video clips from weeks previous. No wonder people didn’t want to go! I suppose do you show bad footage to get people to donate and help get relief work undertaken quicker or do you say that Koh Phi Phi etc is back up and running fine and people then don’t donate? Well personally I would have done the second and at least allow the locals to get their pride back and line their pockets themselves.

Around this time my girlfriend and family were extremely worried around me as the island had no connections with the outside world, well ones I could use. No telephones and of course no internet, this was still an issue even after I left the island and arrived in Krabi about 42km away by boat and of course for around the 3 weeks I had no contact with anyone. In hindsight I now realise for the sake of £30-40 I should have gone on a day trip to the mainland and contacted home and explained the situation rather than going AWOL.

Anyway Koh Phi Phi is just under 50km south east of Phuket and about a 2 hour boat journey to Krabi, with boats leaving on a daily basis. The islands are extremely rugged and have steep barely vegetated cliffs, which is great as it are these which make the secret little hidden bays which are hiding the amazing pristine beaches. Scuba diving in Koh Phi Phi was amazing with visibility of around 30 meters whilst I was here, unfortunately the marine life here was pretty scarce from the majority of the coral being destroyed.

The Phi Phi islands are situated in the province of Krabi which is one of the furthest south which sits next to the Andaman Sea, Eastern Indian Ocean. The biggest island is Phi Phi Don which is about 8 x 2.5 km and is in the shape of an H. The smaller island is Phi Phi Ley which is about 3.5 x 1 km and in uninhabited of course except for the Viking Cave bird nests which are guarded by 2-3 people to protect the caves. This island is made entirely of limestone cliffs and has two of the world’s most famous beaches Loh Samah and of course Maya Bay. This was where “The Beach” was filmed, there was a lot of bad publicity over the film being shot here. But if you speak to any of the locals the actually film company left the beach in better condition than when they arrived. Typically lots of tourists had left rubbish all over the island which was all cleaned up by the film company. They even went as far as to plant a few extra trees and bushes which were native to the island. The other islands are Bamboo island and Mosquito Island which are both tiny.

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It first opened in the winter of 2003, completely reviving the dying Bangkok dining scene in many ways. This was the first of the Dome’s venues, and obviously generated a lot of buzz! I’m presuming that the biggest reason for this was simply because people were very curious to see the view from the one of the tallest buildings in Bangkok, 2nd but it does have the highest outdoor balcony.

The Sirocco roof bar restaurant is pretty breathtaking jutting into the skyline of the city like the deck of a space ship with the entrancing glow of the Sky Bar.

But I’ve since been told that more than the view Sirocco is even better for it’s food. Sirocco’s astonishing atmosphere is a complement to its excellent cuisine, not a replacement for it.

To add to this the Sirocco bar is also one of Bangkok’s best live jazz venues. Sirocco feature international performers six nights a week!

If you want to visit one of the best restaurants and bars in Bangkok and don’t mind spending a little extra give it a visit at 1055 Silom Road, Bangrak, Bangkok 10500. There are two entrances to the building and plenty of free parking if you dare to drive. Alternatively call them on +66 (2) 624-9555 and get them to give the directions to your taxi driver

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