I can see... but do I want to?

I can see! Despite only have six teeny tiny holes in each of my bug goggles, I can make my way around and see things pretty clearly. I gingerly made my way down to breakfast – going down stairs is not fun when you have plastic things covering your eyes. I felt a bit silly sitting there with those stupid things over my eyes, but I was hungry!

After breakfast I went back to the Lasik center for my check up. I’ve got 20/20 vision in both eyes! That’s great in my book! 20/100 and 20/63 to 20/20 in both. My left eye is absolutely perfect – everything is clear and crisp (and to think I was worried about that one!). My right eye is a bit hazy… when I look at things, the edges are not sharp. The doctor said it may take a while for that to go away, but it is completely normal.

I’m not overly sensitive to light (a bit, but I always have been – seems about the same to me), I have no pain and no dry eye either (except later on the plane). So, I haven’t noticed any real side effects other than the lack of sharpness on the right side. I’m thrilled with the surgery though!

After I finished my check up, it was back to the hotel to check out and then off to the airport. I got a car to the airport from the hotel. A bit expensive, but I didn’t want to deal with scamming taxi drivers. The driver was quite friendly and we were chatting for a bit. Apparently Bangkok is opening a new airport (news to me) so that was interesting to talk about.

I checked in no problem, but when I asked about an upgrade to Business Class, I was told it was full. Well, once I got on the plane, it wasn’t. *grrr* The seats in economy class have to be the narrowest seats I have ever seen in my life. Normal sized Western people were squashing into them. And then I get the seat that for some reason has a plastic thing sticking four inches into the chair space. Luckily there was another seat I could move to – economy was packed! I’m still in shock over how narrow the seats were. In Japan, seats are often quite small, but I have never seen anything that bad.

I arrived in Phuket slightly squashed and got a car to the hotel. It took about an hour to get down to the beach my hotel is on – there was so much construction! None of it was tsunami related – they are just building all kinds of roads. As we turned onto the beach where my hotel is located, I was shocked – the water was dead calm! Rainy season hasn’t started yet! And I can’t swim! That sucks so much. The first time I’ve been here when there weren’t red flags on the beach (don’t swim) and not only that, but the waves were just lapping the shore. Darn!

At the hotel everything seemed a bit disorganized. My room is on the 8th floor – great view, but the elevator only goes to the 6th floor. Also, the room had twin beds and I had asked for a king sized one. The room was also stifling – no one had turned the a/c on. Such a difference from my first visit last year when they greeted us with cold drinks, took us to a room that was perfectly cool and had nice music playing in the background. The time on the stereo wasn’t even set this time. Oh well, the view from the balcony was absolutely stunning.

So I got myself settled into my room, and everything was great until I walked into the bathroom and heard this flick, flick, flick sound. I turned toward it and saw this absolutely huge, flying cockroach in the bathtub. I freaked – ran out of the bathroom, slammed the door and called housekeeping. They came up and of course couldn’t find it. I didn’t even want to go back into the bathroom, but called out places to check. I wasn’t going back in until it was gone! It was hiding in the towels in the end. *shudder* When it reared its ugly self from hiding I ran back into the room. Housekeeping duly killed it thankfully; however, I was on the look out for more. You know what they say about seeing one.

So a couple hours go by and there was no sign of any other cockroaches. I got myself ready for bed. I had fun taping the bug goggles back over my eyes – I have to wear them at night so I don’t inadvertently rub my eyes and move the corneal flap. I made my way to the bed, snuggled under the covers and turned out the light. Flick, flick, flick. The light immediately came back on. Peering thru my six holes per eye I tried to find the source of the sound – was it just an insect (there are tropical gardens all over the hotel, so some bugs are to be expected) or was it another horrible cockroach. I searched and searched but couldn’t find anything. So I went back to bed, straining to hear whatever it was.

Flick, flick, flick. I turned the light back on. I caught a streak of something out of the corner of my eye, but couldn’t see anything. At this point I was starting to freak a bit, because that cockroach in the bathroom had flown. Please don’t let it be another one. Light out. Flick. I waited. Suddenly, there was a flick, flick, flick right near my head and something slammed itself into my cheek. I literally jumped off and out of the bed, screamed loudly and ripped the plastic thing off my eye. Despite the pain of having three pieces of tape ripped simultaneously off my face, I didn’t feel it. What the heck just smacked into me???!!!! Light goes back on. Turns out it was a little wee tiny beetle. I hope. Needless to say, I won’t sleep well in this room. Are there any other things lurking?