OK, “blind” is an overstatement but Leah guided me round for most of the day so I may as well have been.

Despite not taking the painkillers the night before, I slept well. And for a long time. We didn’t do too much today, but checked out some accommodation as our short stay at the Indra Regent was coming to an end. I immediately suggested Big John’s as I’ve used the dorms there in the past so we headed round. They’ve moved to the building next door which they were in the process of doing when I was there some time ago. At the time, the new dorms were in the new building and they were OK. We were looking for a private share room this time, though, and checked out one of these.

Leah’s words on seeing the room were “it’s horrible”.

I couldn’t see much – my eyes were painful by now (to be expected and I’d been warned they’d start to be uncomfortably on the second day) and I was unable to spot the mold on the ceilings and curtains, the bad paintwork, the dirty sheets and so on. Again, I’m glad Leah was there to stop us staying in a pit. Instead, we logged onto the free wifi and booked a room at the Silom YHA for the next night and crossed our fingers.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not averse to “slumming it” occasionally, but if Big John’s has gone so far downhill then I can’t recommend it. In fairness, we only looked at one room. The dorms may well still be fine as per my original review in the Accommodation Guide. But on the basis of the room we (well, Leah) saw then I can’t in good faith tell you to use them. By all means go and see the place first – maybe they’ll have cleaned it by then.

I had a follow-up appointment at TRSC which I attended and they told me everything was fine. My eyes were still very sensitive to light and a little painful but not as bad as I’d feared. The quick eye test on the chart I underwent gave me better than 20/20 vision. Wow.

Dinner was at KFC (hey, I was an invalid – I’m entitled to a treat) and we wandered around the local market that backed onto the hotel. Hot salted corn cobs were the snack treat of the night. Unhealthy, probably, but delicious.

Again, I kept the valium and sleeping tablet in reserve. The eyes were niggly, but not too painful.