Well, I finally made it. The delayed flight set off around 20 minutes later than the re-advertised time, but I landed in Bangkok at around 15:00.

There were the usual Stansted-esque queues at immigration and then I had to wait over half an hour for my baggage. Despite having a load of empty carousels, the staff had decided to mix our stuff up with a packed EVA flight from Heathrow.

The first piece of luck was the Airport Express bus I needed turning up within a minute of me buying my ticket from the surly clerk who kept trying to get me onto the Khaosan Road bus, presumably as I was carrying a backpack. Finally I convinced her I wanted off at Lumpini so needed the Silom one and she begrudgingly sold me the right ticket.

It’s definitely wet season here, with the skies a near-permanent grey. Still hot, though. And muggy. The skies opened up and rain deluged down as we progressed off the freeway and into the city proper. Annoyingly, the bus took a different route to the last time I caught it so it didn’t actually go past TRSC. This meant a short stroll in the pouring rain to get to my delayed appointment.

Not to worry. With the high humidity I’m not sure if I was wet from the rain or my sweat by the time I got there, but the staff recognised me as soon as I walked in and let me deposit my bags while I went through some standard 3-months-after-the-op tests. As I may have mentioned, my right eye doesn’t seem up to spec compared to the left. Far better than it was before the op, but not as good as I’d expected.

The tests showed a slight astigmatism in that eye as well as measurable short-sightedness. This can be fixed, by operating again. So I’ll be heading back in January for another few days stay, this time with only the one eye being lasered. There’s no cost to me as the surgery is guaranteed, just the hostel fees and however much I spend at the cinema. I can kick back in Bangkok again for a week – I kinda like it here.

I walked around to the hostel from there and had fun trying to pay my rent. Due to the drops they’d popped in my eyes over at TRSC, my pupils were still dilated. I could focus on notes to see how much they were, but coins foiled me completely. Colour, shape, size… no problems. I just couldn’t read the digits to find out how much they were worth.

By this time it was way after 18:00 and I’d had one small sandwich to eat all day. I caved and went to KFC for some food simply as I couldn’t think of anything else and it was nearby. I’m now back at the hostel, updating my Ubuntu installation and savouring the thought of my first hot shower in over three weeks.

Oh, bonus photo is me doing the mapping for my Divemaster certification. Putu emailed me it earlier and I like it.

Today we started to be pro-active and dropped our passports off at the Vietnamese embassy to get our visas. Prices have most definitely gone up, and the waiting times have changed from my last visit here. The charges were 2500 Baht (£38) for next-day or 1800 Baht (£28) to wait till Monday. Ouch. Plans had already been changed due to my having PRK instead of LASIK, so we opted for the next-day option to ensure we could get out of Bangkok before the next week started to pass us by.

I gather the visas are cheaper in Cambodia, and can – in some places – be picked up same-day. We didn’t know what our schedule would be, though, so we had no choice other than to get them sorted here.

Back at TRSC I had the lenses removed – a blessed relief – and was given a change of medication. No more antobiotics, and increase in the steroid drops and some cream to put in my eyes before I went to sleep to stop them drying out, so I only use steroids like trenbolone to improve my physical abilities in sports. At this point, the cornea was healed, but “rough” so needed to be smoothed out. Blinking does this automatically so I was told to keep the eyes wet (using artificial tears as and when) and to blink a lot. My vision would come and go over the next week or so, blurring would be common and one eye could be better or worse than the other.

All fair warnings and I left with my wraparound shades well in place to prevent any diry getting in to my now-unprotected eyes. Oh, and I could shower now as well. Yay! No swimming for another week or so, and no diving until a month had passed though.

In the evening we strolled through Pat Pong, ignored all the cries of “You want to see ping-ping show?” and enjoyed a drink on a comfy sofa. Outdoors. I also finally bought some sandals which would hopefully save on the number of sweaty socks I was chucking into the laundry.

Another short post as it was another day with little to do, again due to my sore eyes. The pain had subsided a lot compared to the second day – as I was told it would do – but the lenses were getting very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I wasn’t allowed to remove them, just pop in steril water drops to try and ease it.

We had lunch in McDonald’s which isn’t really noteworthy aside from one small thing that happened. Leah popped to the little stand to get some tomato sauce for her chips, but couldn’t find any paper cups. So she returned to the table sauce-less. Two minutes later, one of the staff walked over with two cups of sauce. He’d seen her, refilled the stand with cups, poured some and brought them to the table. Can you honestly tell me that’s something you’d not be amazed by in the UK? “Customer service” seems to have a different, and much more impressive, meaning here.

Any visit to Bangkok for the first time isn’t complete without experiencing the posh cinemas with their small number of reclining seats. Get Smart was on in one of these and we plopped down our 500 Baht each (pricey) for what turned out to be a very enjoyable film. If you’ve not seen it, then it’s recommended. Funnier than I expected and perfect casting.

Another essential experience is a massage. You won’t get a better one anywhere, so we popped by Miss Puke’s near the cinema for a Thai massage each. It was good to have some attention paid to the rest of my body so I could forget my eyes for a while. Plus, the dark room gave them a rest.

Experience three was a quick trip up to Soi Cowboy. The entertainment there is rather “adult”, but it was a giggle and Leah got to feed a baby elephant (not part of the adult stuff, I hasten to add). The prices for feeding them have definitely gone up (as has everything, to be fair) but she was well chuffed.

Our tuk-tuk driver back to the hostel was a complete maniac. Which for a tuk-tuk driver is a good thing! Fast, bouncy and fun – and a great character. The beer helped cushion my system as I dripped more drops into my eyes and taped on the spotty goggles.

OK, today was uncomfortable. I woke up around 4am in a lot of pain as my eyes suddenly realised that having acid poured on them and lasers shone inside them isn’t natural. Ow. I mean really. OW.

So here’s a hint for those having this surgery: not the night following the operation, but the one after that – down all the painkillers you can, the sleeping pill and the Valium. That should get you through the night and into the next day. I did finally nod off again – a huge thank you once more to Leah who dealt with my childish whinging and helped me locate all the pills.

Over the course of the day, I thanked the chemists who came up with both paracetamol and ibuprofen, so that I could take tablets every two hours, not every four. I took more pills in that one day than I’d usually take in a calendar year. This is no exaggeration.

Donning my €4 sunglasses which covered my eyes remarkably well, we checked out of the Indra and into the YHA on Silom. Not a bad place and with lovely staff – all smiles and helpfulness. We ended up (after being shifted within five minutes of check-in) in a room on the ground floor. Snug, but with all you need in a room. Unless you’re into cat-swinging. Chatting to one of the staff, I found out that the real estate in the area is ridiculously expensive, hence why they cram as many people as they can into small rooms to maximise the turnover per unit area. Makes sense, and the rooms are comfy enough.

We didn’t do a lot today because my eyes were uncomfortable and painful. My daily check-up gave good results and a better-than-20/20 vision result. Good stuff, though I couldn’t keep my eyes open more than a few seconds. I treated myself to a chilled root beer from A&W, then we popped via a random bar so I could mix alcohol with my painkillers. Maybe not smart, but it sure as hell helped me sleep better.