Danger - Giant Tropical Centipede

I added this image mostly just to tell the story. This is not a photo of one of these venomous animals in a cage or zoo, but the blue background is the bottom of our open-air shower in the Siladen Resort & Spa Hotel. I had heard of horror stories about huge tropical poisonouscentipedes for years but had never encountered any. On our last night in Indonesia, in what was basically a rest & recuperate couple of days at a beach resort, my wife informed me during the night that she thought that there was a big centipede in out shower. I firmly close the door from the bathroom to our cabin and went back to sleep. In the morning, I assumed that it would have long since moved on, but just to be safe, I let water run down the drain of the open-air shower in case it had taken refuge there. After a few minutes, nothing had emerged, so I figured that it was safe to shower. So imagine my feelings when, covered in soap and with my eyes closed, my wife let out a shriek and told me that a giant tropical centipede was running around frantically in the base of the shower! I managed to get out and we created a way for the centipede to escape from the shower basin while we had breakfast and no one got bitten. But make no mistake, this one was about 45 centimeters long and another guest on the boat back to the mainland WAS bitten and he claimed his arm swelled up to the size of a basketball! These critters are aggressive and very fast moving - so handle with care!