Thursday, April 15, 2010

#28

Backpacker's Paradise
Oudtshorn, South Africa
270 (approx $38) and zero Rand /night

Here is a photo of our bed on the evening we arrived. Pretty, huh?



And here it is the next morning.



Why...?

Bedbugs!!

I don't recall if I wrote about our first encounter with bed bugs, back in Buenos Aires. Let's just say, it was disgusting. The worst part wasn't the bites themselves (well, those were pretty terrible), but the sleeplessness for a week after. We were like crackheads up all night, convinced there were bugs crawling all over our skin. Three hostels later and still getting new bites, we didn't know if we were carrying them with us or if the new ones were from mosquitos. We investigated, stressed and obsessed over it for days. Finally, the bites subsided and the sleep returned. We were relieved we wouldn't need to burn all of our belongings and come home.

Now, we are pretty diligent about checking for the little fuckers. So as we settled into our comfy little room and Reece felt the familiar tickle that something might be crawling on him, we were on our feet, flashlights in hand. The flashlights were unecessary however, cause we immediately noticed about a half dozen hateful critters crawling on the wall behind the bed. Our theory is that the tremendous amount of bug spray we'd coated ourselves with had sent them running for the hills.
We immediately alterted management and were moved into another room. Our new digs were free of bugs and free of charge.

The moral of the story however, is that you really can't anticipate where you'll encounter such misfortune. It has very little to do with the cleanliness of a place. Bedbugs aside, the hostel was great. But one person stays in one infested room for a while, and they spread the love to every new spot they visit. Kinda like herpes. Especially on a route like the one we're on - Thousands of people are hopping up and down the coast staying at the same handful of hostels along the way... it's a varitable orgy of infestation.

Anyhow, we're not gonna let it bother us too much. Luckily we got out of the first room fast and so far show no signs of having brought any eight-legged passengers with us. We continue to keep a keen eye out, and may sleep with a flashlight closeby just in case.

Oh yeah, and here are some photos of the rest of the hostel. Cute, huh?









1 comment:

  1. Ummm... that is so wrong. My skin is itching just reading this. Yuck!

    ReplyDelete