Off On A Tangent (Side Stories On The Road)
Off On A Tangent (Side Stories On The Road)
Posted By : Techhdarre
Koh Lanta
It was my first night as an independent traveller. I had made it to Penang, proud of myself for figuring out the logistics of getting there from KL…and getting there cheaply. I searched the streets of Penang for a hostel mentioned in the Lonely Planet and booked myself in. All in all a good day. Did some exploring during the day and then returned to my room to settle in for the night. It was midnight, I was still reading a great novel I had picked up at the airport Street Lawyer I believe it was or some other Grisham novel about lawyers anyhow I was heavily into it when I noticed a little orange coloured bug scurry across the page. I flicked it away and thought nothing of it.
After a while I put the book down for a second and noticed on the bed a few other little orange bugs and also some BIG orange bugs. They seemed to all be heading in my general direction. Then it hit me…BEDBUGS!!!! What a horrible revelation. Any tiredness I felt was catapulted out of my body while my mind struggled to deal with the situation at hand. It was midnight, I couldn’t change rooms, my bed was infested with little bugs whose sole purpose in life was to suck the blood from unsuspecting victims so that they could reproduce. Well at this point I wish I were unsuspecting but I was unfortunately way too aware of my fate should I fall asleep. And it grossed me out!!!
Friends from Nice Beach Resort.
So it’s midnight, I’m now very much wide awake and the little bedbug army is sending out troops in waves of three of four at a time. How do I cope? I continue to read(at least the novel was interesting enough to distract me) and squash any critter within eyesight. All too occasionally I would check the sheets and the perimeter of the bed for more of the little bloodsuckers and all too often I would find them. I wish I knew then that they just suck blood and then leave because at the time I figured my body would be infested with little bedbug eggs or worse, maybe bedbugs where actually fleas or lice and would take up residence somewhere on my body. Not the experience a person needs when he is all alone a world away from things familiar.
Needless to say I didn’t sleep that much that night and although quite humorous in hindsight…I was not laughing at the time. I eventually got to sleep by spraying insect repellent around the perimeter of my sleeping area several times throughout the night. It actually didn’t work but it gave me enough confidence to at least fall asleep. Needless to say I found a different hostel the next morning!!!!
It’s funny looking back at this. I’ve since hit a few places with bedbugs and instead of freaking out, I just leave an arm outside my sleep sheet as an offering and fall asleep! Desensitization or what?
With kind permission, source by : http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/techhdarre/4/942384388/tpod.html
