Or whatever they are. Remember how I raved about our affordable luxurious Bell Tower Youth Hostel accommodation? Here’s the catch… Warning, graphic image ahead!

Awesome view of the Bell Tower from our window.
After a day of exploring the Muslim Quarter, we (my husband Shervin and I) went back to the hotel to get some well-deserved rest. We loved our room so much we decided to just prepare some instant noodles for dinner so we didn’t have to go out. We were tucked in our beds early, watching CCTV (one of the few channels with English shows).

At around 10-ish, we decided to call it a night. We arranged a Terracotta Warriors Museum tour at the hostel’s reception earlier that evening and were advised that the van will pick us up at 9:00 AM the next day. And so we’d have to be up in the morning a bit earlier so we could still have breakfast.

Lights off. Half an hour into my sleep attempt, I felt Shervin rose from the bed. He said he’s feeling a bit itchy and thought it could be lack of shower. We both had only 3 baths during our 8-day China trip! He stepped inside the bathroom and for the first time tried our fancy rain shower shower head.

In a few minutes, I also started scratching my arms and legs. When Shervin emerged from the shower, I told him I was feeling itchy as well. I started worrying about bedbugs and asked if he could inspect the bed while I take a bath.

We didn’t find any bedbugs. I thought I was just being too paranoid. Well after the Kuching tragedy (<-- you might want to click on this link to see how sexy the bites looked on my legs!), who wouldn't be? Back to sleep. Past midnight, I awoke and found myself sleep-scratching. But this time, the itchiness had an irritating sting to it. I switched on the lights and was horrified to see 4… 6… 8 bedbugs travelling the whole expanse of our bed! Some concentrating on the main destination, us! I shook Shervin quite vigorously and pointed at the creatures. He immediately went to the reception and asked for our beddings to be changed. When he got back, he said the receptionist didn’t seem to understand what a bedbug is, but asked she for a housekeeping staff to check our room anyways. Our beddings were changed in a jiffy. But it didn’t help. We tried to get back to sleep on the new sheets, and obviously the bedbugs are hanging out in the bed (duh!) and not in the comforter so they were out and about once more as soon as we turned off the lights.

Shervin headed to the reception again. The hostel’s elevator is (permanently?) not working, and the poor fellow needed to climb up and down 4 flights of stairs. This time he asked for a room transfer. He showed a photo of the bedbugs we caught. The receptionist was shocked. I wonder if we were the first ones ever to complain about bedbugs or she was just new.

Ugh! A backpacker’s nightmare!
All double rooms were already occupied so we were transferred to a twin room. We gladly took it. I bitterly packed my bag at 2:00 AM and took two flights of stairs up to the 5th floor.

Our new room’s equally posh as the other one, but the view? Nothing compared to the Bell Tower roundabout. But hey, so long as it’s bedbug free, I won’t complain.

Stay away from room 423.

P.S. We’re not entirely sure if they’re bedbugs (perhaps a different species?) because the next day, we found out that their bites didn’t leave any red, stinging marks. Anyone who has encountered such too?

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