Airlie Beach - Part 2

Written on: 04.04.12

There are bedbugs!!! Bedbugs!! There are bedbugs in the beds at Magnum Backpackers!! Eeeewww!!

I thought all the bug bites on me was just from ants and mosquitoes at first, then someone told me last night that she’d heard there were bedbugs in this hostel! Then she actually saw some on her bed! I started thinking and I realized that most of my bug bites I have noticed when I’m in bed. And then this morning I woke up with at least 3 new bites. I’m not even going to try to count how many bug bites are on me at the moment.

 Antiseptic cream has become my best friend.

Written on: 05.04.12

Because of the bedbugs that I wrote about yesterday everybody in my dorm had to move last night. Everybody else got to go to a little cottage on the premises, but I got moved to another dorm because I’m staying here longer.

It all started with two new girls coming into the dorm. They had been moved from another dorm with the same problem. One of the girls had loads of bedbug bites all over her face and arms. When they heard that there were a few bedbugs in our dorm as well they went straight back down to reception.

The lady that came up from reception was really rude, and was telling us off about the bedbugs as if it was out fault! I know bedbugs can come from people’s bags and sleeping bags etc, but no one had been in a place with bedbugs before or had their sleeping bags on the beds. And apparently it’s a common problem at Magnum’s, the bedbugs… I mean… Two rooms in one night..? That’s not good!

So we all had to spray our suitcases and backpacks, tumble-dry our clothes and put what couldn’t be tumble-dried in black bin bags and put those out in the sun this morning for a few hours, to kill off any bedbugs that might have gotten into our things. It was already 9pm by the time we moved out of our dorm, so all this took a while. So after we were done we all had a little “bedbug party”. ...who’d think we’d bond over bedbugs?

The two girls that had come into our room and noticed that there were bedbugs there as well checked out later that night, which is understandable, to be moved from one room with bedbugs to another with the same problem… Not fun. They didn’t get a refund or anything. In fact, all the “compensation” any of us got was that we got $3 each to pay for the tumble-dryers!

I am really disappointed in how rude the staff was though. We’ve paid to stay here, just because we’re backpackers doesn’t mean that they can treat us like shit!

Written on 06.04.12

I got “robbed” of almost $50 at the pharmacy today!

I only went in to get a $4.50 tube of antiseptic cream because I’m almost empty, and then I asked the pharmacist if it would work on my bites just to make sure. I told her it was a mix of mosquito-, ant-, and bedbug bites. A soon I said bedbugs (and the fact that I’m slightly allergic to any bug bites) she gave me some antihistamine tablets and some hydrocortisone cream as well.  She didn’t even ask if I wanted it, just printed out a label with my name on it for the cream because it’s pharmacist only medicine, and told me how much it would be for everything! It’s good in a way I guess, if it all works, I just wish it wasn’t so expensive! But at least I’ve got it now and it’s not something I have to buy every week, so even though it’s expensive at least it will last me a while.