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I didn’t know what “bed bugs” were at first. The first time I heard of this little thing was when the owner of a pharmacy told me when I was traveling in Malacca many years ago.
I was in Malacca at the time, and I don’t know why I got a lot of red and swollen bags on my legs the next day. At that time, I hadn’t heard the word “bed bugs” before, and I thought I was allergic.
The pharmacy owner politely reminded me: Maybe the place to live is not clean enough.
Bed bugs are basically rare in China, so it is not surprising that many people have never heard of them.
But after this trip abroad, I feel that compared with worrying about my wallet being stolen, what I should worry more about when traveling abroad is actually a problem that different accommodations may face: will there be bed bugs?
Some say you can choose a more expensive hotel so you don’t have to worry about it.
But this is not a foolproof way, because bed bugs are not the same as ordinary small bugs.
In the second youth hostel I stayed in Tbilisi, as soon as I entered the door, I saw the staff ironing the mattress with an electric iron. Only after asking did I know that this is to prevent bugs.
Because they don’t know where the guests at the hotel are coming from, they do this just in case.
Looking at the steam coming out of the mattress, I felt a little more at ease-such a dainty practice is rare, which shows that they are sincerely thinking about their guests.
Although the cleaning of high-end hotels may be stronger, there is no guarantee that guests who have stayed before have not inadvertently brought bed bugs from elsewhere.
This randomness makes it impossible to completely reassure.
It’s a very bad thing to encounter bed bugs while traveling.
On the other hand, when traveling domestically, I never seem to have to worry about bed bugs. Even a very cheap youth hostel has poor network signal at most.
I thought hygiene was the most basic guarantee for a youth hostel or inn, but I didn’t expect that there are still some places where even such basic accommodation conditions can’t be guaranteed.
Bed bugs are small and usually come out in the dead of night. When you fall asleep, they start to “work”; Wait until you wake up to find out: something is wrong!
And there are quite a few kinds of them, and each of them is a headache.
I originally thought that this happened because the place I chose was too cheap.
But after chatting with travelers who took the same route, I realized that she had met her too!
And she met a different place than I did. Does this mean that bed bugs are actually a common hidden danger in many places abroad?
I kept my wallet tightly on this trip. Because I have had the experience of being stolen before, I am extra vigilant about my money.
Before departure, I deliberately changed US dollars, and I didn’t bring a bank card. The only cash I have on hand is all I can take out when I don’t have the Internet.
I scatter them in different places, but the big heads are still in one place, so I am often on tenterhooks for fear of being targeted.
Unexpectedly, after more than 70 days, my wallet was not remembered, but I accidentally lost a few banknotes. And bed bugs, but I really encountered them.
Before returning home, I packed all the clothes I wore outside and stuffed them together, and planned to clean them thoroughly when I returned home.
When shopping in supermarkets abroad, the corner I go to the most is not the snack area, but the detergent area-in order to pick a piece of soap that can sterilize bacteria.
