Walking the Streets of Sydney at 4AM

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"Night night, sleep tight, and don't let the bed bugs bite!" Finally, some relevance to that.

Our flight to Sydney was during the night, so knowing that we wouldn't get much sleep on the plane, we decided to get ourselves organised and book our accommodation in advance at Boomerang Backpackers, a leaflet for which we had found in our Perth hostel. We thought that we would treat ourselves and get a couple of goods night sleep away from the dorms and book our own private room...

As soon as we got off the plane Gary realised that his phone was missing. We asked the cabin crew if they could check our seats incase it had fallen out of his pocket. No phone to be found. Gary definetely had the phone on him when the plane took off as he switched it off, so someone must have taken the phone. Not only were we disappointed to have lost his phone, but all our hotel booking and free transfer minibus from the hostel was held on his phone. We headed for the internet facility in the airport and managed to get the details off of Gary's confirmation email.

Feeling extremely tired we were glad when the very old and dilapidated van dropped us off at our accommodation (or what turned out to be the sister hostel from the one that we booked on the internet and was called AAA Ambassador). Upon asking the receptionist, it turned out that both hostels use the same internet site!! We paid our fee's for the two nights and headed upstairs to catch up on some much needed sleep!! The hostel was not exactly the cleanest!! In fact it really could do with being pulled down and built from scratch all over again. There was some work going on outside so we asumed that they were in the middle of renovating.

Our bedroom had a double bed and a set of bunk beds in it. The first thing that hit us when we opened the door was the smell and the flies!! Undeterred, we opened our suitcases and got out the bug spray (which smells surprisingly nice) in order to get rid of the flies so that we could have some sleep!! We settled on top of the bed and managed to grab a few hours sleep. When I woke up I saw a small white bug on my pillow, unknown to me as to what it was I knocked it off the bed and got ready to go out for something to eat. Gary at this point was reading some of his book and noticed a small, black, flat beetle like thing on his book!! Another attack with the bug spray.

Still pretty unconcerned, we headed out for something to eat and a look around the local area. Stepping out of our hostel we noticed that we were right beside a strip club, which was not the only one in the area. We found a nice deli to have tea, spent some time catching up on our emails and then headed back to our hostel. As we walked in the room Gary noticed a cockroach scuttling away as we turned on the light!! As we got into bed we noticed so much more!! The room was crawling with bugs (which we later discovered were bed bugs) and other little nasties!! It was the most disgusting thing that either of us had ever experienced!!

Trying to make the most of a bad situation we settled down under the covers and decided to read for a bit with neither of us feeling that comfortable despite how tired we were at this point. As the clock ticked the situation just got worse as we noticed a lot of bugs crawling around the bed frame and had to continually flick them off ourselves!! It's not the easiest to settle down to sleep knowing that things are crawling all over you!! What were we going to do?!? Stand in the middle of the floor with match sticks in our eyes all night armed with the bug spray (which didnt seem to be making much difference by this point)?!?

We couldnt stand it any longer, especially after we discovered even sitting on the edge of the bed seemed to still lure them to us, so we flung on some clothes, decided to cut our losses and headed out at 3am in search of a 24 hour hostel!! As we stepped out of the door, not only were we surrounded by homeless people with a bit of a habit, I got the pleasure of seeing someone with a needle sticking out of their arm!! Scared witless we headed onto the main street for some safety having to walk down the dodgiest alley in Kings Cross!! We walked for some time in search of a hostel that would still take us at this time and had spare beds!! Unfortunately, after a fairly lengthy walk down empty streets, there was nothing to be found and we were beginning to think that this was not the best move/decision that we had made. We were walking around an unknown city at 4am with no clue for directions and being hassled by homeless folk for "smokes" the whole time!!

Going back to that disgusting room was not an option so we headed to the McDonalds nearby for some coffee to keep us awake!! We had just ordered coffee, and found a seat when some drunken idiot came in looking for a fight!! He started on another local who was in the middle of ordering. Despite the annoying pleads of his girlfriend ("Dallas! Dallas!!!" stupid name too) to stop annoying people, fists and insults were flying back and forth between the two locals. At this point I lifted my cup and said to Gary we were going!! Back on the streets we headed to a 24 hour convenience store which had internet and surfed (for other accommodation) as well as getting a quick wikication on bed bugs, which we discovered were the bugs in the room via a google image search (we had our suspicions though, with Sydney being an apparant hot bed for them), while watching the sun come up.

We headed back to the hostel grabbed our backpacks and headed down to the hostel that we had booked on the internet!! Not surprisingly our room was not ready, it was only 6.30am, we dumped our bags and headed off to find something to do before checking out of our disgusting bug ridden pit of a hostel at 8am!! Straight away however, it was obvious that this hostel was in a far different class and came recommended by the Lonely Planet, a source we would have to start trusting a bit more than our own judgement. We went to the local Woolworths (grocery store here) which had internet access where we both phoned home to share our experience and kill some time. The only positive at this point was that we had managed to stay relatively bite-free, with bed bugs only normally biting when their host is fast asleep.

Time passed and we headed up to the hostel, Gary decided that I was doing the talking, all he wanted was no fuss and his money back!! So not surprisingly Gary disappeared when I told the receptionist that this was the most disgusting place that I had ever stayed and what compensation would I be getting for the trouble that we had been put through. I had nothing to lose!! She phoned her boss, who said that we could have one nights accommodation back!! Better than what we expected to be honest!! The girl then admitted that they did have a problem with bed bugs but it wasnt their fault it was people coming in and using their own sleeping bags with bugs from other places, and that they were a really clean hostel!! However, we noticed upon entering the communal kitchen that there were cockroaches climbing all over the kitchen appliances so their claims held no weight. Furthermore, we had found out after from Gary's sister Karen that when she had been in Sydney six years before, Boomerang Backpackers were notorious for bed bugs. Coupled with similar disgusted reviews of our bed bug hostel on the internet from over a year before (we should have checked these before booking), it seemed that insects were accepted house guests by the hostel management.

That at least gave us something to laugh at, although we were absolutely shocked that they knew fine well about the infestation but still continued to rent out the room and do nothing about it!!

Despite our tiredness and desire for some well needed sleep, the beds in our dorm room were not going to be ready untill after 2pm!! We headed for some coffee in order to keep us awake and then walked around the shops wishing the hours away till we could get some bed rest!! Totally fed up with walking and drastically losing energy we headed back to the hostel slightly early in the hopes that our room had been cleaned and beds made. Unfortunately not!! However I did notice the cleaning trolley in the hallway with a hoover on it!! So as we were paranoid that the little nasties had come along with us for the banter (which they are notorious for) I emptied everything out of the bags, boil washed all the clothes and borrowed the cleaners hoover to hoover our bags inside and out. Following a cleaning frenzy I took a much needed shower and finally our beds were ready!! Just as we settled down and closed our eyes our new room mates came back eager to get to know us!! Ahh sleep was going to have to wait till bed time!!

We joined the "lads" for a backpackers $5 steak and chips at the renowned 24 hour Scruffy Murphys and then gave them a helping hand in the pub quiz that was held in the bar at our hostel (we won best team name!), which then lead onto some very interesting dancing at a local club/bar!! Although a very enjoyable night we were extremely glad when our heads hit the pillow for a much needed nights sleep in a clean bug free bed!!

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Photos

AAA Ambassador
The fateful hostel. Never stay here.

Coca-Cola Sign
We snapped this on our middle of the night wander. It's at Kings Cross and is supposedly Sydney's "Hollywood" sign equivalent...

Penny Farthing
Possibly the most ridiculous invention ever, it's the first real one I've ever seen courtesy of Scruffy Murphy's.

Night Out
In Scary Canary's.

Cockatoo
Just when morning was dawning, we thought this was really cool to see it wild, but they're almost as common as seagulls here we noticed later on.