Last Tuesday, our two wonderful hosts and their little son drove our team to our hostel where we would stay the night since the next day our squad would be leaving early in the morning for Siem Reap.
When we got to the hostel, we were stoked! As we first entered, there was a gorgeous pool. Then when we got to our room (which was on the first floor, which was a perk) and we rejoiced! There were 8 beds–so the seven of us and one other person–but we still had it mostly to ourselves. We again were so excited to have huge beds; cold, cold air conditioning (which we really haven’t had the past couple weeks); and a clean hostel room. Then we went out for a short bit since we were in the nicest touristy area I have seen since being on the Race: There was Hardees, Coldstone, Gloria Jean’s, Krispy Cream, and so much more. It did our World Racer hearts good to eat some familiar things.
But little did we know what was coming.
When we got back, we got to meet our new friend who was from Holland. We chatted about where she had been traveling and where she was going. When we heard she was going to Vietnam, we gave her some advice about where to go, what to eat, etc. As our conversation continued…
A teammate found a bed bug on HER BED!
All 8 of us quickly bonded over that problem and examined our beds to see if we could see any signs of them (a literal bed bug or their poop stains). Our Holland friend even went to the front desk to ask what could be done. When they suggested she could move to a different room, she stood strong for all of us like a champ and said, “There are 8 of us!”
But with not finding anything, we all tried going to bed.
And then at 5 am, our new friend found them on her bed and they had been biting her.
Long story short, during the Awakening (which I will talk more about in another blog), some of my teammates found bed bugs in their stuff and were bitten so we all had to take precautions and put our stuff outside in the sun to be baked by the sun and had ANYTHING that could be washed, washed. We were without the majority of our things for a couple days.
It was not fun. Especially because when you don’t have a home and you live out of our pack and day-pack and you don’t have them, you kinda feel homeless. I’m glad to have my bags and things back.
However, welcome to life on the Race where sometimes you may be faced with things like this. And thankfully, I never saw bites on me and I now have all my stuff back. Praise the Lord!
