We’ve hit double digits baby! Today’s episode is all about hostel horror stories! We were inspired by our listener submission story from Kalene that we told last week. This week we dig through the distant memories of our own hostel experiences and share the best, craziest stories!
Christine talks about her sleepwalking and sleep talking escapades in hostel dorm rooms around the world. She tells Jules about her experience sleeping on the bottom bed of a bunkbed and nearly being dying after she shoved the slats out from the bed above her during a bad dream. Then she talks about staying at a hostel in the city of Dumaguete in the Philippines. She woke up to the sound of her own screaming in a female-only dorm, which woke up the girl in the bed next to her. That made for an awkward morning the next day. Not the best hostel experience, but afterward we made our way to Apo Island to swim with the sea turtles. It was an incredible experience! To learn more, visit our blog article: Swimming with sea turtles on Apo Island.
Then Jules reminds Christine of the time she slept-talked to a guy in a dorm in Port Ferry, Australia asking where Jules was. The guy had no idea who she or Jules were, and Jules was sleeping in the bunk right next to her.
For our main stories, Christine talks about the worst hostel in Central America. Everything seemed fine at this rustic hostel in the trees in Nicaragua, until we tried to sleep and found an infestation of bedbugs on our dorm beds. We had to sleep on the hammocks outside and were almost refused a refund. But the real gem of this story is that the hostel owner had a vendetta against TripAdvisor and responded like a crazy person to any bad reviews.
- For example, on a one star review that complained about the howler monkeys and the overpriced local breakfast, the owner responded with threats to kill monkeys and by calling the guests douchebags… and worse!
- There was another gem of a response to someone who allegedly got their laptop stolen by staff. Check out the podcast episode to hear this hostel owners outrageous responses!
Finally, Jules tells Christine a story from our blogging colleague, Hannah Logan of Eat Sleep Breathe Travel. Hannah was traveling through Vietnam and ended up at a hostel with some new backpacking friends. They all went out for the night, had some drinks and came back to crash. Fast asleep, they suddenly hear a banging on their dorm room door in the middle of the night. Someone from the other dorm room ran in mumbling something about an explosion, shit everywhere, have to stay here tonight, before running into the shower. Finally when he came out, the room got the full scoop. A couple from the next dorm room had decided to try some risky sexual business, in the form of going through the “back door,” if you know what we mean.
We’re doing a part two of the hostel horror stories episode next week. So please submit your stories if you have a crazy hostel tale! Hit us up on social media @notsobonvoyage or email us at notsobonvoyage@gmail.com