Singapore: The tail of the bedbug siege!

Once upon a time there were two worldwide travelers named Sky and Terra. They had been traveling for four months and in the rooms they had stayed, they had experienced dirt, roaches in their bags and on their person, stained sheets, noise, holes in the walls, broken plumbing, cold, heat, humidity, smoke, dust, and other such conditions. They were pretty cool about this and had come to accept most conditions, if not really liking them.

On June 6th they arrived in Singapore, tired and stinky, and checked into a small Chinese “crash pad” which appeared pretty clean.  It had a balcony overlooking the street, a fan, a broken toilet down the hall and a slimy shower. After perusing the city, eating and doing some reading they settled down for a restful night’s sleep by the whirring fan. Tossing and turning began almost immediately as they felt as if something was tickling the hairs on their legs taking little bites out of them. Feeling restless, Terra got up in the dark, went to the balcony for some air and to the sink to get a drink. She tried to settle again only to be awakened by tickling feelings whenever she was dropping off to sleep. Up again, she found Sky in the same state so they decided to turn on the light to see what was going on. EEEEEEEEEEK, AAAAAAhhh, their beds, clothes, walls and packs were crawling with bugs!!!!!!!!  Quarter inch, shield-shaped, gray-brown bugs and spider mite sized red-brown ones were everywhere!  Bug flicking and bug squashing commenced amidst grimaced faces and high pitched disgusted squeaks from Terra. This cleared the beds but the intrepid travelers were surrounded by the creatures crawling on the walls, packs and clothes. They sat in the middle of their beds frantically looking around them, horrified to see more appear on the sheets as if by magic, seemingly materializing out of thin air. They did the unthinkable and bravely lifted the mattress to discover thousands of creatures scurrying for cover. Totally grossed out they looked at each other with pained expressions and said plaintively “what are we going to do?” Terra, being of semi-sound mind said, well Sky we have 3 options 1) sleep with the bugs 2) sit up with the bugs all night and watch, squash and flick 3) find a new hotel at 1 AM. Number 3 was considered and eliminated as impractical, number 1 was out of the question so number 2 was acted upon.

Terra sat cross-legged and vigilant in the middle of her bed reading of peaceful, bug free beaches in Malaysia, but between paragraphs would glance around the bed to flick off the latest invasion while Sky was experiencing a reaction to his recent cholera shot and was desperate to sleep. Something more drastic had to be done. An abandoned mosquito coil holder was discovered under the bed and thoughts of previous bedbug victims killing armies with poisonous gas came to mind. Packs were quickly opened to find our mosquito coils and matches and just as quickly closed to keep the enemies out. The fire was lit with angst over the possibility of alighting the bedclothes. Sky and Terra waited, the bugs continued to advance oblivious to the fumes as Sky and Terra coughed and sputtered from the gas. The flame was quickly extinguished to save the lungs of our travelers. The bug army had won that round.

The squishing and flicking continued to stave off the advancing hordes but Sky and Terra were trying frantically to think of what to try next. “The Rid”, said Sky, “get out the Rid mosquito repellent”. Terra said, “oh, that won’t work” but Sky insisted.  Terra quickly zipped open and closed her pack flipping and squishing as she went to prevent bug invasion of the inner sanctum. Sky doused himself with Rid and lay down again to try to sleep while Terra kept watch. Out of nowhere Terra seized upon the idea of daubing Rid on the sheets as a barrier to the soldiers. She experimented with a small dab, pushing the soldiers close to give them a smell, they retreated!! Terra then encircled herself with a line of Rid and Sky did the same. They sat and watched, soldiers approached the line but retreated upon encountering this defense line. Success!!! It looked like Sky and Terra had finally won!  But they were cautious and skeptical. Sky slept while Terra kept watch until she was convinced that no soldiers would cross the line.  She carefully curled herself into the middle of the bed, within the barrier, and slept fitfully. The light was left on so every few minutes either Sky or Terra could check the battle line to be sure no soldiers were getting through. During one such check Terra raised the alarm, the line had been breached!   More Rid was applied to bulk up the defenses, but alas, the ammunition was depleted and the fortification work could not be completed in toto. The pair curled within the fort as the enemies massed at the borders waiting for an errant toe or finger to cross the line to provide a bridge to the interior. The pair hoped that the line would hold until dawn and being able to do nothing more, they dozed and waited.

The morning light came just as the barriers were crashed but Sky and Terra were up and out, shaking their clothes free of the clinging enemies and beating a hasty retreat to the streets below to find a new and clean hotel.  Free at last, bed bug free and able to sleep in peace. Ahhhh! 

BUT………… come night time………!   Dum di dum dum, EEEEEEEEEEKKK!!!! “What is that crawling up the wall,” Terra cried. They’re back!  The intrepid enemies had invaded and hidden themselves in Sky and Terra’s clothes, there was no escape, the enemy was with them still!

Stayed tuned for next week’s installment of “Travels with Earth and Sky”!!!

Meantime, check under those mattresses and be fearless!!