Or when it is more hygienic to not wash your hands in the bathroom
Imagine you just had a few relaxing days in the sunshine with an old friend, lazing for hours over cold drinks, reminiscing of past adventures, watching rugby and laughing a lot. Then you say goodbye again, and although you’re technically “neighbours”, the distance is still several thousand kilometers. And although you have new friends in NZ, it is never the same as old friends that know all your faults and several serious missteps from your days as a student…
So, slightly sad you arrive at the airport. There you check in, only to find out your flight has been cancelled and they put you on a kangaroo-hop around the Aussie continent. After some hours of intense hate for Qantas and a few airports later, you find yourself tired and still slightly mad at Perth Airport. Is there a shuttle to my hostel? Oh deary! It left just a few minutes ago! You’ll have to wait until 10pm.
So finally at 11 pm you arrive tired, hungry, thirsty and above all GRUMPY at the Globe backpackers. There is a drunk guy in front of you trying to check in for the day after, or something similarly drunkenly stupid. In the middle he notices you, and although drunk still capable of recognizing the female gender. “Hst ggggngggg???” he asks. I stare blankly in his face a few seconds and then ask icily “excuse me?”. “How’s it going?” he asks again. I stare at him some more moments before declaring sarcastically “Fine”. At least he gets the hint and a while later I can check in. The long stare of the girl at her schedule and giving me a key to room number 2 after she first cheerily declared I was in room 6, do not leave me with a good feeling.
Finding my way to room 2 I am not amused by cigarette smoke, noise, more drunken guys, and a very dirty garbage bin lid. Upon opening room 2 a heavy damp smell of dirty socks, pee and dead mice hits my face. Oh My God.
There are no dead mice or dirty socks, but there is cigarette ash on the fridge and a stain on one of the pillow cases, and the vacuum cleaner hasn’t been in this room since Easter 1980. I try to not be angry and go find the bathroom first. WRONG!
The toilet has all possible human excrements on all possible surfaces. There is no toilet paper. I do not want to even think about what bodily fluids are on the sink. It looks as if somebody peed in the waste bucket after slaughtering someone else in the corner behind the loo, which is covered in red splatter.
Although I am pretty much a clean freak, I have no problems with a little bit of dirt and can go hours or days without washing my hands if need be. I laugh at those who carry around alcohol tissues to sterilize every surface before they touch it. But here and now, I know how the dirt-phobic feels. I do not want to touch anything in this hostel.
I go down again to reception and tell them I hate to do this, and have never before done this, but I have to complain. The girls says “Shit” to the other girl in a way that sounds like it means “shit, she found out we never clean here”. She is very apologetic and asks if it means I am checking out again, because they don’t do refunds. I look at her in despair. It’s nearly midnight, I’m exhausted, where could I go? She tells me she will come up in 5 minutes and bring clean sheets and some air freshener. An HOUR later, as I am already asleep, she comes up. “Oh, but it smells nicely pepperminty here!”. Ja stomme doos! Godverdomme! That is my peppermint hand sanitizer sprayed in such generous amounts that I find myself giddy with the inhaled alcohols.
They promised to give the room a good clean and then I could decide whether I wanted to stay or go, still without refund of course. I did some tests and indeed they superficially cleaned the room, but the used tissue under the bed stayed where it was the whole week and the dead body smell lingered on despite having the window open the whole day (risking backpackers stealing my dirty socks). Also the cigarette ash on the fridge remained and the bathrooms and showers sometimes had the same stains or hairs for days on end. I felt as if I could see whole armies of nasty microorganisms marching up and down the corridor from one bathroom to the next. I could feel the nasty STD’s and tropical diseases from other backpackers creep up on me. I was afraid I stank as much as the room itself.
At the conference I met people who told me even the expensive conference hotels are filthy. At least I didn’t pay insane amounts of money for a filthy room.
So, repeat after me: Globe backpackers in Perth is AWFUL. Spread the word wide and far. Don’t go there. Discourage others. As I tried to explain to the girl on my first night: I have stayed in hostels, hotels, motels and everything in between all over the world including pretty sketchy places in Africa and Asia, but never have I encountered this sort of circumstances. Sure you can blame filthy backpackers, but if you don’t even clean the toilet every day nobody is going to mind very much where they pee on in the general area of the bathroom.
I heavily regretted not having read reviews of the hostel, as I usually do. They all tell the same story, or worse. Multiple people noticed bedbugs in the dormitories. Vomit in the bathroom for days. “No refunds”. Convicts awaiting some court hearing. Daily police visits for noise, sexual abuse, fights, drugs, said convicts ...
But at least I saved at least 500$, which can go back to the “analyse more samples” budget.
Imagine you just had a few relaxing days in the sunshine with an old friend, lazing for hours over cold drinks, reminiscing of past adventures, watching rugby and laughing a lot. Then you say goodbye again, and although you’re technically “neighbours”, the distance is still several thousand kilometers. And although you have new friends in NZ, it is never the same as old friends that know all your faults and several serious missteps from your days as a student…
So, slightly sad you arrive at the airport. There you check in, only to find out your flight has been cancelled and they put you on a kangaroo-hop around the Aussie continent. After some hours of intense hate for Qantas and a few airports later, you find yourself tired and still slightly mad at Perth Airport. Is there a shuttle to my hostel? Oh deary! It left just a few minutes ago! You’ll have to wait until 10pm.
So finally at 11 pm you arrive tired, hungry, thirsty and above all GRUMPY at the Globe backpackers. There is a drunk guy in front of you trying to check in for the day after, or something similarly drunkenly stupid. In the middle he notices you, and although drunk still capable of recognizing the female gender. “Hst ggggngggg???” he asks. I stare blankly in his face a few seconds and then ask icily “excuse me?”. “How’s it going?” he asks again. I stare at him some more moments before declaring sarcastically “Fine”. At least he gets the hint and a while later I can check in. The long stare of the girl at her schedule and giving me a key to room number 2 after she first cheerily declared I was in room 6, do not leave me with a good feeling.
Finding my way to room 2 I am not amused by cigarette smoke, noise, more drunken guys, and a very dirty garbage bin lid. Upon opening room 2 a heavy damp smell of dirty socks, pee and dead mice hits my face. Oh My God.
There are no dead mice or dirty socks, but there is cigarette ash on the fridge and a stain on one of the pillow cases, and the vacuum cleaner hasn’t been in this room since Easter 1980. I try to not be angry and go find the bathroom first. WRONG!
The toilet has all possible human excrements on all possible surfaces. There is no toilet paper. I do not want to even think about what bodily fluids are on the sink. It looks as if somebody peed in the waste bucket after slaughtering someone else in the corner behind the loo, which is covered in red splatter.
Although I am pretty much a clean freak, I have no problems with a little bit of dirt and can go hours or days without washing my hands if need be. I laugh at those who carry around alcohol tissues to sterilize every surface before they touch it. But here and now, I know how the dirt-phobic feels. I do not want to touch anything in this hostel.
I go down again to reception and tell them I hate to do this, and have never before done this, but I have to complain. The girls says “Shit” to the other girl in a way that sounds like it means “shit, she found out we never clean here”. She is very apologetic and asks if it means I am checking out again, because they don’t do refunds. I look at her in despair. It’s nearly midnight, I’m exhausted, where could I go? She tells me she will come up in 5 minutes and bring clean sheets and some air freshener. An HOUR later, as I am already asleep, she comes up. “Oh, but it smells nicely pepperminty here!”. Ja stomme doos! Godverdomme! That is my peppermint hand sanitizer sprayed in such generous amounts that I find myself giddy with the inhaled alcohols.
They promised to give the room a good clean and then I could decide whether I wanted to stay or go, still without refund of course. I did some tests and indeed they superficially cleaned the room, but the used tissue under the bed stayed where it was the whole week and the dead body smell lingered on despite having the window open the whole day (risking backpackers stealing my dirty socks). Also the cigarette ash on the fridge remained and the bathrooms and showers sometimes had the same stains or hairs for days on end. I felt as if I could see whole armies of nasty microorganisms marching up and down the corridor from one bathroom to the next. I could feel the nasty STD’s and tropical diseases from other backpackers creep up on me. I was afraid I stank as much as the room itself.
At the conference I met people who told me even the expensive conference hotels are filthy. At least I didn’t pay insane amounts of money for a filthy room.
So, repeat after me: Globe backpackers in Perth is AWFUL. Spread the word wide and far. Don’t go there. Discourage others. As I tried to explain to the girl on my first night: I have stayed in hostels, hotels, motels and everything in between all over the world including pretty sketchy places in Africa and Asia, but never have I encountered this sort of circumstances. Sure you can blame filthy backpackers, but if you don’t even clean the toilet every day nobody is going to mind very much where they pee on in the general area of the bathroom.
I heavily regretted not having read reviews of the hostel, as I usually do. They all tell the same story, or worse. Multiple people noticed bedbugs in the dormitories. Vomit in the bathroom for days. “No refunds”. Convicts awaiting some court hearing. Daily police visits for noise, sexual abuse, fights, drugs, said convicts ...
But at least I saved at least 500$, which can go back to the “analyse more samples” budget.
