BED BUGS BITE!

When I first started travelling years ago, I remember spending countless hours taking thousands of photos of famous buildings and landmarks, only to look back at them with indifference.

Turns out, when it comes to traveling, the things we remember most are the experiences we had with locals along the way… and sometimes the most memorable experiences are not what you might expect them to be.

One memory I can recall from Indonesia took place in Bali when we had just started our journey. It was our first night in our cheap yet comfortable hotel on Poppy’s 2 in Kuta. It had a pool, air conditioned rooms which surrounded it and twin beds which was a steal for 20 bucks (especially since Clayton and myself were sharing it).

After jet lag sunk in and more than a few drinks at some of the popular bars in the area, we found ourselves fast asleep. I awoke a few hours later to an unbearable itch, and what felt like mosquito bites. But wait a second… can mosquitos fly under your sheets? Can they crawl on your legs too? Something just didn’t seem right and when I jumped out of bed to flick the lights on I had discovered small tick-like creatures crawling under my covers.

Here’s a clip from Chefs Run Wild. Watch what happens!

I had heard of bed bugs before but it was usually the ol’ “sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite” saying. Do they really exist? Isn’t it just a fairytale? We had found out pretty quickly that they do indeed exist and our beds were infested with them! They are pretty common now all throughout the world and even the nicest of hotels have them. They became quite a nuisance for the rest of our journey and the only choice we had was to get used to them. Clayton and Lyndon didn’t seem to mind them that much but I just couldn’t shake the disgusting feeling of them crawling on my legs in the middle of the night. The funny thing is that when we talked to the management to change rooms we were kicked out of their hotel for them having bed bugs!

We did what we could to get rid of them as we moved from hotel to guest house, city to town, country to country. For example, – and please note! – you need to wash all your clothes in hot water or at the very least place your belongings in black garbage bags and let them sit on hot concrete in the afternoon sun.

It was a horrible day, but so were all the flat tires and long bus rides. At the end of it all, though, they are all good stories to tell and when I think back on all those horrible moments, they were some of my most memorable of my life and I wouldn’t change them for the world.

Run Wild with Lyndon, Chad and Clayton every Tuesday at 8pm ET on T+E as the three trained Canadian chefs cook their way across Southeast Asia in search of authentic regional dishes that shock and delight. Beware: Not for the lily-livered or squeamish.