Hostels: The High’s and the Low’s
My first hostel experience was back in July of 2005. I was traveling up the Eastern coast of Australia. The group I was with would party and drink to the wee hours of the night and catch a few shut eye hours back at the various hostels we stayed at. Life was great and little concern over the accommodations was made.
This time around, the hostels would get their upper hand.
The first hostel I stayed at upon arrival in Sydney had about 3 showers and 2 bathrooms per 80 people. The rooms was dingy and could be concerned up to date if the year was 1976. The cockroaches roamed and ruled over the kitchen. Comfort was tough to come by to say the least.
I stayed at many hostels while abroad this time and the stays improved, but still my experience wasn’t as glorious as the first, probably because I was blitzed most nights coming back to the hostel in 2005.
The most important factor for me this time around was that alcohol was not being consumed at the rate of a camel that hadn’t drank in a month. I was sober most of my time and most of my guest mates were much younger than I and were definitely the dehydrated camel in my story’s version.
One story clearly explains my dealings with hostels this time around:
It all began around 3:30 one morning when a few hostel mates stumbled in from a long night of debauchery. There were 7 of us sleeping. All of a sudden, I am awoken by the sound of a running faucet. However, it was not a faucet’s stream that was my alarm but a stream from one of my nightly roommates. Another person turned on the light and us ’sleepers’ were astonished by what we saw. One of the drunk’s was standing there, in full glory, urinating on another sleeper’s bed…while they were sleeping in it. Since everyone was shocked, I took the lead and said, “What the $%&@ are you doing man?” Unfortunately, he was too drunk to comprehend. As the guy whose bed was getting pee’d on ran down stairs to tell the front desk, we all sat there half laughing, half pissed off. After the long relief, the guy stumbled across the room and grabbed another bunk. This time it was coming from the other end. One nice big pool of vomit landed right in front of another person. One of the other drunk’s got the guy to go to the bathroom to expunge the rest of his inners. The receptionist came upstairs and was pissed, figuratively not literally. He lifted his arms in disgust and exclaimed, “F’n A…” The next thing I hear are the stumbling footsteps of the root of the problems. The receptionist confronts the guy in the middle of the room, “Why the hell did you piss on this guy’s bed?” Then probably one of the funniest lines I have ever heard from a drunk guy at the end of the night came out, “What the $#%*, I didn’t do that.” He zig-zagged directly past the receptionist and into bed. The receptionist, flabbergasted, told the guy he owed $100 for clean up. The drunk then replied, “Prove it! You can’t prove it.” Which was quickly followed with, “There were 7 other people who saw you do it! I don’t have to prove $%#*!” The drunk ended up paying the clean up fee. Everyone was safe and sound. The hostel just experienced another night of randomness.
Now, this obviously doesn’t happen nightly. I have made tons of friends from all over the world. I sat and talked with a guy from Britain for 2 hours about culture and politics and sat with this guy from Switzerland for about 4 hours discussing the same topics. I have gained tons of knowledge from those that stay in hostels and do not regret staying in hostels. However, living in hostels can get tiresome.
To give you a perspective of what to expect when approaching your scheduling plans, let me list some of the Pro’s and Con’s of the Hostel World:
Pro’s
- CHEAP…Spent anywhere from $7 American to $22 American a night in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii. (Mind you, this was off-season)
- CULTURE…Everyone is accepting of your ragged lifestyle because they are experiencing the same.
- EXPERIENCE…I have stories to tell for decades to come about my stays in hostels.
- CONNECTIONS…I met many people who were willing to house me if I ever visited their region.
Con’s
- DIRTY…Many of the hostels I stayed in were liveable. But in a few instances, it became unbearable and I moved to another hostel.
- DRUNKS…I love to get buzzed every once in a while….but come on, nightly.
- KITCHENS…Have you ever tried to cook with 30 people in the kitchen and only 2 burners? No. Stay in a hostel.
Now, don’t freak out. Hostels can be frustrating, but the life experiences of them is worth the inconveniences that may arise.
After trying many sites for booking hostels, I suggest sticking with HostelWorld. It is cheaper than booking directly through the hostel and is very comprehensive.
General Suggestions:
- Try and be as nice to the receptionist(s) as possible as they are the ones who can hook you up.
- Depending on the season and holidays, try to book your hostel just a few days from when you will be arriving. Learned this trick from Mark Weins of Migrationology. The worst thing to do is book a hostel for too long and then plans change and your stuck paying for a room you’re not using.
- Have the address and phone of the hostel you will be staying at upon arrival in your new country. Customs agents get pissed when you don’t have that information.
Hope this information is useful. Your LifeExcursion will be much more exciting if you can learn to bum it out in hostels the world over.
…DCD
