The Gross Bits!

C: It's an understatement to say that travelling backpacker-style is not very luxurious. We've been going for about 3 weeks now and have encountered some seriously gross conditions along the way! Our favourite saying at the mo is "It's all part of the experience!" - those of a squeamish disposition may not want to continue reading from here...you've been warned!

• Bed bugs in Bangkok - somehow my bed was covered in these sneaky little blighters while P got off scott free! I was bitten on the first night and still have the scars to prove it - maybe it's just coz I'm so darn tasty.
• Cockroaches in Chiang Mai - P was sitting on her bed, minding her own business, folding her towel, when suddenly the biggest cockroach you ever saw reared its ugly head (I think she'd accidentally pulled on one of its feelers - ewww!). Being the jungle adventurer pro that I am (ahem) I swooped to P's rescue and disposed of towel and cockroach outside. Hoorah!
• 2nd hotel in Chiang Mai - 2 more cockroaches! One in the bathroom (I trapped it under a bin) and one down the side of P's bed (I tried to squash it but it darted away). Neither of us slept well that night. Oh, and I had wormy bugs on my bed........grossssssss......
• Snorting in Pak Beng - we stayed in a rather makeshift guesthouse on our stopover during the 2 day Mekong boat trip. Sound proof walls were not a feature, and next door was the most digusting snorting man ever!! It seems to be a real feature of Lao culture: they snort nice and loud, get a load of mucus going, then spit it all in the street or, as we were guessing, at our partition wall. Truly disgusting.
• Spiders in Luang Prabang - whilst going for a romantic sunset walk along the river bank, P and I stopped dead in our tracks at the sight of a spider the size of a HAND. Just hanging there, minding its own business. Is this preparation for Australia?! Hopefully we'll be completely hardened to all things manky by then........
• And last but certainly not least: TOILETS!! Asian toilets are a kind of sophisticated hole in the ground, but some of these holes are infinitely more sophisticated than others. The worst I've seen was when we were trekking, and the shower and loo were in the same...hut...area. The shower-head used for washing one's body was also the same for washing...other parts (they don't do toilet paper!) and the wasps/flies/mossies surrounding it all certainly knew where to find the germy germs. P and I had to make a quick getaway from that one to avoid stung bums! YUK.