Well, you read the title, so spoiler: This is about the time we got bedbugs in Singapore. I know what you’re thinking. In Singapore?? Yeah. The richest, most developed, most urban country in Southeast Asia?? That’s the one.

Let me explain.

We arrived in Singapore on a Friday morning. It’s an expensive country and we could only stay for a few days, so we were on a tight schedule. We checked in the hostel, left our stuff in our lockers, and started exploring the Lion city. If you’re interested, you can read our Singapore on a budget -itinerary here.

After spending the whole day exploring the city we headed back to our room, exhausted. Christian saw a little bug walking on the wall next to the bed, and for a fleeting moment I thought: “hmm, what do bedbugs look like again?” That thought quickly exited my head though – firstly, according to what I’d read on bedbugs you can barely see them during the day, so that obviously couldn’t be one. Secondly, we were in Singapore! There were skyscrapers in front of our hostel and we could drink water from the tap! There was no way there would be bedbugs at this hostel. I went to bed and forgot about it.

Here’s a picture of the bug on the wall if you ever need to know what a bed bug looks like:

The next day we had forgotten all about the bugs. We visited the Botanic Garden, the Merlion, and many other interesting places in Singapore. I got bitten by a mosquito in the Botanic Garden – good thing Singapore doesn’t have malaria! As a result, I had an itchy bump on my neck the whole day.

Except it wasn’t a mosquito. Again, if you ever need to know, here’s what a bed bug bite looks like:

That night we came home rather late again. We brushed our teeth and I sat on my bed for a while, scrolling Instagram. We had gotten two new roommates during the day and they were chatting in the beds next to us. Then they started getting agitated and one of them took his phone out. He turned on the flashlight and started examining the corners of the room next to his bed. I followed their actions for a few minutes before asking: “Hey guys… Please tell me you’re not looking for what I think you’re looking for”

The girl turned to me and said: “We found a bedbug.”

“And there’s more here in the corner”, the guy added.

Well, fuck. That’s just fucking fantastic. I mean, I probably should have figured it out earlier, but still.

We had been traveling in Southeast Asia for two months at that point. Two months! We had read on so many blogs and websites that “bedbugs are inevitable in Southeast Asia” and that Northern Laos and Thailand especially attracted these critters. We had slept in hotels, hostels, homestays, guesthouses, buses, TRAINS! And never saw a single bedbug! And now we were in Singapore? The richest, most developed country in Southeast Asia? We got bedbugs in friggin’ Singapore!

Our dorm-neighbours left to get help from someone who worked at the hostel. They changed our sheets and our dorm-neighbours asked to change rooms. Christian and I thought about it too, but we figured the damage was already done, we would still have to de-bug our bags, and it wouldn’t be fair to potentially spread it to other rooms. The hostel told us they would call an exterminator the next day, so we just slept as far from the wall as possible.

The next day we researched everything there is to know about bedbugs and getting rid of them.

Here’s how to get rid of bedbugs:

• Do it as soon as possible. In our case this meant the morning before leaving Singapore (we couldn’t do it before because we could have been contaminated again). If you wait too long they might reproduce and there will be even more of them. Waiting can also mean that you’ll leave them everywhere you go – hostels but also hotels, buses or planes.
• Take a shower and wash your hair thoroughly.
• Put clothes and backpacks in the dryer for about an hour. Heat kills bedbugs so if you have access to a dryer this is the best way.
• For things that don’t go in the dryer – books, passports, souvenirs: Put all of these in a black plastic bag and put them in direct sunlight for the day.

What we did must have worked because I’m writing this four months later and I would definitely know if I still had them. We were probably lucky and only very few, if any, bedbugs tried to hop in our bags because they were in lockers the whole time. Still, you can never be too careful.

What conclusion do I draw from this? Well, firstly, I absolutely don’t regret going to Singapore. It was a beautiful country and we had a great time. Secondly, I don’t even regret staying at a hostel. We had slept in several hostels at that point and had had no problems. I don’t think anyone should avoid hostels just because they’re afraid of getting bedbugs. If there’s a point to be made, it’s definitely that getting bedbugs can happen to anyone, anywhere. Check your beds and the corners of the room and, if you still get bedbugs, just make sure you don’t spread them around and that you don’t bring them home. It’s worth doing a check as soon as you see a bug on the wall, the rest might be hidden in a corner somewhere.

Have you ever had bedbugs while travelling? Or have you been spared so far? Tell me in the comments!

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