Curiosity Killed a Cat

Finally, I’ve made up my mind to leave the Golden Temple, not because of the bed bugs bites but because staying, especially lazying around in a place for a long time isn’t my style of travel and to be honest with you, I’ve fed up with Amritsar. The center of attraction – the Golden Temple is indisputable spiritual and amazing but I’ve somehow lost interest on it. I never deny of being the kind of person who would get fed up with something sooner than ordinary no matter how interesting and attractive it poses at the first time.

And the bed bugs bites, of course I’m hoping by changing a place of stay would ease the bites which have currently turned into a skin rash. Although it’s not painful at all but it’s very itchy and I swore to God that no one can resist the itchiness by not scratching your body. Scratching the bites spot is as satisfying as quenching your thirst.

Not to keep this from you. As a matter of fact, I’m already aware of the presence of bed bugs in the Golden Temple when I was still in Pakistan. Ah Peng showed me the picture of the free accommodation in the temple and even JH told me she met 2 Chinese girls in Ladakh who had been bitten by bed bugs very badly while staying in the temple. Perhaps you would think that I’m crazy as all of those not only not impeded me from staying away from the temple but on the contrary further aroused my curiosity to probe into it. Having gone through all the hardship in my previous trip, I always believe that I’m hardcore enough to take on any challenge and there will be nothing out there which can hold me back from doing something I want. Did I tell you that, since the beginning of my trip, I prefer and anticipate an eventful journey rather than a happy but hollow trip? This is perhaps the reason you always see me making a rod for my own back.

Rodion, Andreas and I arrived late in the Golden Temple. I was quite disappointed as the infamous open dormitory which is the center of my curiosity was fully occupied and even the floor was fully made use. Rodion knocked in the first room which is unlikely a bedroom and it happened to be a room with 2 available beds. So perhaps I need not worry about the bed bugs anymore because I had a room to stay. I presumed only the open dormitory which was currently fully occupied by ignorant backpackers was the high risk area and not the rooms. Hmmm…should I feel happy about this? Nevertheless, having been given the advice and warning about the bed bugs and to be on the safe side, instead of sleeping on the bed provided, I removed all the sheets and blankets and slept in my sleeping bag on the super-hard wooden bed. I thought I was smart. The Korean girl whom we shared the room with did the same but she somehow even slept in sleeveless shirt. It seemed like everybody is aware of the bed bugs and yet they still came and stayed here. So I’m not a freak.

The once notorious open dormitory had been cleared up due to the bed bugs plague

I thought the risk of staying in the temple is from the bed bugs until something unfortunate happened early in the morning. One of the blades of the spinning fan somehow detached and hit Rodion who slept just beside me. Luckily no one get hurt and it was at that time we learnt that there were another 2 young Taiwanese guys sleeping on the floor in our room. They bumped in in the middle of the night. So there were 6 people in a tiny 3-bed room! This is interesting. In fact, there were always more and more strangers bumping in unknowingly in the middle of the night to sleep on the floor until you almost stepped on them if not being observant in the following morning.

So I managed to lead the first night in the temple ‘safely’. It wasn’t until the second night where Rodoin, Andreas and the Korean girl have left and I shifted to the bed slept by the Korean girl the previous night that the unexpected of the expected befell. I thought if someone can sleep on a bed in sleeveless shirt ‘safely’ in the notorious accommodation echoed with bed bugs stories, it must be a good bed. Well, I was wrong, very wrong. Red marks began to accumulate in my sweet tender cozy body, first on my arms, then my back and followed by my legs and feet. It’s ‘interesting’ to know that the bites on my arms were actually somehow in a linear fashion as if the bed bugs bite in an orderly manner. This is exactly what Christopher described about the bite pattern of bed bugs when I told him I was ‘very interesting’ to ‘learn’ about bed bugs. So I was kissed by bed bugs, finally. ‘Wish’ granted. ...damn... it.

Kiss marks, bestowed by bed bugs

Hmmm...these aren't in a pattern

Applying toothpaste on bites' spot as per Mirva's rule of thumb

The condition didn’t improve much at the subsequent nights even though I have shifted to the bed I slept at the first night. In fact, it got worse and the itchiness was simply unbearable. Rumors have it that once you are targeted by bed bugs, you are always the chosen one. While I was wondering why I was the only one favored by the bed bugs, Mirva, a nice and friendly Finnish girl who slept on the floor in my room at her first night here, showed me the red marks on her legs and asked me what those were. So, both of us happened to be the bed bugs’ favorite meals now.

Mirva, my fellow sufferer cum room mate

At the last night of my stay here, fever and trembling started to take place and something really bad, something unprecedented, something out of my expectation is waiting to befall on me when I arrived at Dharamsala and McLeod Ganj.

 Curiosity can really kill a cat.