Cuckoo's Nest Backpackers

Comment by pamela carmichael

November 2006

I have graded this one star -- poor, because there isn't an option for anything lower, like one big fat thumbs down or a skull and cross bones with a public health hazard warning underneath. I have stayed in many hostels in many parts of the world, but this has to rate as the all time worst! None of us expect five-star facilities for budget price but how much does it cost to just do some basic cleaning? This place is filthy! I stayed in the room that is featured on these pages, and all I can say is the photographer needs an award for creativity. The walls are badly painted in dark purple with huge hand-painted castles, moons, suns and My Little Ponies pretending to be Unicorns. Enough to give you nightmares! One can forgive bad taste, but even looking through the gloom of only one rickety wall light working, it was evident that this room had not been cleaned for a very long time. The corners and edges of the room have been rounded off with pure filth. The window sills were thick with dust and dead flies. If you have any allergies then may I suggest you take plenty of inhalers with you. The mattress on the bed was just a thin rotting sponge pad that has to have been there for many years. The comfortable bed was just a homemade wooden block. It smelled very strongly of urine and god knows what else. This room needs to be condemned, it certainly is not fit for humans to stay in. Looking at the rest of the pictures of this hostel had me rolling around. This place may have looked that that once upon a time, but it certainly looks nothing like it now. The wide deck chair with the umbrella in the picture, the chair is old and rotten and broken, and the umbrella is in tatters. The lovely sparkling blue pool is thick with green algae and rotting leaves, a couple of dead creatures (some sort of lizards? though hard to tell because they were decomposing). There was a strange smell coming from it. Personally, I had no intentions of using it anyway so that did not faze me as much as when two young ladies asked the landlady if it was safe to swim in. To my utter amazement after she downed her umpteenth glass of wine she assured the girls that it was perfectly safe to use, that it was chlorinated and clean, that all pools look like that after a while, its just algae you know. I pointed out the rotting creatures and the weird smell and advised against it. Sadly, the girls decided to chance it. I only hope they are ok. As for everything else, fire show? What fire show. No one seemed to know what I was talking about. Tree top tree house? A few planks of rotting wood that looked distinctly unsafe. Free breakfast? Help your self to bread and peanut butter and milk, we were told. The bread had mildew on the edges and the peanut butter looked like it had been dug out of the bin, dirty greasy jar with lots of dry crusty bits. Just what you need first thing in the morning. The cups were stained and half washed. The rest of the place was dirty, very shabby, and worn out. She was not happy when I asked that the gate be unlocked at 5:30 a.m. the next morning so that I could leave (what I really meant was escape). I was so upset at having to sleep on that vile mattress that I put off going to bed for as long as possible. My partner and I Ieft as soon as we awoke, both itching. We both just wanted to get to another hotel/hostel so that we could shower and put on clean clothes. When we undressed we could see that all down both sides where we had slept, there were very angry looking, sore, and itchy spots. I thought we must have been bitten by mossies. The following day we went to see a doctor as we were going crazy itching. He took one look and said that it was mite bites and asked where I had been staying. He said that from the sound of it, it was probably the bed. That it was probably alive with bugs/mites/fleas. It completely ruined the rest of my travels, so much so that I flew home more than a week early. Whilst there the landlady said that very few people stay there anymore. She gets lots of bookings but then people either cancel or just don't turn up. My guess is that when they mention to fellow travelers where they are staying they are warned of the perils and decide to go elsewhere. A sensible decision too. My old mum used to tell me, "if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all" but in this instance I have to warn others. I would hate for others' holidays/adventures to be ruined as ours were. It was the holiday of a lifetime that was turned into the holiday from hell, with a lot of wasted expenses.

Kwambonambi, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa