Dorm Room Stories Part 2! Not Today Blog 25
To bridge the time until we can pack our backpacks and go off into the wild again, here is part two of my dorm room stories series!
Chapter 1: Top Bunk Privacy
In the last six years, I have spent most of my holidays in hostels somewhere around Southeast Asia. Hostels are not only the cheapest but often the most well-kept accommodation when visiting “insider tip” destinations a little off the beaten track.
That sleeping in a dorm room doesn’t give you a lot of privacy is a known fact. Some hostels hang curtains or install partition walls in between beds to address that. If that is not the case, guests may choose to hang a blanket or towel down the top bunk. (Surprisingly, there is a lot of shagging going on in hostels with zero privacy. Haha!) If everything fails, there is still a blanket. A natural way of covering your body, especially because air conditionings are usually set to arctic temperatures.
Sometimes even the blanket fails. Sometimes you wake in Siem Reap hungover from the 200 shots in “Angkor What? Bar” the night before and the first thing you spot is a naked guy with no blanket, dead asleep on his top bunk with his dick out.
Good morning Cambodia!
Chapter 2: This Fucking Dorm Room Wall
Many years ago, in a wild party hostel on the island of Penang in Malaysia, I was able to witness an event that usually only happens every blue moon when the lime tree touches the sun.
Two nights in a row, drunk people had mistaken a wall in a dorm room with the urinal.
Not being able to sleep because the girl you were with is grinding her teeth in her sleep is one thing. Hearing an uproar in your room to then realise that it’s your best mate standing next to a wall with his pants down. Around him people trying to stop him pee. Haha!
The bathroom is down the hall bro. Bro? Bro!
Earlier that day, an angry couple had left the hostel, because the night before some other guy had urinated on the girl’s suitcase. Her suitcase was right next to the same wall. It must have been the wall.
Sleepwalking is no joke. It’s a pretty good one too!
Chapter 3: The Gilf Hunter
How do I say this?
I was in Fremantle. We all went to a club on a Saturday night and made it all back to the hostel together. All except one.
It was a birthday night. A backpacker let’s call him Tommaso (fun fact Tommaso is the 8th most common name among male babies born in Italy in 2019) celebrated his 19th birthday. A story he can tell his children one day. Or can he? Hahaha
Back to the story. We were standing there in the hallway at 4 am trying to be quiet discussing gym routines, 2-litre-water bottles, and chicken farms when Tommaso finally walked up the stairs of the hostel. “Happy birthday man! Where were you??”
But Tommaso was in the company of a woman. Instant whispers “that’s the granny from the club earlier!”. She was like 60 years old (possibly older). He led her into his dorm room and came back. “Tommaso, what are you doing?”
Tommaso visibly embarrassed needed to come up with a story. “Err, it’s my mums’ friend from Italy. She is sleeping here tonight.”
“What do you mean your mom’s friend is sleeping here tonight? In your bunk bed?”
“Yes, she needs a place to stay.”
And off he went.
Let me sum up Tommaso’s mum has a friend in Australia, who was at the same party with no place to stay willing to share the top bunk with her friend’s son. Was his story fact or fiction? You decide.
Tommaso was pretty quiet for the next few days. Haha
Why Not Today
Bravery is the solution to regret.
Robin Sharma
I can’t wait to do more dorm room stories. But until then, we have to find other things to be brave about. It might not be hooking up with a stranger, but there are so many other things in the world to be embarrassed about.
And who said embarrassing stories aren’t good stories? Be brave, be foolish. Start that blog, film that video, invest in that stock, sign up for that course.
