Touch and go: jouw ervaringen met hotels komt mij ook zeer bekend voor. Pas nog in Brugge een gratis drankje gehad omdat de maid de kamer binnenkwam terwijl er een groot DO NOT DISTURB bordje aan de deurknop hing. Zelfde bij de (vrouwelijke) f/e, en die had een ding aan de deur met dezelfde tekst in 10 talen!
Hier een e-mail die ik gisteren nog naar de baas gestuurd heb:
Today was the third time that I have gotten sick in Lagos after eating at the House J restaurant. This besides being poisoned. More on that later.
After the first time in January I thought it was from breakfast, then in July I skipped the the parts I suspected from breakfast, still got sick and last night I ate dinner but no breakfast and got very sick.
The Captain also got sick but earlier in the morning, so after getting rid of his stomach content he was feeling fine when we went out to the plane. That was the time I started feeling weird. When we were in cruise flight I got very miserable, went to the lav and threw up. During the next few hours my situation improved and the last two hours or so I felt normal again.
I'm pretty sure it was the meat that we had for dinner was spoiled. I believe I had the same dish once before in July and I got sick after eating that (but thought breakfast caused it).
I have heard from several crew members who got sick at this hotel, we are not the only ones.
Now the poisoning: One day in July we come walking into our rooms and I find a note on the dresser: "Very deer esteemed guest, we are very sorry to inform that the fumigation exercise planned for today did not happen and will be rescheduled for tomorrow". I go to the front desk and ask what a "fumigation exercise" is. "Spraying for mosquitoes". Mhhhm! "Do I need to leave my room?" "No!". So next morning when I go for breakfast an employee tells me he needs to be in my room to polish the floor. When I come back it smells horribly because he waxed or varnished the floor. Open windows and an airconditioning at full blast take care of it in a relatively short time. (The smell of this stuff is ever present in this hotel though). About one-and-half hour before show time I hear this lawnmower sound on the hall way. I look through the peephole and see this guy with a leaf blower look-a-like machine blowing big clouds of stuff around, I mean, making it low IFR in there. He's wearing a gas mask and a chemical suit. Same time the front desk calls to tell me they are very sorry for the noise and inconvenience. "Do I need to leave my room?". "No, you can stay ". I start smelling the chemical coming under the door and decide it is time to leave. I take one very deep breath, open the door and find a thick fog and soaking wet floors. At the bottom of the stairs I need to take another breath and by the time I come rolling out of the front door I'm coughing bad. Now the woman who seems to be the second in command there comes around the corner and goes: "where do you come from?" "My room". "But you were not supposed to be there!" Sjeez, isn't that what I asked the previous night and when they called my room? "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry". Yeah right. "So where are my other crew members?". Turned out one of them had been sent across the road to the other hotel J for breakfast. And the other one? "How do you mean, is there a third person?" Duh, how long have we been coming there, with three people??? Turned out the captain was also still in his room, luckily on the ground floor so one deep breath was enough for him to make it to he door.
In the mean time I'm still coughing like there is no tomorrow and getting a good sized headache. After arriving at the aircraft I somehow manage to do my duties, and after take-off I can only do one thing: put the seat back and look at the overhead. Halfway during the flight my stomach has got enough of me and I need to make a lavatory run and throw up. Things improve slightly from there, but not much. After arrival into the Brussel hotel I immediately went to bed with the intentions of going to the ER for detoxification if things didn't improve overnight. Next morning I felt a lot better and the day after that I was back to normal. The chemical they used might have been DDT for all I know.
Why not stay in Lagos? I just have no confidence in the Nigerian medical system or the treatment of poisoning cases, let alone the possibility of picking up AIDS. Brussel is a lot safer and better.
But, I probably should have stayed in LOS today, and next time I definitely will. I'm sick and tired of getting sick at he House J.