Back in Vientiane, Laos, I first lived in a hostel with multiple beds in a room.
I mean, with multiple people – typically complete strangers.
There I lived in an eight-bed room, enjoying the company of familiar faces for a few days.
Now I live in a 12-bed room. And I don’t know anyone.
What does a room like this look like?
So I have lived/live in a room like this in two places so far, and I can describe my experiences based on the days I spent here.
The first thing that comes to mind is that the air conditioning in both rooms is on at zero to twenty-four. I can’t imagine how the machines can handle this. Nevertheless, I’m not against it. 8-10-12 people could definitely heat up a room that isn’t cold anyway.
Accordingly, the rooms have a basic noise level. I’m not bothered by noise, I can sleep anywhere and in any conditions, if I put my mind to it. At the same time, it’s good that these rooms are quiet all day long.
Since we never know who is in the room and what they are doing, so far I’ve seen everyone come in quietly and do their thing. At any time of the day, it can be assumed that someone is sleeping.
So far, I’ve only seen rooms with bunk beds everywhere. Of course, I’ve seen more on the web. But these accommodations are built on cheapness, so every space counts.
Every bed must have a curtain. This gives the bed a private character. Or rather, it hides the person sleeping. That’s why you can never be sure how many of us are in the room at the time.
Every room also has a locker dedicated to each bed. You can lock your most valuables here. In the first room, I locked my laptop here several times. In the current place, however, I always take it with me, since I went to work every day.
Most people we shared our experiences with about these shared rooms talked about complete safety. There was only one girl who told us that something was stolen from her once, and that a strange guy molested her once.
I haven’t had any unpleasant experiences yet.
Private room
When we draw the curtain, we really find ourselves in a small private room. I say this because I am not bothered by any noise that may come in at all, so drawing the curtain really feels like closing the door to my room.
There is always a power outlet and a light in this small room. I feel very comfortable because of that.
My roommates usually keep their things on the floor and under the beds. But I feel like everyone does this with caution, so I don’t have to fight my way through backpacks to get to my bed. Everyone is aware that there are more of us here.
For some reason, the first time I stayed, I put my backpack on my bed. I remember it because the first room was a little smaller than the current one and I thought it was unnecessary for it to take up space on the floor all day.
Then when I went to bed, I left my backpack next to me in the bed. In fact, as I wrote before, I unpacked them on the bed next to the wall in a row.
I have kept this practice ever since. Maybe I didn’t emphasize enough last time that I fit very comfortably in a bed by filling the edge with clothes and other things.
I think that not only did my snoring stop with losing my excess weight, but also my tossing and turning. I couldn’t have imagined sleeping on a bed with objects on it before.
However, no matter how I look at it, my closet and my bed have become one.
A few days ago, when I tried – for the first time – working in this mini-room bed, my desk actually merged with the bed.
Minimalism Again
I have written many times, and I have said even more often, that I live a minimalist lifestyle. I discovered a long time ago that I don’t need much to function in my daily life.
A bed to sleep in. A desk to work on. Optionally, a shelf to store things on. This recent experience has shown me that all of this can work for me on a bed.
Now I feel like I could function perfectly well with a 1.6 m2 private cave.
Assuming, of course, that I occupy the bed alone.
While I was writing in bed one evening, someone suddenly pulled back the curtains. A very beautiful girl stuck her head into my room. Anyone who is reading this expecting an adventure is like me. They will be disappointed. All they wanted to ask was to turn down the music. I like to listen to music loudly with my headphones on. I don’t usually think about it coming out.
Well, I just found out.
Other things related to the room
These cheap hostels are typically filled with young people. Like me.
Well, a little younger.
So, if you go to a hostel like this, it’s good to be prepared for a few things.
For example, everyone goes to bed very late. That’s me too. But everyone else usually sleeps late.
There’s always a lot of social life going on in the common area of a hostel. This usually means that people are there from morning till night. They’re loud. They drink. A lot. And there’s usually always at least one person smoking weed. So, if you don’t like the smell of weed, for example, you should think about staying in a hostel like this.
I’ve seen a lot of people here who really did nothing but drink beer and smoke weed all day.
Because of the presence of so many people, I think they take cleanliness seriously, which is why the toilets and shared showers are always clean.
So far, both of my two stays in this type of accommodation have included breakfast in the room price. I think that’s something you can count on everywhere.
Typically, laundry service is also included. I really enjoy that. It’s not like I have to go very far to find another one, but it’s super convenient.
If I were BB from Forrest Gump, I would say this now: I think that’s all I can say about shared rooms.
I like this type of accommodation.
Who would have thought that one day I would feel like I had everything in a bunk bed separated by a curtain?Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
Linktree
Short introduction