Lucap Wharf is the mainland used as the jumping off point to go to the Hundred Islands National Park. Here you’ll find a lot of transient houses and guesthouses. And much like any other touristy area, the accommodations can be hit or miss. The quality and standards are all over the place. And normally, that doesn’t faze me. At least not enough to leave a place.
Being somebody who is always looking for a good story, I’ve had my fair share of subpar accommodations. And I’ve always braved it and stayed. Because if nothing else, it would’ve been an interesting story. We found Treasure Isle while searching for another place to stay in Lucap. Admittedly, we were trying to stick to a strict budget.
Online, it looked like Treasure Isles was exactly what we were looking for (truthfully it even seemed too good to be true). It was cheaper than our budget and it boasted free wifi along with complimentary breakfast & dinner. What else could we ask for, really?
Booking the place was easy and informal. We called them through the phone number we found on their facebook page. They seemed accommodating and even offered free pickup. We were ecstatic. This deal was unreal.
Before we could confirm our reservation, a trike was already waiting for us outside, ready to take us to Treasure Isles. Can’t complain about fast service.
Nick, half of the couple that owned Treasure Isles seemed nice enough. He picked us up on his trike and took us to treasure Isles. He welcomed us in by showing us their room rates.
“We want the kubo with AC.” I said.
“Yes, that’s our cheapest option.” He pointed out.
It felt a bit weird. I wasn’t sure if that was his way of subliminally persuading us to upgrade to something more expensive. I must’ve been overthinking it.
He walked us towards their backyard, following a makeshift footpath. He pointed at the hut. I was underwhelmed. No, I was disappointed. It was small and a bit dingy. But I decided to remind myself that it was cheap, they had free wifi and complimentary breakfast and dinner. It was a good deal and to expect more felt unreasonable and greedy.
“It’s not yet clean,” a woman said. It was Nick’s wife sitting outside, “but you can sit.”
We sat across from her as we waited for the room to get prepared. A few minutes later, a woman emerged from the hut with sheets and a walis tambo (or a broom). She handed me the keys. It seems our kubo was ready. We excused ourselves and went into our room.
It was a small kubo with a bamboo bunk bed. I gently reminded myself that I wanted an authentic experience. So I took a breath and tried to see all the positives.
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi. I repeated in my head.
It’s air conditioned at least. Although the windows are made of what looked like transparent vinyl duck taped onto the bamboo window frame. There was also a massive hole on the kubo’s thatched walls.
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi. I repeated in my head. It was starting to feel like a mantra.
One. Two. Three mosquitos zoomed past. Whatever, I have mosquito repellent. Four, Five, Six. Okay this is quite a lot of mosquitos for such a small space. There were more mosquitos inside the hut than outside. Was that normal? Whatever.
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi. I repeated in my head.
I laid on the bed. At least the sheets are clean, and the pillows are alright. But wait, where’s the bathroom? I guess the listing never said anything about a private bathroom. Fair enough.
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi. I repeated.
I noticed a bunch of cobwebs between the wall and the bed. Hmmm, was this still acceptable?
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi.
I really needed to pee. So I asked Sam to go on an adventure and look for the shared bathroom. We looked around the yard and passed by a few other huts. Until finally, we heard running water and found the bathrooms. It was dark and I was being a princess. Sam took a peek first. His facial expression was unreadable until a cheeky smile betrayed him.
I didn’t even want to look but he made me. The bathroom was shit and the toilet had shit.
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi.
Thankfully there were multiple stalls. We looked at the only other open one. Shit. Literal shit.
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi.
I walked back towards the yard, still needing to pee. My head spinning as I thought about my options. I told myself it was gonna be okay. If nothing else, maybe I can squat in the yard or something later when it got dark. We decided to take a walk and see if there was a restaurant or anything with a public bathroom because,
Cheap price, okay location, free breakfast, free dinner, wifi.
Throughout this time, I kept on justifying every single flaw about the place with it’s perks. The price was cheap, the location was decent, they offered free meals and there was free wifi. But as I walked a few kilometres looking for a bathroom I started to wonder, at what point does this all become unacceptable? At what point do I say, “Okay this isn’t worth it.” Was the unsanitary state of the bathroom actually excusable because of the cheap price?
In the end, I decided that the dreadful state of our accommodation wasn’t worth the hassle. I wasn’t prepared to walk a couple of kilometres in the middle of the night, should I need to pee again. So I bit the bullet and decided to look for somewhere else to stay. What I found was twice the price without free meals, but it was clean and comfortable. Oh and there was a perfectly usable private toilet.
Before leaving Treasure Isle though, Nick, the expat owner demanded to be paid at least half the amount of a night’s stay. He said I owed him at least that much because he had to take the room listing down and he’s missing out on renting it out for the day. (Note: none of the other huts were occupied.) He also made sure to point out that I used his air conditioner for hours in the afternoon (I must have had it on for an hour, or maybe two.)
I asked about customer satisfaction but he brushed it off. He said I was lucky that he’s only asking for half the night’s rent.
As I sit here writing about this experience, I wonder if I really was in the wrong. Was I being picky? The place was cheap, especially for the location but can the price really justify everything that was wrong with it? I’ve never had to leave my accommodation before no matter how much I hated it. This one though, left an especially terrible taste in my mouth.
Note: This is where I cop out and try to be nice. Maybe my experience was just an especially bad one. Before booking Treasure Isle, I did my due diligence and read a ton of reviews (like I always do). Most of them were overwhelmingly positive. And perhaps I’m just not as easy going or low maintenance as I’d like to believe. Maybe if there was at least one toilet that worked, I would’ve braved through it. I just really didn’t want to pee in the bush. That’s where I drew the line.
