The Downtown Inn in Chiang Mai is a mid-range hotel with mixed reviews on Trip Advisor. One guest noted “The only thing that was truly offensive was the disgusting bed sheets that were stained with what looked to be blood, coffee,… “.
Not sure about the coffee; but the blood might be connected to the fact that seven people have recently died having stayed at the hotel; including a pair of British pensioners who were found dead in their room. The local police were on the case and decided it was food poisoning caused by eating toxic seaweed. The governor of Chiang Mai announced that the fact that all these people had been staying at the same hotel was just an unfortunate coincidence and very bad luck for the hotel owner. Pretty bad luck for those that died too, although he didn’t mention that.
It took a team from a New Zealand TV station to indicate that this was maybe no coincidence. They visited the hotel, took samples, and discovered traces of pyrophus, a chemical which is banned in many countries because it is extremely toxic; but is rather useful for killing bed bugs. The symptoms of those killed are consistent with pyrophus poisoning.
And why would the Downtown hotel use pyrophus? Back to Trip Advisor:
After climbing in and starting to fall asleep, I kept thinking mosquitoes were biting me… and then I thought I felt something tiny run across my shoulder, then my leg. I thought I was imagining it and eventually fell asleep. In the morning my husband’s ankles and legs were covered in little red dots that were itching him like crazy. He’d gotten it worse than me. He identified them as “definitely bed bugs”.
No doubt there will be a prompt reaction to this news, with the hotel being shut down pending further tests and pyrophus being banned in Thailand. Or maybe not.
Comments 🔗
2011-05-10| genuinej saysI think “maybe not” is favourite
2011-05-11| Barry saysThey’ll just adopt the usual Thai stance of deny, deny, deny, until everyone gets tired of getting nowhere and the ‘problem’ fades away.