Following the advice of the Lonely Planet, we turned up at Omar's and were not particularly impressed with the double room (very, very basic) but it was fairly cheap (35RM) and Omar was friendly so we decided to stay. We only later noticed the hand-written warnings from other travellers written on the door - "Bed bugs! Warning" and even scrawled in pen on one of the sheets! This was somewhat of a concern but we didn't worry too much until we saw the first one crawling up the wall... and then the second.... and then another... and yet more... and all this while the light was still on!!

In the end we killed eleven of them, but it was only when we saw the first two actually ON our mattresses that we decided to leave. It was 10:30pm, Omar handed back our money without question, and we went to the Hotel Embassy which for 55RM was luxury in comparison.

Just stay away...

The title sums it up. We've never seen so many bedbugs in one location. Maybe they are Omar's friends or he eats them. Either way, maybe the worst room I've ever stayed in. To Omars credit, he did refund our money after leaving his gueshouse at 10pm from the killer attack of bedbugs. Seems like a nice guy just shouldnt be renting out a room.

DO NOT EVER STAY HERE. OMAR'S IS INFESTED WITH BED BUGS. I am sorry to use obnoxious capital letters but I need to get that message out as quickly as possible. My partner and I got into Mersing on the bus late at night and ended up at Omar's since it was listed in Lonely Planet. Omar was awake and nice, and though the rooms look like prison cells we were happy just to have a bed to sleep in for the night before we took the early ferry to Tioman. My partner was very worried about bed bugs due to a few blood stains on the sheets. I told her to try not to worry and just get some sleep, so we got in our travel sheets and turned out the lights. She couldn't sleep though because she was so worried, and about 20 minutes later she asked me to turn on the light and hand her a small bag in which she had a flashlight so that she could check for bugs. I did so and she immediately found a bed bug crawling off her bag. We checked the rest of our bags and found about 20 more, large and small. Thankfully my partner had zipped everything shut before we turned out the lights (and they weren't out for long) so we didn't get a full infestation or get bitten really. We spent the rest of the night (6 hours) sitting in the kitchen with our stuff, playing cards and going deliriously crazy. It was a terrible night. We should've woken Omar up as it seems others have had a similar experience, done so, and gotten a refund from him. I don't understand how this can go on. Omar's should be shut down. We were the only people there that night (except one woman in a dorm bed who had been on the same bus as us) so maybe this hostel is on its way down, but I saw people coming out of it the following week when we were passing through Mersing on our way back from the island to Kuala Lumpur. I really hope Lonely Planet updates their guide soon, as I'm sure that's why many travelers end up there.

When we arrived at Omar's we got a warm and friendly welcome......

BUT just as we were going to bed we heard the people in the room next door complaining to Omar about bedbugs. He gave them a refund and they went to find somewhere else to stay. We then heard him giving the sheets a quick spray with insecticide and leaving the room (presumaby ready for the next people).

We checked our bed for bedbugs too, turned it over looking everywhere for them. no signs, so we turned off the lights and went to sleep. what a mistake..... I woke up at 2am and was being bitten all over - the bed was crawling, bedbugs everywhere. At this point we decided it was too late to wander the town looking for somewhere else to stay - so we stayed up for 20 minutes killing all the bedbugs we could find - about 15 altogether -large and small. We put the pillows outside (the bedbugs seemed to be coming from inside them) and tried to get back to sleep. I didn't get back to sleep all night because I kept finding them crawling all over me and the bed.

I've traveled to South East Asia 3 different times. I've stayed in backpacker hostels all over the world. Never before have I experienced bedbugs as bad as this - and look at the other reviews, it's been going on for months! Omar really needs to either pull his finger out and do something about the bedbugs, or close his hostel.

Bedbugs can stay with you for weeks and complely ruin your trip. Our gifts from Omar stayed with us for only two days, but we had to empty our our rucksacks and wash everything in boiling water. We were lucky. You might not be.