Description: This entry is a continuation of my Nomads entry.
The free trip to Marlin Jetty went without a hitch, and saved us from having to walk 2.7kms in the rain. However, our problems began when we tried to go back to the hostel, exhausted after a day of snorkeling. After trying to get through multiple times on a busy phone line, we were finally told to go to the Lake St taxi rank. After a long search, we found it and, after waiting for 45 minutes, realized the shuttles run every 30 minutes…except between 5:30 and 9:30pm. The taxi ride didn't cost very much -$8 or so- but it would have been nice for the people at the front desk to tell us when we called, asking about the shuttle, that they weren't currently running! Fortunately, the next morning, we picked up a rental car and didn't have to rely on the shuttle schedule for transport.
We only ate the "free" dinner at the hostel one night. Once we collected the free passes from the front desk, the lady at the bar told us that the free portions were very small, and we could upgrade to a normal-sized meal for $4. The meal was some bizarre casserole that looked like it could have been composed of leftovers, but it wasn't bad and, because of the price, we couldn't really complain. They also served real meals, rather than just the "chef's special" that was the free meal, for $8-$10. We ordered a side of sweet chili & sour cream potato wedges that were good, but I can't judge their food on them, since it's pretty difficult to mess wedges up!
My other major beef with the hostel, besides the noise and the erratic shuttles, was our door mysteriously unlocking during the day. I didn't approve, since I had a laptop in my room that I had neglected to put in the locker, since I didn't expect anyone else to be in the room. However, the cleaning staff came in every day and didn't bother to close the door properly. Seeing as they were the cleaning staff, they had probably been in our room more than once and knew that the door needed a bit of a pull to close. After two days of coming back to find our door open, I complained to the front desk, who left a note saying we were not happy and to please close our door. The next day, it was, although by this point, it didn't really matter because I had already started locking all of our stuff in the locker before we left.
Our stay in the Nomads Serpent hostel was by no means terrible. There were no bedbugs, we left with all of our belongings, and the hostel did offer facilities that many others I have stayed in haven't. We just got our hopes up too much before the trip, only to have them beaten down when the hostel didn't live up to its advertising.
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