Midway through our hotel stay in Hong Kong, I noticed black specks and stringy like things on the inside of the toilet bowl after a day of being out of the room (since we were exploring all day).
I thought nothing of it and just flushed the toilet, thinking it was lint.
Then it happened again the next day - black things all over the inside of the toilet. As I looked closer, they started wiggling, and I realized they were alive! My paranoid self first thought they were parasites(!), but then I remembered I saw a little black drain fly in the bathroom one day, and I started to do research, and discovered that drain flies can lay eggs in drains and other moist environments to produce hundreds of larvae and pupae.
It didn't matter how many times we flushed the toilet - hundreds of larvae would fill the tank if not flushed within an hour, and pupae would also emerge.
It was unsettling to say the least, and it made me realize that that's probably why the toilet water is blue (to make it less conspicuous). Of all the places I've traveled to before, I never saw blue toilet water (and all the public restrooms we went to in Hong Kong did not have blue toilet water).
It's hard to see in the above pic all the larvae and pupae - I purposely posted the least gross photo, but I did take more photos and videos which were sent to the hotel chain Head, and he simply apologized for the inconvenience . . .
Upon my return back home, I found old reviews on TripAdvisor revealing that other guests had the same issue, even from years back:
December 22: Lastly, the toilet was filthy. Somehow during our stay the bleach & blue tablets finished and left us clear water. There were times we were not able to flush properly and when it did flush, an hour or so, we discover some yellowish substance will flow out from the toilet. We don't know what it was and it was disgusting!
Note: The yellowish substance is all the larvae!
June 2015: however, the water supply in their WC is i guess not treated properly as a result you can see worms in the WC inspite of the blue disinfectant and the room stinks...
I would never have thought "larvae in the toilet" would be an issue, so I never thought to Google such a thing.
The hotel was great - great location, great rooms, great staff, it's just too bad that there is this ongoing issue. I don't know if it occurs in only certain rooms or only certain times of the year, but it's a thing to be cognizant of if you go to Hong Kong.
And if you plan on going to Hong Kong and are concerned about the possibility of larvae in your toilet, you can email me the hotel you'll be staying at and I can confirm if it's the same hotel or not.
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