LIKE so many trendy ideas that are absurd, this one has spread. Like chocolate on the pillow in hotel rooms - who else has not noticed the little morsel only to find a worrying brown smear on the sheets in the morning?
It defies all logic. It is totally environmentally unfriendly. It countenances no consideration for climate. It can be found in hotel rooms from the tourist three-star, through the five-star exclusive eco-resorts, to the delightfully cosseting luxury ocean liner. It is guaranteed to have you setting the air-con to "arctic" regardless of the outside temperature. And worst of all, unless you have come across this abomination before, you are doomed to a night of sweat-soaked sheets, tossing and turning to the most vivid and disturbing anxiety nightmares that your tormented subconscious can create from its back catalogue of childhood traumas and phobias.
Have you worked it out yet? This destroyer of sleep, this enemy of nocturnal cuddling is . . . the doona.
Why oh why have hoteliers embraced this fashion? What is wrong with the good old-fashioned fine Egyptian cotton sheet, light cotton blanket, along with a spare, folded neatly at the foot of the bed?
Every hotel I have stayed in lately has installed these inflexible monsters on the bed.
Often it is built into a doona cover, so you can't even throw it off and just sleep with a sheet. Many a time I've had to pull it out of its cover in the blackness of night, cursing housekeeping. The absurdity of the doona plague is that even in tropical climes, such as Bangkok, a doona is installed.
How many guests must resort to setting the room thermostat to 15 degrees in order to sleep? What a mockery of the "help us to help the environment" cards hotels leave lying around suggesting you do your bit by re-using your bath towels, or bed sheets for more than one day. I wouldn't need new bed sheets every day if I hadn't sweated five litres during the night.
The solution, gentle reader, is easy. As soon as I enter a new hotel room, I make a beeline for the bed and if a doona lurks there I call housekeeping to come and change it for a cotton sheet and a light cotton blanket. Oh, what bliss to know this travellers' tip. And might I suggest one more little thing, let the hotel know what you think of the doona infestation. You'd be doing something for the environment.
