The Mosquito in the room

As anyone who knows me well knows, Mosquitos love me and I go bezerk with them. I have had episodes of lying in the middle of a trail somewhere in the north cascades, lying in the fetal position and giggling because Mosquitos have gotten the better of me.

This graphic from a brilliant graphic designer, Christoph Niemann (who does some work with the NY times- please go look at his work sleeping, legos, and airplane travel) pretty much describes many nights that I have had with Mosquitos. Substitute the New Yorker with a) and electric tennis racket that I had in thailand or b) finally getting our mosquito net out and setting it up.

We have this little portable mosquito net from Sea to Summit that we have been traveling with. It packs down to the size of a rolled up t-shirt and is cleverly designed to be able to hang in almost every hotel room, either from off of an overhead light or from a picture from behind the bed.
There is something I don't understand at all in places that have mosquitos. Hotel rooms don't give you mosquito nets. In fact the presence of a mosquito net often reminds me of the presence of free wi-fi in hotels in the US. The more you pay for a room, the less likely they will have free wi-fi (or mosquito nets). There is some presumption that the rooms are mosquito proof (they never are) or that mosquitos just don't bother one while sleeping (they always do).
[mosquito net rigged up in Vilcabamba, notice the shoe tied to the edge to keep it down] Well, we have taken care of that by traveling with this pyramid mosquito net thing and I can't recommend enough getting yourself one of these if you are like me and just can't sleep with a mosquito in the room. Megan loves it too because I don't get up in the middle of the night, turn on the lights, and just stare at the ceiling looking for the little trouble maker(s).
Now if only we can always remember to bring this into the room and not leave it out on the bikes.