Bali tourists moaned about the bedbugs at a $9-a-night hostel. A few days later, one woman was DEAD – and ten more were fighting for their lives in ICU after they ‘began vomiting blood and blacking out with wild fevers’

A young tourist has died and ten more were rushed to hospital after a suspected mass poisoning at a Bali hostel, which had been slammed for a bed bug infestation.

A Chinese national identified only as Miss Y collapsed with severe vomiting and chills at the $9-a-night accommodation in Canggu on the Indonesian holiday island.

She was said to have fallen seriously ill just days after Clandestino Hostel had been fumigated following complaints that its six-person dorm rooms were overrun with bedbugs.

Miss Y’s friend Leila Li – who had been sharing a room with her – was also hospitalised and spent five days fighting for her life in intensive care.

She survived, but she only found out her friend had died after being discharged, and had been alone when she passed away.

Ms Li is now demanding that the hostel be shut down until a full investigation is carried out into the tragedy, which happened in September, but details are only now emerging.

‘They are trying to cover it up and I just want to warn people so this does not happen to anyone else,’ Ms Li told the Daily Mail.

‘More than 20 people suffered collective poisoning, at least ten were in critical condition, and one person died. 

‘And even now people are still checking in and getting sick there.’

Ms Li checked into her accommodation on August 31, joining a communal dinner that night where she met Miss Y, who had been staying there for a number of days. 

Later that evening, guests began to feel violently ill, with many begging staff for medical help as they were struck down with high fevers, vomiting blood, fainting and collapsing in the hallways.

By the next day, symptoms had intensified, forcing multiple guests into local medical centres and the BIMC hospital.

Ms Li claims her friend was too sick to move or call for help, lying in her bunk vomiting for hours while other guests scrambled for assistance.

‘I managed to ask for help and got taken to a medical centre three times and then they called an ambulance for me,’ she said. 

‘I asked them to get a doctor for Miss Y and when I got to hospital I messaged her to go in too, but I never got a reply.’

Miss Y was found unresponsive in her room at around 11am on September 2 and was pronounced dead. 

Her cause of death was recorded as acute gastroenteritis and hypovolemic shock but the specific source of the poisoning is still officially unknown.

Ms Li claims that while it was assumed everyone had fallen ill from ‘Bali Belly’,  having eaten together that night, her hospital tests showed something far more sinister.

‘My attending doctor has confirmed it was pesticide poisoning and food poisoning,’ she said. 

‘I went to the medical centre three times and each time my condition improved, but when I went back to my room to rest the symptoms would reoccur.’

She also claims Miss Y had told her about the bedbug fumigation at dinner the night before her death, having seen an adjacent room closed off.

Tourist Leslie Zhao, 29, said she checked into the hostel on September 1, hours after people had been rushed to hospital and claims no one mentioned the sickness outbreak.

‘In August there were many people feeling ill and the hostel still accepted new bookings,’ she said.

‘I got sick at midnight and emailed the hostel to help me but no one came. I fell down in the bathroom and stayed on the ground until 11am the next day.

‘I was vomiting and fainting for over seven hours and nobody came to check on me. I woke up and asked for medical treatment. 

‘I am very lucky. If I did not wake up, the police might have found two bodies in this hostel.’

Ms Zhao was rushed to hospital in a critical condition and placed on an intravenous drip, left fighting for her life.

‘I almost died,’ she said. ‘I was taken away by ambulance, paid high medical bills and when I came back to the hostel I did not get any apology. 

‘I even had to pay for the bed for the nights I was in hospital.’

Several victims have contacted Booking.com and Agoda to request that the hostel be removed from their platforms, but they claimed their comments have been ignored.

‘We did our best and sent emails with our hospital letters, we provided a lot of evidence but they did not remove it from their listing.’

Both Ms Zhao and Ms Li say they have now been contacted by recent tourists from Australia, Europe and Asia who suffered similar symptoms after staying at the hostel.

‘One girl stayed there a month after us and ended up in hospital fighting for her life. Another girl we met had to get home to Jakarta in a wheelchair,’ Ms Li said.

‘One person who stayed in December 2024 said the same thing happened to her and that other guests were hospitalised then too.’

Online reviews suggest the hostel had a bedbug problem for months, with multiple warnings posted long before the fatal incident.

‘My only complaint would be the fact that the front desk was not honest about the bed bug infestation,’ wrote one guest in July.

‘I only found out after I pretended to be asleep and overheard cleaners talking about it when they came into my empty room early in the morning. 

‘I was wondering why I was suddenly the only person left in my room.

‘When I asked staff about it, they could not give me a straight answer.’

In February, two women died from suspected pesticide poisoning in Sri Lanka after falling ill at a Colombo hostel that had recently been treated for an infestation. 

British influencer Ebony McIntosh, 24, and German Nadine Raguse, 26, were both staying in the Miracle Colombo City hostel in the Sri Lankan capital when they became unwell and died a short while after. 

The Daily Mail has contacted Clandestino Hostel for comment.