Toilets around the world... - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**freespiritz** · 03-15-2007, 09:49 AM

We all use the loo - and it can really be a big cultural shock when you go to answer the call of nature and find something totally different from what you're used to. I remember my Western friends coming to Malaysia and getting freaked out by the squatting toilets - or squattie potties as I call them.

So, everyone, share the toilet humor you've experienced around the world whenever you've had to "sing a song, bake a cake", as they say in Sichuan...the good, and the bad, and the ridiculous.

China wins so far for my memorable toilet experiences. From having to chase away yaks before being able to go outside up in the Tibetan plateau, to balancing on planks over sordid little pits that had [quite literally] pagodas of poop reaching up uncomfortably close to you, to opening the toilet door and finding myself way up in the air in an open-air cubicle with a hole in the floor over a 40-foot drop to the fields below. As our trip progressed, we were increasingly amazed to find a washroom that had doors on the cubicles. Or even had proper cubicles. Toilet paper was way out of the question. My friend had to use money once.

Having food poisoning at a Tibetan monastery 4,300 m up in the middle of nowhere without *any* bathroom was also...really fun.

It's just interesting to see the difference in respects to cultural opinions of body functions. I walked into the toilet in the university once to find two ladies both squatting with the doors open so that they could have a casual conversation with each other as they took a pee. I backed out awkwardly.

For random kicks, here's a sign that was on one of the pub toilets in Cambodia, and me with my bathroom door, also in Cambodia.

C'mon guys, I bet you have more interesting stories than I have...don't be constipated about sharing!

**Esterina** · 03-15-2007, 10:28 AM

Hahaha ! Getting used or just trying to figure out how toilets work IS part of the experience abroad !

There was already a discussion on the subject, particularly about european wc here. Hilarious !

**freespiritz** · 03-15-2007, 10:47 AM

at that thread.

I wish I had photographic evidence of the toilets...especially that pagoda!! It was unbelievable.

I *HATE* the toilets that aren't squatties, but you can't quite sit on them either. We had one of those in the Philippines (they call toilets the "Comfort Room or CR"!) and we got good at going quick.

Hovering sucks, but I guess it builds up muscle. We eventually put a chair frame in for added comfort.

Oh, and I hate using the bathroom with added wildlife thrown in. There was one night we had two ginormous frogs and three cockroaches running around in there while I was showering. I hate cockroaches, even though I know they can't hurt me!

We'd also occasionally get centipides coming up the drain back home in Malaysia - and those do bite, so we got good at killing them with the dipper/water scooper thing!

**DC_Jessica** · 03-15-2007, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freespiritz

C'mon guys, I bet you have more interesting stories than I have...don't be constipated about sharing!

HAHAHAHA. I think the *only* reason you posted this is because you found a constipated smiley.

But oh, the yaks! GOOD STORIES. I can't even breathe. (Thank goodness I'm at work and you know, not somewhere where I met have to maintain decorum, you know, for pay or something...ROFL!)

I don't have any that good at all. The first time I left my comfortable developed world, I went to Turkey, and I was so scared about public restrooms that I purposefully drank less water so I could do extended sight-seeing and then go back to my hostel after several hours to finally go. Having inadvertantly dehydrated myself, I must have been ultra-susceptible to food poisoning and it struck. I paid too much for the lentil soup I was eating in my favorite, hostel-proximity restaurant and ran outside to barf in the trees. The potted, decorative trees. And I *had* to barf in the potted, decorative trees, because I so craftily plotted my adventuring so that I would never need a public bathroom, therefore I did not know where to *locate* a public bathroom, even in the restaurant I had just visited for the 4th time. Thank GOD I had an Aussie nurse, just waiting for me, like a blessing, who had just checked into my dorm room at the hostel.

Now I make finding (and using) every toilet I possibly can in every country part of my required sight-seeing. I bring my own toilet paper, do lower leg exercises to perfect my squatting (<3 "squatty potties") and suck it up! (figuratively.)

mark-0 · 03-15-2007, 10:57 AM

I've never had any really wild bathroom experiences, sadly, and no yaks have ever been involved in my bodily functions.

But I did have a great time learning firsthand about my aunt and uncle's chemical toilet at their farm. Getting to sprinkle powder on your "leavings" that helps them biodegrade faster is a lot more fun than it sounds (maybe this means I'm meant for a life in the country, rather than Canada's largest city).

Also, when I was 16 (this was years ago, before the invention of the euro) I paid 2 francs (about 50 cents canadian) to piss, literally, in a hole in the ground in the basement of a restaurant in Paris.

If I remember any more bathroom tales, I'll post them.

**LiveFreeorDie** · 03-15-2007, 11:24 AM

The squat toilets in Thailand and China are always interesting, but at the end of the day, I can make do with fairly minimal hardware. Being a guy helps.

What I still do not understand to this day is the proper use of a bidet. I just don't get it. Wikipedia actually has quite a detailed explanation on usage but it all seems too complicated.

Many Thailand bathrooms also have a spray hose next to the toilet, which is essentially for the same purpose I guess. Not sure I have enough dexterity to spray my own ass and not, how shall I put this.....make more of a mess.

**Diorama** · 03-15-2007, 01:04 PM

I have crazy bathroom stories. Mostly because everytime I travel I tend to get an upset stomach therefore I find that I spend a lot of time in the washroom.

So we could change this topic around and talk about those moments of intense diarrhea when traveling

**space virgin** · 03-15-2007, 01:38 PM

India has almost identical toilet experiences as you've described for China, Freespiritz.

The grossest one I experienced was on a train though. The washroom had a choice of a squat toilet or a "western style" sit-down toilet. The problem with the squat toilet is that the train is swaying and the floor is almost always wet

so you risk falling over, let alone pissing on your legs trying to keep your balance. Not cool. The problem with the "western style" toilet is that it's almost always inexplicably REALLY HIGH so you can't just hover over it if you're under, say, 5'9.

You have to sit on the seat, which is absolutely unacceptable. After the first experience I resolved to deal with dehydration by not consuming anything rather than repeat that fetid horror.

Oh, and the toilets empty onto the train tracks, so you're squatting over an open hole watching the railroad ties go by.

**aliz** · 03-15-2007, 03:35 PM

^^ yeah i've had those train toilets where you're just watching the train tracks whizzing by underneath you... on the train between moscow and st petersburg the bathroom was flooded in 5cm of what i really really hope was water!
one advantage of growing up in indonesia & brunei is i am totally used to squat toilets, no matter how disgusting... it helped greatly when I was at KL airport for a stopover between sydney and vienna... you get about 15 minutes in which every woman on the plane tries to use the same two western toilets, leaving all the squat ones free. yay for not waiting to use a toilet.

**freespiritz** · 03-15-2007, 03:47 PM

In various circumstances, I prefer squatties now...just so I can avoid my bum actually touching anything suspicious.

I don't even sit on the Western-styled toilets in a lot of places, and hovering is harder than squatting! I've definitely had the same train toilets too...

Many a time I envied the boys...I remember this product back in Malaysia - a little cone thing that girls could roll up and use to pee standing up, but I've never tried it. Has anyone else heard of that kind of thing?

**raoulduke** · 03-15-2007, 03:52 PM

Yeah the "she-pee" seemed to be a constant talking point at last years big day out (Aus/NZ music festival) which is famous for it's foul toilets.

Oh, here ya go: http://www.pmateusa.com/

**florencia9699** · 03-15-2007, 04:38 PM

Up until I was eleven I had NEVER heard of a squat toilet... imagine our surprise when we first entered our apartment in Syria!! Thank God we had a western bathroom as well... so my mum turned the squat room into a storage room. LOL....

I never seat on a toilet that isn't mine or someone I'm close with... don't know why....

And latey I've become terribly obsessed with catching anything at a public toilet. I don't know how probable it is... but it's a little obsession now... do you think it's tooo extreme to bring Lisoform (a desinfectant in aerosol) with me on my trip?

**raoulduke** · 03-15-2007, 04:40 PM

Not at all. It wouldn't take up to much room and is a small price to pay for peace of mind.

The day you start washing your hands more than 20 times a day we'll start to worry though

**space virgin** · 03-15-2007, 10:34 PM

Yeah, squat toilets are the way to go for sure (pun intended).

At my cheapie little hotel in Darjeeling, not only was the bathroom fully equipped with a squat toilet, it also flushed (instead of using the good ol' buckets nearby) and was absolutely spotless. :O

**Joker** · 03-15-2007, 11:01 PM

I dunno, the only foreign non modern plumbing thing I've seen were the crappers in Costa Rica. Sure, they look and operate like any normal flusher. But apparently their plumbing system isn't capable of handling... TP. So, you essentially wipe your ass, then put the paper in the conveniently placed little trash can nearby. It could handle the worst beer/rice/beans shits, but not some dainty little piece of paper that blew apart the instant it was moistened. Go figure.

Took some getting used to.

A side note- when my Mexican dishwashers first started, they weren't used to American plumbing, and would do the same with their TP. God it was awful.

**BigE** · 03-16-2007, 03:44 AM

I thought bidets were there to wash your shoes.

**freespiritz** · 03-16-2007, 07:16 AM

Omg, I totally hated having to throw TP away seperately (we had to in the Philippines and Taiwan, and they wanted us to do so in China but we refused.

). It's just kind of ick. Heh.

**MeTurk** · 03-16-2007, 08:02 AM

Quote:

So, you essentially wipe your ass, then put the paper in the conveniently placed little trash can nearby.

I lived in a house with a Brazilian guy who used to do that, the other lad in the house (Irish) tought there was something wrong with him and got bull thick with him until I explaned that's just the way it's done in some countrys.

The toilets in Las Vegas where weird it had a shelf that you shat on, I got really interested in looking at my shit. I'd never really had the chance to before because it's usually down the bottom of a bowl not up on a shelf so you can have a good look. Their flawed though, large American meals ment larger stools, me drunk, should have been more careful really. I won't say what happened.

**Brookers13** · 03-18-2007, 05:01 PM

i must say i do not really like squat toilets...i got used to using them in morocco, but that doesnt mean i really enjoyed it...i do definitely take my modern plumbing for granted!

**lilchappy** · 03-18-2007, 08:13 PM

The squat toilets in italy freak me out. Partially because everyone pisses on the footholds and they are slick, and 2nd because I feel like I am going to shit into my pants or sit to far low that I fall down. Im just not a squatter!

cya...lilchappy

anyone else drinking by themselves tonight?