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!
Toilets around the world...
Threaded Mode