Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Squat toilets

For those people who have not experienced a squat toilet let me describe the ones in the teahouses. The toilet is a small room with a porcelin toilet bowl in the floor with spots on the sides for your feet. A waste paper basket or box sits in one corner for used toilet paper (you have to bring your own roll of tp). A large barrel of water with a pitcher or cup in it to pour water down the toilet when you are finished sits in another corner. Note there is no sink to wash your hands. You could use the water in the large barrel but I was always leery of that. Small bottles of hand sanitizer are great things especially if you do not want to get sick. I found it interesting that the cost of the toilet paper increased and the size of the roll seemed to decrease as you progressed up the mountain.
How best do you use the squat toilet? Do you face the door or the wall? How far down do you squat? Problems can arise. Night visits are always interesting since there are no lights so you just have your headlamp (something you keep in your sleeping bag) to guide you. To make things more interesting at higher altitudes there is ice on the floor and sides of the toilet. Add to this a torn Achilles tendon and things really get interesting. The night I had to do a one legged knee bend on an icy floor in the dark was a real highlight of the trip. Use your imagination! I can see the humour in the situation now but at the time it was no laughing matter.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Barbara, Great descriptions! And we complain about little inconviences here. Who thought your journey away to the mountain would bring me closer to my toilet! The mysteries of life.
Nancy