Toilets!

I think I’m developing a toilet phobia! The thought of going into one more toilet where there is water sprayed across the floor and all over the toilet seat is making me cringe. In Asia, the way to clean yourself after you have visited the toilet is to use the hose and squirt water. Now I expect that is probably a more hygienic way than using toilet paper. But please try to not splash the water everywhere. Please try to keep it in the bowl and then wipe down any excess, so the next person does not have to wade through a inch deep layer of water or have to crouch in an ungainly manner over the seat to avoid water (or worse) contamination! 

Now in the shared accommodation that I have been staying in over the last few months you quite often have to take your shoes off at the front door. Thank God for my flip flops is all I can say. I can feel a shudder go down my back and an internal clenching of my fingers and toes even now thinking about the shower I will take tonight; because the shower in this case is also in the same cubicle as the toilet. Ugh!

In the three months of travelling, I have been in a fair few toilets. Lots are in same category as above. In others you have to stand on the raised grooved panels, crouching over the pan, trying to hold pants and shorts tightly to stop them from getting sodden. There are others where the doors are so low that when you stand up you can see everybody else. Or where the gap is so wide between the door and the cubicle that everyone can see everything anyway!

However, my worst toilet experience of my travels so far has to be at a roadside cafe toilet in Uzbekistan. Yes it had a door, though shutting it blocked out all the available light. The toilet was a hole in the ground. There was a helpful plastic pan and water to flush the toilet after use. This seemed to have just succeeded in spreading everything all over rather than washing it away. It is the smell that gets you. You are trying to hold your breath, covering your nose while trying not to retch and aiming to get out of there as quickly as possible. The smell remains with you for long afterwards. It is definitely not helped by the sight of a plate of grisly meat plonked down on the table as you are forced to eat lunch in the cafe next door. Bleugh!

This toilet is the benchmark for all others. I have yet to meet it’s match……