Squat toilets are terrifying when you encounter one for the first time. Where do you sit? How do you watch YouTube videos comfortably? Are there any benefits using squat toilets vs sitting toilets? How do I use a squat toilet with bad knees? But if you’ve traveled extensively, or about to go on a backpacking trip around Asia, you will definitely see these kinds of toilets. You may even have to use them when the time comes; during that jungle trek in Laos, or when you’re motorbiking through Vietnam, or after a Massaman curry in Thailand. Below I have compiled a list of tips on how to use a squat…
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The Essential Item to Pack for Backpacking SE Asia
I’m baaaack! I know it’s been radio silence for a long time on this travel blog, but that’s because Lionel and I haven’t been traveling. We’ve been settled on Koh Tao now for a while. This month was actually our 5 year anniversary of starting our PADI Open Water scuba diving course. In December this year, it’ll be our 5 years of actually living and working on Koh Tao as dive professionals! Crazy how fast the time has gone. I’ve slithered back out of the water that is now my home to talk about something that has radically changed my life recently. The thing that I believe is an essential…
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Koh Tao Festival 2016 Toilets. What to Expect.
Koh Tao Festival is upon us again! It happens every year, and is a two day event run by the Save Koh Tao organisation, and the local Koh Taoian community. This year it falls on the 18th and 19th of June, and right now I can hear the thumping bass from the festival grounds. It’s my third year attending the Koh Tao Festival, and as always, it’s a time for the Thais, Burmese workers, and Westerners (local, and tourists) to mingle, eat food, drink, and listen to looooud, peaking Thai techno/pop. There’s also usually a few shows that are performed on the main stage, and last night we watched the…
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You know you’re back in Thailand when..
…There’s a bin of used tissues next to the toilet. I forgot that some countries have workable plumbing so that the toilet paper can actually be flushed down the toilet! This is rare in Thailand (and Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia) where you need to use the toilet paper and then put it into the bin so not to clog up the toilet. I was surprised when I got to Changi Airport in Singapore and found NO WASTEBIN WITH ACTUAL HUMAN WASTE in it! Amazing!* However Singapore has something that’s more annoying/scary in their bathrooms. Automatic flushing toilets!! Pretty much every public toilet in Singapore is automatic and I’ve been flushed out…
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Laotian Toilets
Laotian toilets are everywhere. In the bush, behind that tree, outside that building. I was first introduced to a Laotian toilet when we were at the border from Vietnam to Laos. We were at the Laos checkpoint, stamping into the country, and everyone was busting to pee. We had after all, just been on an overnight bus from Sapa. I bravely stepped forward and asked the stern looking official where the toilet was. He looked at me for about 20 seconds, before pointing outside to some waist height mini trees. A bush? Was the toilet behind that bush? Was there a hole purposely dug out for this purpose behind that…
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How To Use A Bum Gun (Butt Spray) in South East Asia
After eight months in South-East Asia it was inevitable that we would end up using that weird hose sitting behind the toilet in every public and private bathroom. Initially, I didn’t fully grasp the concept of spraying your butt hole, rather than wiping the butt hole (I blame my parents and Western society for leading me down the wrong path), but now having used the butt spray on more than several occasions, I completely understand the notion of showering your arsehole
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Malaysian Toilets
Malaysia Lots of squat toilets but I had prepared for this by practicing at some Singaporean bathrooms. I was extremely perplexed the first few days as the cubicles usually consisted of a squat toilet, a hose, a bucket, and NO TOILET PAPER!. Due to my mother’s habit of always carrying tissues in her handbag, I had learnt from a very early age to stuff every pocket and every bag with tissues (a godsend during the Melbourne winter months when carrying around a bad case of the common cold), so luckily I was never caught out with no toilet paper, THANK GOD. I had also ‘taken’ the roll of toilet paper…
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Singaporean Toilets
This is a blog post about toilets. I will be writing about them after each country. Be prepared to be riveted beyond belief. So, Singaporean toilets. Was pleasantly surprised. As a kid who suffered from food poisoning every time she even looked at food in Singapore (we went every two years or so as my dad is from Singapore) I feared bathrooms in the country as my memories were mostly of squat toilets, wet floors, and automatic flushes – mostly when I was halfway through my business. But, this time around, as an adult who can hover over the toilet seat more elegantly, I was surprised by how clean most…
