May 4, 2007

When you gotta go, you gotta go

When there is not a sheet of charmin' within a hundred miles, and your only choice is these facilities, I say do as the Chinese do and just hang in there.

For the curious, click here.

We were driving around Lake Taihu at the time, and this was at the start of our journey.

5 comments:

jinxy said...

Ummm... how are people without a penis, and the aiming capability provided, supposed to use those holes in the ground??

You may as well pee your pants because I can all but guarantee that you will have pee on your pants and shoes before you are done trying to use those. At least if you pee your pants you wont risk falling in those nasty holes in the ground.

Anonymous said...

Precisely.

Anonymous said...

Too funny...I saw one of those in Europe too! It definitely makes you appreciate the porcelain god just a bit more!

Anonymous said...

Dear Ms. Place -

Having spent three weeks in Kenya in March, during which time I had the very special opportunity to visit Peace Corps volunteers' homes during three days in Western Kenya, I can assure you that your Chinese loos were a lot fancier than some of the necessaries I saw, and used, in Kenya.

The kiswahili term for this design is "choo," which rhymes with "go," as in "Go to the choo."

Aim is enhanced by squatting.

Then again, the same porcelain slit in the floor is the traditional o-benjo in Japan. When my brother lived in Kyoto 24 years ago and my sis and I visited, we noted that, unlike his Stateside loo that had a veritable library of reading matter adjacent to the throne, in the o-benjo he had limited the offerings to one slim volume of poetry.

In fact, the western toilet was sufficiently odd in Japan back then that in more than one restroom I saw instructions for proper use as it was well known that persons unfamiliar with a commode would routinely try to stand on top of the seat, squat and do their business.

I've seen and used the French and Turkish verisions of the choo, too!

Good workout for the quadriceps....!

All the best,

NDC

Vic said...

Jinxy, my aim was off. And I pity the poor Chinese woman who had to use the facilities after me.

BML, those toilets are all over Provence, which is where I had my first experience. Oooh, la, la.

NDC, Quadriceps workout is a perfect description. I did not have such toilet experiences in Japan, where things seemed rather civilized by comparison, or have ever been to Turkey, but I imagine that these, er, private facilities can get worse the farther afield one goes.

Next? I shall share some of my camping horror stories. But that's for later. Thanks for sharing, y'all.