When Are We Going to Stop? I Need to .....

No, this is not something inappropriate, but using the restroom in other countries can be a great adventure. One of the most favorite pictures of the students in my China video is a picture of the "squatty potty" or toilet on the floor. I explain to them that China has so many people that it is easier to clean the floor toilets by mopping rather than having to clean our familiar Western toilets individually. At least the ones that we encountered in China, Japan, and other Far Eastern countries flushed like ours, only you had to squat (both men and women) rather than sit.

In Moscow, we found the restroom (called "toilet" in Europe and Australia) down in the basement of Gum Department Store, which is now a large mall filled with high-end stores that ordinary Russians cannot begin to afford. We knew that there would be a "babushka", or grandmother-like lady wanting to take money for the privilege and we had one-dollar bills to give her. However, this lady chewed us out in Russian for even thinking of giving her foreign money and tried to tell us where the money changing booth was and of course we couldn't understand a word she said. Knowing we were running out of time since we had to get on our bus, we went and found our guide. She gave us the correct amount in very small change saying that the ladies did not like to give out change. We got chewed out again becuse we had such small change, but she did allow us to go in. When we got in, we discovered that the "toilet" was a hole in the floor, with two metal strips for our feet. Of course, there was no way to flush it and everything ran down into a trench. No paper either, so we got out our handy Kleenex.

In Europe, you always pay for the privilege in a public restroom and a man might encounter a cleaning lady or lady taking up money. In Egypt, you are given one square of toilet paper as you go into the fairly clean restroom and you have to pay as you leave. In Dalian, China, I was trying to help my friend who uses crutches (fortunately this was an American fixture) open a stuck door and the entire door came off the hinges! I have taken a lot of teasing for this. At the original Olympic stadium in Athens, the restrooms were marble!

In some countries, the plumbing is so primitive that you are asked to throw your used paper into a trash can next to the toilet. Most of the time, I forgot since I was in the habit of throwing it in the toilet at home. How would you like to clean these bathrooms?

The one complaint I have about restrooms in all countries is that why do tour companies plan their stops at places with the least number of ladies' toilets and the maximum number of buses and tourists. I hate spending all of my stop waiting in line to use the facilities.