(Yeah, this entry is not for those that don’t like to admit they “use the potty”..! :)

So! Just a late entry from my travels.. remembering my trips to India harkens back to memories of “who has the toilet paper!” and “what, a non-’western’ toilet? Ahhhhhhhhh!!!”. So, I decided I wanted to overcome that.. shortcoming? (for lack of a better word) in my mentality, and be all about the “traditional” way of .. things.
I read in lonely planet that the toilets that are basically holes in the ground are seemingly even better for you, there’s less of a rate of.. something bad for you (cancer? colon cancer? Something).. in countries that use the ‘squat toilets,’ possibly due to the extra muscle use. (And according to Mr. Vietnamese “I told everyone John Kerry couldn’t win” tour guide, is why Americans all have big asses.)
I found that the number of places that had that marvellous invention, the house next to the toilet so you could clean up without killing trees, was a little less than expected. As were the squat toilets themselves, less than expected. There were more hoses in Thailand/Vietnam than in India (unfortunately! Those things rock! I want one!! :) , and more squat toilets in India than the other two countries. Aye.. a bucket and a squat toilet? that I’m a bit weary of.

We must take into account that I might not have just been trying to broaden my horizons and battle a ‘comfort zone,’ but there’s another motivation for this as well. A little known fact is that many country do _NOT_ have septic systems upto the standards of our major US cities (or anywhere with heavy-duty sewage systems). Many foreign countries have a little trash can next to the toilet. Why? Exactly. For your toilet paper. “What?!” you exclaim? Yes, sorry to tell you, but their septic systems can’t handle our toilet paper. Hence, the desire to use water, which is __SEVERELY__ more efficient, becomes a stronger impulse.
I dunno why, but ever since I started my experiment, of trying to clean with my left hand, I’ve just been using a TON of Toilet Paper (TP). It’s.. odd, and disturbing. I mean.. maybe if I switched back, things would go back to normal, hard to say. But.. aye. I’m confused. Shouldn’t my left-hand be trained at this activity, after this many years?! I mean, c’mon. Let’s get serious left-hand.
Oh, and the other motivation for the switch was that in India, that’s the traditional hand you do your business with, so it’s considered “dirty” by default. Don’t shake hands with it, don’t try to do anything with food with it (at least don’t try to serve yourself from a common source with that left hand, you’ll get beat down! I’d gotten yelled at many a time in my past trips for (mis)use of my left hand at the dinner table! Aye, that gets annoying. And since it didn’t even apply to me, I (At the time) thought it additionally stupid.)
But, hey, it’s their culture, and just because it’s different than ours, doesn’t make it stupid.. all for now!

-Ajay (707) 672-1383

  
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Loading ...