My first toilet experience comes from the McDonald’s I ate
at before I left for Guilin on the bus.
I mean the food was good, so the bathrooms have to be good too
right? Wrong. The bathroom was actually set up ok, it was
just the smell…I wish I could describe it to you, but just think of the worst
smelling bathroom you have been in, and times it by 100,000,000 and that will
yield my result. I tried to be tough,
and at least try to pee because I knew that I wouldn’t have anywhere else to go
for a long time, so I stepped into the stall, but as soon as I stepped in, I
stepped right back out. A word to the
wise, you can’t pee while your gagging over a disgusting smell, you just can’t
do it. Well, I guess you could, but I
chose not to!
They have a variety of different toilets but the most common
one is the squatter. It took me awhile
to figure the whole thing out and ask questions like, “Do you take off your
pants?” “Which way do you face?” It all
was just very complicated, and luckily our coordinator gave us the 101 on toilet training.
 | |
| Pretty decent one. Why I wear flip flops here is even a mystery to me... |
 | ||
| A really nice, clean smelling squatter! |
The McDonald’s was the first encounter with a squatter, but
they also have these toilets that look like troughs. Go me, I was introduced to this toilet at 12
in the morning on our way to Guilin. I’m
not really sure how to even describe this bathroom, because again once I
stepped in and I stepped right back out.
This one was a trough, and it ran all the way across the room, and I am
pretty sure the floor was dirt. The
catch? There were no doors, no curtains,
no walls, just a room. And you squat. In front of everyone! The women coming in the bathroom would stand
and wait, and watch the others while they did their business, and when one got
up, they popped a squat in their place.
I just couldn’t do it.
 | ||
| A very smelly, but ok trough. No door, but at least it had some coverage! |
 |
| So you squat and pee, but at least there was a garbage can. |
Even though these experiences haven’t made the best
memories, it still gets worse. While in
Xi’an visiting the Terra-cotta Warriors, one of my teachers and I had to use
the bathroom and even though we try to avoid them as much as possible,
sometimes you just have to go! So we
actually had to pay to use this bathroom, although no toilet paper, soap, or
paper towels were provided. We give the
guy at the door our money and stand in line to wait. Since it is China, and it was a National
holiday it was packed to the brim, so we waited for quite some time. I noticed the closer we got to the door, the
worse it started to smell…so I pull out a tissue to cover my nose to keep from
gagging. Well when we finally made it
inside the bathroom, I just witnessed way too many things that I wished I
didn’t have too. Lined up on one side of
the wall were the toilets, (they had doors) but on the other side of the wall
were 5 gallon buckets…yup. Woman were
sitting on 5 gallon buckets, and peeing in them. No curtains, no walls, and no
insecurities. To make it worse, a mom
was holding her baby up in the air and letting him pee right on the floor. That’s when I noticed that I was standing in
a good centimeter of “wet” stuff. I
threw away those shoes for the record!
You see babies in China don’t wear diapers they just have slits in their
pants like this…
 | ||
| I stole this gem from the ILP page... |
 |
| I took this one at the Forbidden City. Not as good, but the mom's face... :p |
So when they think their baby has to pee, they lift and spread their legs where ever they may be, and they do their business at the closest bush/sidewalk/bathroom floor. (My babies will wear
diapers!) Anyways, after the buckets, and
the baby, and trying not to gag myself to death, it was finally time to use to
bathroom. Now while I was standing in
line, I noticed that I was in the European toilet line, because I hate
squatting and I thought it would be nice!
But honestly, if you ever have a choice, always squat in China, because
you will still end up squatting over the other ones anyways. This one was d.i.s.g.u.s.t.i.n.g. There was no trash can, so the tissues girls
had been using were in a mountain in the corner, and when I say mountain, I
mean mountain. Pee on the floor, bloody napkins
open on the floor, the toilet was brown and not from stains people! It was nasty, nasty, nasty!!
Thank goodness for clean, American Toilets. Now enjoy your supper. :)
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