I had the privilege of using one of MacDonalds' restrooms the other morning, as Chinese food tends to put my body in a constant state of "when I need to go, I need to go NOW". Thankfully the golden arches were nearby, and I knew they wouldn't have "one of those Chinese toilets".
"One of those Chinese toilets", words that people who have been in Asia for any period of time can well relate to, refers to one of these:
Well, this is a clean one. If you are unlucky enough to have to use one that is communal for all the workers of a factor, you may find yourself trying to negotiate territory worse than the state of a loo at 3am in a busy club.
I for one really can't stand squat toilets (they are fairly prevalent in Japan too, at least in public restrooms). The main reason is because "squatting" is my nemesis. I am incredibly bad at squatting. I don't know if it's years of sprained ankles that has rendered them incapable of bending forward far enough, or inflexible legs that cramp up and lose blood if I fold them in on themselves, but either way I find it near impossible to hold a squat for more than 30 seconds without disabled handles to hold. And that's a fair approximation to how I feel while squatting: rather disabled.
Some places in China are nice enough to have sit down dunnies, though depending on the place, you do wonder if you really want to sit. May be better to hover. Especially when you see signs like the one I saw when I went to sit down (rather hurriedly, as my bowels apparently wait for nothing these days) in this particular toilet in Macca's:
Say what? I shudder to think who has been doing what to warrant the need for that sign. I also think that if someone was attempting to use the sit-down toilet like a squatting one, then they're a) really confused and b) very talented in the balance department.I'd like to write more, but you know, nature calls.
5 comments:
They had these kinds of signs in the toilets at my uni library, except they had pictures with them. The first week they put them up, the library seemed more like a place to come and have a laugh then to actually study.
I might have to see if one of my mates around uni can get me a photo of the signs so I can show you the "with pictures" version.
Hahaha, you obviously never had the priviledge of using the toilet on my floor of the Gaidai dorm. The whole year I had the nagging suspicion that one (or more) of the girls was standing on the toilet because every now and then I would find shoe prints (along with other unfavorable presents) on the toilet seats. I hate to say it, but my suspicions always ran to one of the Vietnamese girls....
cultrue differences
you should not langh at anything you cant understand.
Cultural differences indeed! But not laugh at them? Some of the worlds best humour comes from cultural differences! Admittedly so does racism and war, but I refuse to let them spoil my comic party.
Laugh at death. Laugh at religion. Laugh at stupidity and hopelessness. Laugh at humanity. Who can really say that humans are above being mocked at how shoddy a job we do with the world we have?
PS. I went back to the same toilet 2 days later, and guess what? There were rubber tread marks on the seat! I laughed so hard I had to sit down (though not in that cubicle...)
We should always laugh at what we don't understand :p
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