Those of us who live in the US have probably only seen one kind of toilet. It’s called the Western-style toilet, and it’s been part of our lives since early childhood. We use it daily and don’t really think much about it. When we travel, it isn’t really something we consider. Realistically, it isn’t something you ever NEED to consider, but it’s worth knowing what you’re getting yourself into in some cases.
Fortunately, I grew up camping and visiting National Parks. I learned to pee in the woods at a very young age and was exposed to pit toilets and outhouses, although they did have western-ish seats. So, when I flushed a toilet on a train in Egypt and saw the tracks, I was surprised but not repulsed.
Frankly, the extent of my traveling is limited. I spend most of my time in the US, the Caribbean, and Mexico, with one long trip to Egypt and one trip to Great Britain, along with a few others. Egypt is drastically different from the countries I’ve visited, so it’s no surprise that I ran into the most unique bathroom situations while traveling through Egypt and far fewer elsewhere.
Egypt is a relatively poor, developing nation that has been in and out of civil wars for years. I was there in 2013, shortly after a revolution. Although there are a few other places where I’ve seen some strange toilets, Egypt had some especially unique bathrooms, which will be the focus of this post.
The first time I encountered a pretty shocking toilet was in Minya, Egypt. We stopped at a restaurant for lunch. It was a very traditional restaurant and clearly not geared towards foreigners. It was dark, had little decoration, and was not the cleanest place I’d ever been to. The food was great and was one of the most authentic meals I had while in Egypt, but the restroom was a whole new level. It was a single-stall women’s restroom with no real door, just a swinging stall door, so it was pretty easy to peer through the gaps if you tried. While it was a Western-style toilet, there was no toilet paper. There was no sink, for that matter. It was just a toilet and a kitchen sprayer coming out of the wall and hung on a hook next to the toilet. There was no way to clean the sprayer, no way to wash my hands before, after, or during, and no way to wipe dry, regardless of whether I used the sprayer. The expectation was that I was supposed to use the bathroom, grab hold of this questionable kitchen appliance, stick it under me, dangerously close to the toilet water, then hose myself down and drip dry. Clearly… this was not appealing. I’m a little ashamed to say that I did not use the sprayer. I had Kleenex in my purse that I used instead.
The next experience was while touring Abu Simbel in southern Egypt. Walking back towards the bus, I stopped in the restroom. There was a man sitting on the ground in front of the women’s restroom, holding a cup and a roll of toilet paper. At the time, I thought he was a bathroom attendant. Looking back on it, it was probably just a random guy who took the toilet paper out of the restroom so he could charge for it. I tried to go into the stall, but he yelled something in Arabic and held up the toilet paper. He did not stand up, mind you; he just sat there and showed me the toilet paper, then shook the cup and held it up as well. I tipped him a small amount, and he gave me, using his very dirty hands, a few pieces of toilet paper, then let me into the stall. I used my Kleenex anyway.
As mentioned earlier, I had a very interesting toilet experience on an Egyptian train. I took a train from Aswan to Cairo on my second to last day. Most foreigners take a short flight, but I wanted the experience of the train. I had a sleeper room, which included a sink but no toilet. To use the toilet, I had to leave the sleeper car and go to the coach seats in another car then use the restroom at the back of the train. I got quite a few looks, being the only white person and a female, traveling alone and without my hair covered. The toilet had a western seat but was built into what looked like a plywood box. I used the restroom and then ‘flushed’ the toilet. There was no water to flush with, just a little door that opened and released the contents onto the tracks, which I could clearly see when I ‘flushed’. Remind me not to walk along the railroad tracks in Egypt.
The last kind of toilet I encountered is much more common throughout the world, but it was a new experience for me and was a rudimentary version of a more common setup. Squatting toilets are extremely common in many parts of Asia and the Middle East. Basically, there is a hole in the floor; to use it, you place your feet on either side, squat down, and do your business. Modernized variants can have flushing mechanisms, non-slip foot placement, porcelain components, etc. This one, however, was literally just a hole in the floor that led to some sort of tank… maybe. I must admit, squatting is a pretty comfortable way to go. I think the makers and owners of the Squatty Potty may agree with me here.
It’s creature comforts, like pillows, beds, cars, and toilets, that seem to shock us the most when they differ from the familiar. I’ve seen travelers panic over these comforts. It’s important to remember that the locals live differently every day and have no issue with it. If they can do it, I can do it. I love experiencing these differences and seeing how people live throughout the world. It makes me feel closer to a culture and helps me understand what it’s like to walk a mile in their shoes. Because no matter how they choose to do it, everybody poops.
