We are thoroughly back and re-acclimating to what Reader’s Digest calls “Life in These United States.” Pretty much, I’ve spent the weekend in a near coma catching up on much-needed sleep (apart from jetlag, cramped planes and whatnot, I generally don’t sleep well in places that are not my bed. I guess my slutty 20s were extra special slutty, because I never really slept around, I stayed awake around.)
Anyhow, with a little perspective and time not spent rushing around on either trying to soak up the local flavor tourist-style, eating or interacting with family (also known as eating), I can pause and think about what aspect of travel really affects me. I’d have to say toilets.
I spent a good deal of time pondering the squatting pan style toilets all over Singapore and Malaysia but more importantly the ever-present hose. The hose is actually next to every kind of toilet (most public places had stalls with both your western-style regulation toilet and the squatters). For the life of me, I can’t work out how exactly the hose is meant to work. Some places only have the hose, no toilet paper to be found. (As a side note, everyone in M.’s family, man, woman and some children carry around pocket packs of tissues that they whip out at meals, since napkins aren’t prevalent.)
Apparently, the hose is solely a Muslim thing, since no one I spoke with of the non-Islamic, Chinese persuasion, could give me an answer on use. The closest I got was a teenage cousin telling me a story of how they use the bathroom hoses to spray each other at school for some fun shenanigans.
I didn’t see Muslim women drenched on their way out of the stalls, so there has to be some technique passed on from mothers to daughters and fathers to sons. Thanks to the magic of the intertubes, I’m honing in on information. And, M. found the delightful link: http://www.thebathroomdiaries.com/essays/pageasia.htm.
In the general topic area, I loved this sign in the Singapore Zoo for it’s clear use of language. Poo is just poo.
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