Hi static

"Gard is quite prolific."...I don't know the word prolific...but yes, I have posted the topic on other travel forums. I had almost forgotten that I had posted it on Frommer's (there is no mail notice when you get an answer there)...I was very surprised that there were over 50 people that had replied to it

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

Hm. See, as a Vegetarian I generally dislike Fast Food chains. However, once in a while a McD or Burger King can provide the cleanest toilets you had in a a loooooong time. I reckon these are usually my 'best' experiences.

Worst. Oh man, probably don't want to remember. Funny enough the s#$% alone (and I've seen it in all possible places...especially in the squat train toilets in India and Pakistan) doesn't completely make me fill ill. It gets seriously bad when rats and roaches are mingling around as well. Especially the roaches. I hate those f#$%^&. Oh yeah, used condoms and syringes aren't my favorites either.

My funniest toilet experience was in Hungary in 1977. For days, my cousin Ilona had been giving me tickets and tourist brochures as "souvenirs," which I merely shoved into my pocket. Then I suddenly got caught short and had to go. Naturally, there was no toilet paper, but I did have a lot of "souvenirs" on me which came in handy. You might say I got rid of two loads at the same time.

Jim Paris

The best toilets? In any Ritz Carlton, especially in the Middle East and Asia because they have ashtrays in the stalls and cloth washcloths that make great souvenirs.

The worse? Anywhere that has “squat toilets”, I just hold it.

wow. gard, you are in a whole different league...

i was in a club in oaxaca mexico and one of the bathrooms had two toilets one had a blue seat and the other a pink seat. i wasn't sure if this was a measure to promote romantic intimacy or a time-saving measure for the management...?

That pic can't even begin to compare with some of the loos I saw in Tibet - words fail to describe the sight, and smell - in many places it was actually preferable to go outside in the open rather than use those nasty facilities - think stalagmites made of you-know-what...

Best public toilet in Kathmandu: Yak & Yeti Hotel. If you're stuck in Thamel and have to go, go to Pilgrims Bookstore, in the cafe in the back.

The best toilet was not some spectacular loo in a fancy hotel. Mine was a toilet seat attached to box over a pit toilet in Lake Superior Provincial Park. No walls. Just you communeing with nature in the middle of the woods. Bug spray on the tush required.

Worst toilet. Shediac, New Brunswick, Canada. Gas station. Sick. Overflowing toilet. Blech.

Jet

Best: I can't really say....most toilet experiences I have had been good ones.

Worst: While staying at El Establo near Monteverde National Park in Costa Rica, I forgot that most plumbing systems in that country were unable to handle toilet paper....well, you can guess that I went through the entire process involved with elimination just as at home, and ended up having to call room service in the company of my two roommates. What made this all the worse is that just an hour or so earlier I had lost the key for the room. I suppose I was El Establo's most troublesome tenant that night.

Please tell where that fancy mirror toilet is.

Brian and I are on a quest to "use" that toilet now.

here is some perspective.
Not the exact link I was looking for...but it'll do in a pinch.

One of the guys working with me was using a floor toilet a while back. He had a 2-way radio hooked to his belt...guess where it went??? yup.
Had to dig up the whole thing to get it back.
Property Dept was NOT TOO HAPPY.

Worst - in the middle of the night - a toilet stop on the bus route between Kuala Besut and the Malaysia / Singapore border.

I decided not to go and pee in the rom my partner had just peed in (it was literally just a little green room, no drainage, with slimy walls and floor from all the years of blokes peeing up them.

Instead I opted for the v small room that at least had a dubious hole in the floor. Absoluteyl gross but tiny room and it was so difficult not to fall against smelly, grimy walls. Best bit was, as I was peeing, I looked down and there was a little toad sat my by foot. Gross!

KPG

quote:

Originally posted by semicolon:
[runner-up-squat toilets in the Tashkent UZBEKISTAN airport. Luxury Soviet plumbing at its best!!!!

i have to agree with the Tashkent one- and the smell there was just awful..
i remeber being shocked at Delhi, India airport, the toilets were pit holes but the sinks had electronic faucets, it just seemed so weird to see such a combination.

I found these articles in the BnA database:
Japanese Toilet Technology
The trap

NEW! Be the first to use this wonderful UN sponsored toilet on NIAS ISLAND in INDONESIA! Flush and septic latrine!

ABSOLUTE WORST: Basic Training Ft McClellan Alabama.
On the range they scoop a large hole and put a 10 holer on top of it. So imagine ten guys at a time doing thier thing into an open hole and NO privacy..... Smell can be gruesome.
Good thing we all had gas masks.....