BootsnAll Travel Community

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.....

THE WORST OF ALL: Well... I wasn't traveling at that time but it was when I went to do number two at work and the flash was broken and there was a bunch of people outside waiting to use it after me.
The other one : on an overnight train from Tangier to Marrakech...there was poo all over the place.

I just love the Google ads that pop up when I click on this thread.

Jet

All the bad ones, I've forgotten. Only way to stay sane.

Once in a port in Gujarat in India, my 9-year-old daughter had to use the toilet. Not a one in sight so we had to ask the crew of a fishing boat to borrow theirs. Expecting the worst (a boat full of men, after all )):, it was a squat toilet, but in pink porcelain and just amazingly clean.

And another amazing toilet we discovered by accident, is the public loo in Kawakawa, New Zealand, designed by Friedrich Hundertwasser. Have a look.

WORST:

I remember stopping during my felucca trip along the Nile in Egypt at a temple. There was a little hut with a man standing outside. People kept handing him money, then he went in, did something, came out, and then the tourist would go in. Turns out, you had to baksheesh the guy to flush away the remnants of the previous person. Needless to say, he didn't do a very good job. This was preferable to the other option on the felucca... if you were caught having to go while the boat was sailing, you were handed a rope and told to hop in!

Another baddie was in some temple in Tibet. Rather than using any tissues or TP to wipe their hands after wiping themselves, people would "paint" on the walls.

PC

P.S. Has anyone ever seen the infamous toilet in Llasa that there is a story about in the Lonely Plant? Supposedly someone fell into a well of liquid poo?

The summit trail on Mount Kinabalu had the worst toilets not helped by the fact I had eaten something that disagreed with me the day before|

Worst: CHINA. It was a shed at the side of the road, filled with human excrement, with slime-covered stepping stones so you could walk around. You pick a spot and poo. I decided to hold it in.

Best: JAPAN. Top floor of a shopping center, with a high tech toilet that would bathe your anus with warm water and then dry it, and the washing device would then be retracted and automatically sterilized.

worst: Having my last imodium wear off 8 hours into a 9 hour bus trip across thailand.
spent the last hour clenching like i'd never clenched before!
Shoved my way off the bus the second it drew to a halt, shoving children and old ladies out the way as i bolted into nearest building. Toilet turned out to be down an alley way round the back, about 2 blocks away and was a tin shed with wooden planks and a hole cut in the middle.
I'm used to squat toilets, but this was a whole new level, i was terrified the planks would break under my (heavier then your average thai-) weight!

Best: loos at the wunderbar in lyttleton, NZ. not the poshest loos, but walls are plastered top to toe with old magazine ads, hours of quality reading!

Oooh, memories.

The open field outside of Mandalay, Burma, that served as a bus depot. I was sitting in a nearby shopfront that served as a teastall, when my stomach pitched a fit from the samosas I'd had for lunch. Dashed into the dank and fetid closet that served as a toilet. No electricity of course, so I squatted and aimed as best as I could. After a few seconds, some darkish lump scampered across one of my feet (I was wearing Tevas). It felt like it had claws, so I assumed it was a rat. Started, I kicked out. Since my pants were around my knees, I lost my balance, and toppled over onto my back ... into the squat. I stood up, my entire backside utterly befouled.

The remaining twenty minutes before the bus to Nyaung U (Bagan) left I spent taking a shower with bottled water and bar soap. The shirt was a total loss, the ride to Nyaung U utter misery.

Gardkarlsen -- I've used that same squatter when i climbed Kilamanjaro and as nasty as that was, it still was not the worst I've ever used.

Worst-- I was in Freiberg, Germany and some friends and I had just eaten some pretty nasty greasy food. After that we wnet to this grungy college bar there--really grungy (my friend really wanted to go there because he had been there once before 5 years earlier and had the whole nostalgia thing working). On the way there, in the tram, my stomach started to grumble and churn. Oh yea, I was brewing! By the time we got to this grungy bar I had to really let loose. In the bar itself, you wouldn't touch anything--really gross. I asked for the bathroom immediately and then ran there, though not that fast so as not to let loose prematurely. I arrived at the bathroom and was mortified at what i saw. If you've ever seen the Quentin Tarantino movie Desperado with Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, you would know what i was dealing with as the toilet in that bar was identical (though the toilet I dealt with was dark). This toilet (no seat) was completely covered in crap. The floor was covered in crap. The walls were covered in crap. The ceiling even had crap on it. You would not believe this sight was even possible without having it decorated this way. Oh, and toilet paper--forget about it!!! This place was the unholy of unholies. Being that I was about to explode...i had no choice i had to go. Upon finishing and knowing that no toilet paper existed, I had no choice but to literally rip my boxers off and use them to clean myself. I was not about to take off my pants and risk touching the ground with anything other than the bottom of my shoes.

That, was my worst toilet experience EVER!!!!!!

Learning how to hover over, what we dubbed, "The Squatters", in Korea became quite an art form. But my talent was truly tested during a train trip: as the train rocks gently back forth, picture trying to hover over an elevated "squatter" in a moving train, especially after enjoying the local drink....

Trekker