| User | Comment |
|---|
Melf    | | posted 26-Jun-2008 8:21am |
No. |
| jettles | | posted 26-Jun-2008 8:49am |
nope, never seen one. |
they  | | posted 26-Jun-2008 9:24am |
No, but I would.
I've seen pictures of some nasty ones... but if they weren't nasty like that, it would seem more sanitary. |
| Jody | | posted 26-Jun-2008 9:46am |
No, but I've used both the woods and an outhouse. |
romkey  | | posted 26-Jun-2008 10:06am |
Unfortunately, yes. I imagine they're easier to deal with if you grew up with them but I'd rather never use one again. |
| kirst | | posted 26-Jun-2008 10:21am |
Yes. I live in Hong Kong...sometimes (although not so much anymore) there are only squat toilets available. (Typically this is at parks.) There aren't that many squatters left. And usually, now, there is at least one Western toilets at such venues in the handicapped stall. My children refuse to use squatters. They will just hold it until there is a "real" toilet. |
Galomorro  | | posted 26-Jun-2008 11:00am |
No, but some of the public ones I've seen are so filthy one would prefer to squat rather than sit. |
| labjog | | posted 26-Jun-2008 11:24am |
I have peed without sitting down before, the seat was just to nasty for my pristine ass. |
| Enheduanna | | posted 26-Jun-2008 11:28am |
Yes, these are fairly common in the Middle East. I hate them. |
LindaH  | | posted 26-Jun-2008 11:51am |
No. Those work for diddleysquat. |
JessicaWoman99  | | posted 26-Jun-2008 1:35pm |
Not here in the United States of America have i ever seen one of these before |
| JessicaWoman99 | | (reply to romkey) posted 26-Jun-2008 1:37pm |
> Unfortunately, yes. I imagine they're easier to deal with if you grew
> up with them but I'd rather never use one again.
You mean to tell me that Bill he has to squat when he pees "giggles" |
| Biggles | | posted 26-Jun-2008 1:48pm |
Yes - I used them quite a few times when I was in India. I actually think they are better for the bowels (as they reduce the need for straining) than Western-style toilets. I wasn't so keen on the lack of toilet paper (the reason that the left hand isn't used for anything else in India) or flushing using a bucket of water (which is tricky until you get the knack). |
| Biggles | | (reply to Jody) posted 26-Jun-2008 1:50pm |
Happy 10th SC anniversary  |
| llamamama | | posted 26-Jun-2008 10:37pm |
You mean, have I used a public toilet? Yes. |
| they | | (reply to Biggles) posted 27-Jun-2008 12:40am |
> I wasn't so keen on the lack
> of toilet paper (the reason
> that the left hand isn't used
> for anything else in India)
Please tell me exactly what you mean by this. |
| Jody | | (reply to Biggles) posted 27-Jun-2008 9:17am |
Aw, shucks. Now I'm blushing ;). Thanks. |
| Biggles | | (reply to they) posted 27-Jun-2008 9:18am |
Do you really want to know?  It's actually not as bad as it sounds...
There's a tap by the toilet with a large bucket and a small bucket. You use water in the small bucket (held in your right hand) to pour water into your left hand to wash yourself (fancier places - like the hotel where we stayed - have a little shower attachment next to the toilet for the same function). You then fill the large bucket with water and tip it down the toilet as hard as you can in order to flush it. There is rarely soap available in public toilets (I was so glad I took hand sanitiser with me!) so understandably, it's considered the height of rudeness to use your left hand for anything else - especially to touch someone else with it! The right hand is used for eating, wearing a wedding ring, etc. I was working on a building site there (with Habitat for Humanity) and the local workers were really impressed by our building gloves and used to ask to borrow one - but they would only borrow the right glove!
I do recall being a little put-off by it at the time (especially as I had a touch of traveller's diarrhoea and a very heavy period), but since I spent the year and a half after that wiping bottoms for a living, I actually think I would have no problem with it at all now. It does get you nice and clean and as long as you and everyone before you has followed the rules about which hand to use then you don't risk catching something.
I have a feeling this may contain way too much information, but working in nursing tends to make you lose touch with the normal social limits on discussing bowel habits! |
| they | | (reply to Biggles) posted 27-Jun-2008 10:07am |
Thanks for that. Now I have even more questions for my friends who went to India. No one told me anything about squatters or left hands with doo-doo on them. I think I would have heard about it, so the company must provide western toilets and TP... but I will see.
I'm extremely put off by it. It's fine that they use water to clean themselves... but they should have soap to wash their hands -- I use soap after wiping and I'm not even touching myself directly first.
I'm just thinking.... I disinfect the keyboard when I go into the office and use a computer other have used... The keyboards at our outsourcing partner must have more doo-doo on them that the ones here in the states.
|
| Matty | | posted 27-Jun-2008 10:13am |
Yes, when I was stationed in Japan, I often used a "squat" toilet, or basically, a whole in the ground with a flushing mechanism. Even in the confines of a cubicle, I still felt exposed (booty ass naked) to the world. |
| Biggles | | (reply to they) posted 27-Jun-2008 12:56pm |
It depends on where your friends actually visited - a lot of India is very westernised (due to all the years of British rule), especially in the north. I think that standards generally are very different in different regions of India - it is a vast country - but the area where I visited was near the southern tip, quite rural and with very few English-speakers. It would also depend on the type of people they were mixing with - I would imagine the offices of any big company - particularly a multinational one - would look very much like the offices you would find in the UK or USA, with western toilets too! The hotel where I stayed in India had Western-style toilets (but without the toilet paper - though they did provide tiny little rolls of it when we had run out of our own supply!) but most of the public toilets and the toilets at a hospital that we visited were 'squatters'.
I did wonder if maybe people carried their own supply of soap for washing afterwards (as we did). The levels of poverty there are astounding and I think that if soap were provided in public toilets then it might not stay there for long. They find it quite unpleasant that we inefficiently wipe ourselves with toilet paper as that leaves our backsides unclean! |
| aquawolfy | | posted 27-Jun-2008 5:26pm |
uhh no |
| LJD | | posted 27-Jun-2008 8:22pm |
No.
I've heard of the squat toilet from a woman I know that traveled to China. She was not impressed.
I believe the squat toilet would be very unsanitary. I think a better idea is the regular toilet, with a little stool in front of the toilet, in which to place your feet, putting yourself in somewhat of a squatting position. |
| they | | (reply to Biggles) posted 27-Jun-2008 11:00pm |
Psh. My backside is clean. 
They were in Mumbai, I believe. |
Pomeranian  | | posted 28-Jun-2008 1:26am |
I hope not. |
| docgbrown | | posted 28-Jun-2008 5:09am |
Yes, I didn't like it. |
bill  | | (reply to Biggles) posted 28-Jun-2008 8:27am |
Thanks for the comments. What you said confirms what I'd read on the subject. There's some evidence that squat toilets are better than the sitting ones we use in the west. Squatting being a more natural/effective position and using water to clean yourself after being better than using paper too. Something I read mentioned that hemorrhoids may be caused by sitting toilets, or at least that using a squat toilet seems to cure them in many cases. |
| kcthedog | | posted 29-Jun-2008 1:15am |
Trippy! No but I gotta try that sometime, I like different things and this is different! |
| efh47 | | posted 29-Jun-2008 12:58pm |
No. But my brother, who has arthritis, had to use them when vising his daughter in China. He did not have a handicapped permit. There should be different toilets for tourists, who spend enough money there to pay for that. |
| Irene007 | | posted 29-Jun-2008 5:01pm |
Yes, an imaginary one out in the bush... |
| joyce | | posted 1-Jul-2008 11:22pm |
Thank goodness for "Wikipedia" or I would of never known about squat toilet! |
| Biggles | | (reply to bill) posted 5-Jul-2008 10:08am |
I've certainly heard of the link between haemorrhoids and western toilets before - anything that makes you strain more is going to have an effect  I saw some leaflets once that were giving advice to elderly people about what to do if they were having difficulty opening their bowels: "Push really hard". But no mention of getting into a squatting position - although I could see problems with lots of elderly people toppling off the western-style toilet they were squatting on! (And those things are surprisingly high - I passed out on the toilet once and smacked my head on the floor pretty hard...) |
| bill | | (reply to Biggles) posted 5-Jul-2008 3:05pm |
ow... |
| JohnCD | | posted 6-Jul-2008 11:38pm |
This is a very stupid question. Can't you think of anything better to talk about? |
| Zang | | posted 7-Jul-2008 10:48pm |
In India, apart from the toilets in the hotels, that's all there was.
...and given that I had a nasty case of food poisoning at the time... |
| cloudhugger | | posted 21-Aug-2008 6:59pm |
No, but I believe it is a good idea, it helps with elimination. |
| cloudhugger | | (reply to bill) posted 21-Aug-2008 9:22pm |
Oh..., here is my stupid question for the day....
when you are wearing pants of some sort, where do they go when you 'squat'? Do you have to remove them? I can't imagine them laying around on the floor. |
| bill |
Based on what I read, the recommend that beginners remove their pants entirely (then hang them up, I assume). Though, experts may be able to keep the on... |
| cloudhugger | | (reply to bill) posted 22-Aug-2008 8:53am |
So now I can see myself putting on a fanny pack for my valuables, so when I hang my pants up in the public room I won't be left penniless butt ass naked in the world. Isn't it sometimes bizarre how other cultures find this as an acceptable practice? |
