Shanghai'd

Every seasoned traveler has been there before. The tom yam soup and chicken curry lunch from the street side hawker stall is serving unmistakable notice somewhere deep inside your small intestine that you need to get yourself to a toilet ASAP. Your hostel is an impossibly bumpy 20 minute bus ride away and there is no 5-star hotel lobby bathroom reprieve in this neighborhood of $1.20 local lunch specials. What's a regrettably adventurous globetrotter to do?

You could be fortunate enough to find yourself in Singapore, but more likely your are in any of the other countries in southeast Asia not known for their cane-enforced sanitation. One of those countries where toilet paper is a luxury not often afforded the public stall. It is with good reason that Indian's strictly eat with their right hand, you know.

In my personal travels, I have had the pleasurable opportunity to experience just about every style and grade of public toilet in Asia. From the Cambodian open trough to the time-honored Chinese squatter. In fact, I thought I had seen them all. That is until last week's trip to Malaysia.

The Malaysians have come up with what I consider the ultimate solution to a messy problem: a squat toilet with attached water hose bidet. The brilliance of this WC ingenuity is that it combines the best features of many world styles into one: squat toilet means no undesirable cheek-to-seat contact is made; hose bidet obviates the need to carry around your own tissues everywhere you go, and hence no unsightly 3rd-world sewer clogging tp, either. It's easy for you and easy on the environment too.

So next time the "hot pot trot" strikes unexpectedly, I hope you find yourself lucky enough to be on Malaysian soil. If not, remember, save the right hand for the roti.

Picture of Malaysian squat toilet from AmaylaMalaysia's Flickr page