Facing Mud Made “Squatties” in Yunnan

September 19th, 2009 | 3 comments


Photo from AsItWillBe

Photo from AsItWillBe

The one thing I absolutely loathe about China is the lack of Western toilets. Those hole-in-the-ground-you-have-to-pee-by-squatting apparatuses make me cringe every time. I’m a girl — how am I supposed to pee that way?! So when my roommates and I decided to trek westward for fall break, towards rural Yunnan and Sichuan, I had to put on a brave face and come to terms with the fact that I’d be using nothing but “squatties.”

Five hours into the bumpy bus ride and two bottles of water later, I was bursting with thoughts of shiny automatic-flush toilets and marble sinks. Alas, what greeted me at the makeshift rest stop was an outhouse made out of mud and three little children asking for a 50 cents fee for using their “bathroom.”

I hurriedly deposited the coins into their eagerly awaiting palms before standing in line behind my fellow travelers. I held my breath in anticipation of the stench that will inevitably waft up my nostrils. When it was my turn to step behind the tiny cloth drape that doubled as the door, I realized why there was a such a long line to begin with; there were 3 ditches lined up next to one another, with the teeniest of mud walls to separate each one.

We, being Westerners, have an innate sense of privacy that non-Westerners don’t recognize. The shame of seeing each other with our pants down forced us to go in one at a time, while the locals watched us curiously and asked each other in Chinese “How come they can’t see that there are 3 stalls in there?!”

As I squatted down, I realized that these ditches were more advanced than I thought. They were carefully dug so that it slanted down towards the holes in the outhouse wall, where everything will inevitably end up. I didn’t dare to walk around the area to find out.

But the silver lining of this experience? I realized that peeing outdoors in the open air is TEN TIMES better than peeing indoors with bad plumbing. Oh, and about 2 hours after that bathroom incident, we had the chance to see a panoramic view of Lugu Lake.

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  • http://worldaccording2lisa.blogspot.com/ Lisa B.

    Awesome Adventure. Now you have great story to tell, even if the adventure itself was less than private! I too found a similar bathroom in France on a drive to the country (at a local rest stop). It was like a shower stall with foot pedestals raised upon the ground/aka recipient of human waste. I had to balance why hanging out the girl goodies (or so it felt). Then there was a “flush handle”, hanging chain and pulling it brough a rush of river rapid water to wash away the waste. Luckily I saw it coming and jumped back onto dry & sanitary ground. Otherwise my legs/feet might have been swept out to sea by a tsunami of waste water rushing toward the drain. Ick! BUT I WAS in France and I have a story to share that always brings giggles.

  • http://worldaccording2lisa.blogspot.com/ Lisa B.

    Awesome Adventure. Now you have great story to tell, even if the adventure itself was less than private! I too found a similar bathroom in France on a drive to the country (at a local rest stop). It was like a shower stall with foot pedestals raised upon the ground/aka recipient of human waste. I had to balance why hanging out the girl goodies (or so it felt). Then there was a “flush handle”, hanging chain and pulling it brough a rush of river rapid water to wash away the waste. Luckily I saw it coming and jumped back onto dry & sanitary ground. Otherwise my legs/feet might have been swept out to sea by a tsunami of waste water rushing toward the drain. Ick! BUT I WAS in France and I have a story to share that always brings giggles.

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  • http://www.TheMadTravelerOnline.com Kevin

    That is hilarious. Thought I’d share this shot of a similarly public toilet in Thailand in an agricultural field. http://www.nileguide.com/destination/blog/bangkok/2010/11/12/bangkok-photo-friday-very-public-toilet/ The thing I hate about outdoor (and even some indoor) toilets is how vulnerable you are to the mosquitoes at that moment! No sense of fair play.

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