....... of toilets and toilet visits

Yours Sincerely used to suffer from "STU" or Strange Toilet Unfamiliarity ( Y S coined the word by himself so don't bother looking up your medical books), meaning to say, you just simply cannot do your operation, the long call, on or over a strange toilet. You need to use the one at home. During Y S career days, he had to dash home for the long call. However, a good boss allowed him to use the one attached to his office. Then, life was more bearable. So, travelling those days was torturous as Y S had to constipate all along the way.

As age catches on, "STU" somehow compromises and as long as the toilet is clean, the operation is fine. So, Y S found this toilet on his tour in Taiwan. O la la... it is superb, especially the switches on the right. You can select two jets: long range and short range. Well, Y S leaves it to your imagination what is each range for. LOL

Then there is a switch to warm up the seat and adjust the tenperature of the water. And the jet of water comes out in four sets of spray: focussed, diffused, regular and spurts. Finally, another switch to blow dry the area concerned. If only it had one more switch,........... to spray the affected area with some deodorant then it would have been more complete. LOL

Talk about hi-tech !!!


Y S' last trip to Taiwan was more with an elderly group of females. This specie of humans after the age of 60s and 70s seem to have less tolerant for a full bladder. So, hourly toilet stop was mandatory all around the island of Taiwan. And that was still not enough, one of the ladies had to do it in the coach. She just could not contain it anymore. Her face turned green and she started to convulse. The coach was caught in a jam. There was no choice so Y S' Better Half sacrificed her jacket bag for the lady to relieve herself. You should see the smile of relief on her face after she had released what she had held.

The problem with travellers, especially the Chinese, is that they over consume water, thinking that it does good to their bodies. Y S observed that pupils in school drank like a fish and this could be irritating to the teacher. They have been infused with the oft heard tale of kidney stone build up with under consumption of water. Don't gulp down your water all in one go but sip it on and off leisurely. This ensures quenching of your thirst and less toilet visits.

There is also the anxiety of not knowing the availability of the next toilet so most people feel that they MUST visit any toilet they come across. It can be quite time consuming waiting for toilet visit, especially when the tour group consists of mostly ladies. Some places have only one or two cubicles for the females. This is frustrating when 10 to 15 ladies rush up at one time. The situation, Y S observes, is worse when the travel is in winter. Imagine the layers of clothing that have to be unpeeled and how much time is taken up. One of Y S' trip to Kunming was with 27 ladies and only 2 males. Y S and another young boy. You can imagine the amount of patience Y S had to stretch.

Another reason which may not be acceptable could be the age old instinct which is prevalent in dogs. They just have to place their marks wherever they go. The marking of territory or rather the inner expression of "I have been here." Of course, humans do it more discreetly in the toilets and not only at any posts, trees and shrubs.

Meanwhile Y S is thinking of inventing and marketing special diapers for travellers !