Travelling to India. I’ve been told toilet paper is not favoured out there – but people take a bottle of water to the toilet. I’m trying to work out what you’re supposed to do with the bottle of water without much success.

Can somebody who knows or who has been there – pls enlighten me.

Fingers. Water. Rub.

squirt water in the area from which you have just excreted wash with hand!!!
You eat with one hand you do the toilet with the other
Hence why showing the left hand is generally an insult!!!
When in Rome etc

😳

just use loo roll – non-ones going to follow you in the loo and make tutting noises at you.

you can get special ‘camping’ loo roll which degrades much more quickly than standard stuff and doesn’t block up small bore pipes.

You’ll soon notice the number of Indian men with longer than average little finger nails on their left hands too……. I didnt realise at first what they were for……….

"I’ve been told toilet paper is not favoured out there"

this is for finanical reasons as much as anything.

Surely there’s a hygiene issue – simply washing your hands in the sink?

I’m thinking of the food in my local curry house in a different way now 😥

I’m not sure they wash their hands in a sink (or anywhere else), post poo in most of the ‘developing’ world.

when I was in burkina faso keeping a bottle of water and some antibac handwash by the toilet pits was seen as very odd behaviour.

I certainly had a number of moments when I couldnt find a toilet quick enough due to poor hygiene! Your stomach does become accustomed though. And I would go back tomorrow if I could!!

you’ll find there is a little pot of water in there like a coffepot.
After poo, pour some into your left hand. Wipe. Repeat.

Do not use your left hand for eating.

Poo is often dug into the fields, so don’t use paper.

In some areas, there will be separate holes for urine & poo. Try not to mix them.

Surely there’s a hygiene issue – simply washing your hands in the sink?

How is it different to washing your bum in the shower?

Oh and let’s not get started on the "peeing while in the shower" debate.

(Perfectly acceptable in my book)

Just dont poo in the bath 🙂

Is that where the term kack handed comes from?

Oh and let’s not get started on the "peeing while in the shower" debate

At least wait til I’ve finished!

Smell my fingers!

Is that where the term kack handed comes from?

Blatent wiki quote…
In some parts of the English-speaking world ‘cack-handed’ is slang for left-handed (it is also used to mean clumsy). The origin of this term is disputed, but some suggest it is derived from the Latin cacare, in reference to the habit of performing ablutions with the left hand, leaving the right hand ‘clean’.[24] However, other source suggest that it is derived from the Old Norse word keikr, meaning "bent backwards" [25] Australians frequently use "cacky-handed". A less common Australian slang word for a left-handed individual is the term Molly-Dooker, whose origins cannot be ascertained for certain.[26]

The good thing is, once you get comfortable with the concept, your Camelbak gets a lot more useful (best to use water, not energy drinks 🙂

It depends where you’re staying too, the more expensive places will provide paper, and sometimes plumbing to cope with it. Most places have a bin next to the toilet that you put your paper in.
If you take a night-train, in the morning you’ll see loads of guys around the train tracks with their cups of water…nice to wake up to.

Personally, I didn’t really understand the technique so used paper.

Its also a good idea to roll up 2 small bits of paper and pop them up your nostrils when using the slot-and-drop type loos (especially the communal ones).

Best (worst) I found were ones in Tibet with a little channel of running water which you pooped in and then brushed it away with a twig broom. In fact, all six people in the line did. Dont look down!

You will never find a bog as horrific as the ones in an old chinese paper mill. Fact.

http404, where abouts are you going? i’m off myself in a couple of weeks, i can’t wait!!

Me and my lady are off to kerala.

You will never find a bog as horrific as the ones in an old chinese paper mill. Fact.
You’ve never been to Redhill McDonalds then?

or used a bedouin toilet …. you were scared to breathe incase you inhaled a fly never mind the smell.

Still, it’ll stop you picking your nose and biting your nails in one fell swoop.

on a beach in an "Arabic country" I watched a young lad, scrape away a bit of sand, poke a single piece of toilet paper over his finger, whip down his tweeds, strain, rummage around with finger, wipe finger with bit of paper handily located, chuck in sand, whip up tweeds, kick sand over pile, walk away whistling a merry tune of a job well done. No-one paid the slightest bit of notice…

"No-one paid the slightest bit of notice"

Well, he did rather ruin my sandcastle.

i guess it must be comparable to unintentionally breaking through one’s toilet paper when you wipe too hard.

Worst toilets I’ve experienced were in the Himalayas, poo doesn’t degrade as well above a certain altitude 😯

My scariest was also in the Himalayas, but in a damp rhodedendron forest. Once the first fart was out, the forest floor woke up and I could watch hordes of leeches looping their way towards my arse. So it was strain, drop, shuffle sideways away from the leeches, and repeat, and repeat.
They didn’t catch me!

Toilets in Japan are quite interesting. They manage to combine spotless cleanliness with the huge risk of crapping all over your ankles and trousers.

Not recommended if you not in full control of your motions.

On a similar note…

Did anyone work out how to use the three shells in the Stallone film ‘Demolition Man’..?