This just seems wrong anyway I try to look at it - toilet talk

[Brian Ashton]

I've been in Hungary for a few days and the place I've been staying has a strange toilet… When my wife and I first arrived in the room I called her in, thinking she may have some worldly knowledge, and asked her if she thought it was meant to be used for you know - everything? All I can say is, it's all wrong. It looks like something that should be in a hospital and used when a patient has to provide a sample or something… I cringe when it's time to use it. TBH I'd feel better using a bucket.

[Matt Day]

Maybe it's just me, but I can't really tell what's going on in the picture. What's the orange thing? Is there something different about the drain?

Or are you saying there isn't a sink or something?

[Mike Henderson]

I'm not sure what's wrong with that toilet. Is it that the drain is forward instead of towards the back?

If so, I've seen and used toilets like that and never thought much of it. The worse I ever saw was in Russia. I won't go into detail about that here.

You should encounter the squatting toilets that I've seen in Japan and a few other places.

Mike

[Brian Ashton]

Considering the natural sitting position it would seem that putting the deeper part of the toilet, usually this includes the P trap, to the back would make more sense in so many ways.

I've certainly seen my fair share of rough toilets around the world - a squat pit with no door in Fiji was probably the worst…

[Chuck Wintle]

I've been in Hungary for a few days and the place I've been staying has a strange toilet… When my wife and I first arrived in the room I called her in, thinking she may have some worldly knowledge, and asked her if she thought it was meant to be used for you know - everything? All I can say is, it's all wrong. It looks like something that should be in a hospital and used when a patient has to provide a sample or something… I cringe when it's time to use it. TBH I'd feel better using a bucket.

the toilets in the czech republic have 2 flush buttons, a small flush and one for a large flush. This was a new one for me. The public toiles around prague all have attendants and one has to pay to use them. Usually its an older lady who is doing this job. in Berlin the toilets are similar, a 2 button arrangement, large or small flush.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I had a friend/co-worker who left the company to do missionary work in Romania. He took his wife and family there for 30 days prior to leaving the corporation. When he came back, he said they were in a McDonalds, IIRC. He said the look on his wife's face was priceless when she came out of the women's restroom. She was stunned to find a hole in the concrete floor as the toilet.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

the toilets in the czech republic have 2 flush buttons, a small flush and one for a large flush. This was a new one for me. The public toiles around prague all have attendants and one has to pay to use them. Usually its an older lady who is doing this job. in Berlin the toilets are similar, a 2 button arrangement, large or small flush.


They are sold here in the States...our kids had one in their last house in Virginia.

[Ted Calver]

I've run into that type in several European countries. When I asked my German host, he said that it is common to visually examine ones stool for health/diagnostic reasons, a carry over from the days of intestinal worms/parasites. I quickly learned to paper the shelf before using the toilet to avoid creating a cleaning nightmare. The smell, on the other hand.... I consider it a step up from the crude porcelain trenches I found in Turkey and the lovely bomb site trench toilets I ran into in Italy--they even had textured foot pads so you wouldn't slip!

[Brett Luna]

I've run into that type in several European countries. When I asked my German host, he said that it is common to visually examine ones stool for health/diagnostic reasons, a carry over from the days of intestinal worms/parasites. I quickly learned to paper the shelf before using the toilet to avoid creating a cleaning nightmare.

What Ted said. I had a toilet like that...albeit in a horrific salmon color...in my flat while stationed in Germany.

[Brian Ashton]

I've run into that type in several European countries. When I asked my German host, he said that it is common to visually examine ones stool for health/diagnostic reasons, a carry over from the days of intestinal worms/parasites. I quickly learned to paper the shelf before using the toilet to avoid creating a cleaning nightmare.

LOL Talk about cleaning disaster, what if you had the aztec two step on one of those! It's also very disconcerting to know your hand is sooo close… Hey! I could get an expert in to read my poo, sort of like a tea leaf reader…

[Ted Calver]

LOL Talk about cleaning disaster, what if you had the aztec two step on one of those! It's also very disconcerting to know your hand is sooo close… Hey! I could get an expert in to read my poo, sort of like a tea leaf reader…
When I ran into western toilets in Turkey, they all had 3/8" copper water lines snaking over the top of the bowl with cold water flow controlled by a faucet valve. After doing your business it was the custom to turn on the water and "hand wash" the area. You dried your fingers on the crepe paper TP and disposed of it in the nearby waste basket. I used a lot of Purell while living there. Cringed when shaking hands. Twenty years ago....I know times have changed for the better.

[Jim Matthews]

Anyone that has lived in China, outside the modern cities
or above the 4th floor in their buildings will recognize
the luxury represented in the OP.

I've been to campsites, three days hike from roads
with better sanitation than the border county
China shares with North Korea.

Never, ever go into a public restroom after
a Lucky Star tour bus arrives.

[Justin Ludwig]

While in Kuwait and Iraq, I had my first exposure to "TCN" (Third Country Nationals) toilets. There would be 2 sets of port-a-johns and separate bathrooms (in areas like the dining facility.) The TCN's utilized a hole in the floor - "pop a squat and do you business" kind of thing. I spent 6 months in Japan, time in Korea, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Mauritius and others and never saw anything other than a "western" toilet.

Westernized cultures are losing their squat capability and mobility due to chairs and jobs required long periods of sitting. TCN's predominately don't have furniture and rest in a squat position or sit on the ground. It's natural and the body is designed for it, unless you've been sitting all your life - then the hammies, quads, psoas, calves and other leg/hip muscles get tight and make squatting difficult.

[John Pratt]

While in Kuwait and Iraq, I had my first exposure to "TCN" (Third Country Nationals) toilets. There would be 2 sets of port-a-johns and separate bathrooms (in areas like the dining facility.) The TCN's utilized a hole in the floor - "pop a squat and do you business" kind of thing.

I have seen much of the same in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the remote reaches especially. The hole in the floor was a little difficult to get used to as well as the lack of toilet paper. Learned very quickly to always carry toilet paper with me. There is a reason it is bad manners to show or touch with your left hand in this part of the world.

[Myk Rian]

I quickly learned to paper the shelf before using the toilet to avoid creating a cleaning nightmare.
That's what I did when we were in Germany.

[David G Baker]

I had that type of toilet when I lived off base when I was stationed in Germany back in the early 60's. I liked the system because the high pressure water stream would, in most cases, clean up any mess that was left behind. The odor on the other hand was something you had to live with but I would not be bothered much by it because there was a barn next door that was fastened to the living quarters of the neighbor that had cows living in it. There were fields near by that were fertilized by human waste and the smell was in the air most of the time.