Get to Know Cambodia

Part 1

I have noticed that even though I write about the happenings in Cambodia, I have not given a lot of basic info about life here. So now I will try and fill in the blanks.

Bathrooms

There are 3 options of bathrooms 1) the full western toilet 2) A Cambodian-western toilet 3) the squatty.
A full western is a toilet just like in good ol’America. You have the porcelain thrown that flushes and you can use toilet paper. The toilet paper here is pink, because Cambodia has not yet gotten the memo that colored tp gives you UTI’s. Also, these fancy toilets (yes, fancy! They are usually only found in hotels) have a thing I lovingly call the Butt Blaster. The Butt Blaster is a hose located next to the toilet, and you use it to rinse off your booty and your pocket book after you use the bathroom.

The second option is the western toilet seat, which is what I have at my house. It still looks like a toilet in America, but it requires a little more effort because these toilets do not flush. To flush you must pour a bucket of water into the toilet. They also do not accommodate tp, so you have to do a splash and rinse with a bucket of water. When the situation requires more than a splash and rinse, you add soap to the equation. For this you have one had that is your soapy/washing hand and the other is your clean splashing/rinsing hand. After this is done, extreme hand washing is a must.

This same cleaning process is used for the final option, the Squatty. The squatty is basically a porcelain hole in the ground. There are two grippers for your feet/shoes and then a hole in the middle. The squatting position took sometime to adjust to, but if your hips can handle it, it is not that bad. Squatting is also the go to position when any Cambodian does not want to stand.