PlanetEye

March 30th, 2008

The Toilet Rules

Brendan

The Global Nomad

As a guide, there are always a handful of essential, on-the-ground pieces of knowledge I find people need to know about as soon as they arrive in a country—things they either don’t get from guidebooks, or are too important (like safety), variable (exchange rates) or personal (tipping) to trust entirely to a book.

Possibly the most important of these is something I call The Toilet Rules.

In literally dozens of countries it seems for some reason that nether guidebook nor tour guide mentions an essential fact about life in that country: toilet paper does not go in the toilet. Certainly the local tourism board ain’t gonna bring it up.

For those who are shocked by this, or think this only happens in the most backward of places, let me illustrate with a story.

My mother used to host English language exchange students from around the world at her house in Canada. One day I returned from various tours in non-TP-in-the-toilet countries and mentioned casually that is was hard to get used to putting the stuff back down the bowl. My mom’s ears picked up and she asked where, then, the soiled TP goes.

Used TP in countries like this (ranging from Mexico to Thailand to Greece) is usually deposited in a small receptacle, often a garbage can and often lined, within reach of the toilet bowl. This is my test when people are unsure of whether or not to wipe and flush or not: is there a small bin conspicuously placed within reach?

My mother’s eyes lit up. “Aha! Now I understand!” Turns out that over the previous month while some Mexican students were living with her, the bathroom garbage can was continuously full to the brim… with clean toilet paper (which she was going through at an alarming rate.)

The students were showing good etiquette: just because you put the TP in a bin doesn’t mean you have to look at it—cover it with some extra clean paper, or at least wrap it up nicely….

Tags: Toilet

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