Alarming Bathroom Experience

Monday March 23rd

Ok, So I know that everyone has one whenever they go to another forign country, but that knowledge does nto make experiencing one any better! We were eating luch at the mall (more on that later) and I needed to use the restroom. The mall looked so much like a mall from home (just with different displays and signage, I was not expecting anything unusal! To begin, our Hostess asked me if I needed paper. Yes, unfortunaly I was not aware that I would need to provide my own paper so I was woefully unprepared. Silly Sara, assuming the bathroom had toliet paper! The sinks to wash your hands were all on the outside of the bathroom (so both genders could share one set of sinks) and had no soap. When I walked into the bathroom the only stall open was one at the end with a broken latch on the door. This happened to be one of those moments where your pregnant body really needs to use the restroom quickly, so I reasoned that I could deal with a broken latch. I opened the door the door to the big surprsie - there was no toliet! What was there was what looked like a toliet bowl in the ground. Really - it was a ceramic toliet shapped hole in the ground! I had this moment where I just stood there staring down at this hole and thought Really? Really? What am I supposed to do with this?!? Now I knew what I was supposed to do, but for a moment I was in denial. A brief moment of adventerous bravery and the physical need to relieve myself took over and I was ready to face the hole.

So, If you can imagine squatting, aiming, holding all your clothes out of the way, AND holding the stall door closed - then you can visualise my alarming bathroom experience!

I have since found out that those "squatters" are the norm. So just in case you ever find yourself in China, be ready to squat, and bring your own toliet paper!!!