Theme 5: You can't defy nature

You can choose what you want to eat or what you don't want to eat while on a trip. But can you really defy the call of nature?

No. You can't. You have to make do with whatever facilities you have for fear that you will leak or poo in your pants.

Going through the daily calls of nature was very challenging for us, for 4 ladies who are brought up in an urban environment.

I'm the sort of girl who been through camps and trekking trips. I am really okay to complete the call of nature in an all natural environment, such as behind some huge bushes in the open, as long as everyone is doing the same thing. However I found out that it was difficult to do that while on the road in Tibet.

Let me explain the various types of toilets you can find in Tibet.

A) Proper concrete toilets that are completed with flush.
You find them in Lhasa easily, such as the toilets in the hotel, in bigger restaurants. No problem with these toilets, unless you are unlucky to have a faulty one.

B) Toilets that are concrete but no flush i.e Tourist attractions
These toilets we would try our best to avoid. Why? No flush. It is amazing how much these toilet bowls can hold, in terms of shit and wasted papers.
I find it hard to maintain a sanitary system when you have an old infrastructure that are utilized by city urbaners.
It's a clash of civilization. We simply used too much trash that are not bio-degradable. As a result, you have stuffed toilets that stank the entire area. You don't have to get near to those toilets to realize they are toilets!

C) Toilets on the go
These ones have varying standards. The better ones that's those toilets that are linked to a river or out in the open. Hence the stench wasn't too bad, as long as you don't look at the big hole where all the goodness end up in.

Sometimes the residents around the area will ask you to pay for an entrance fee. We didn't mind paying as long as the toilets were okay. But some were so bad as flies were hovering outside. OMG.

There was one toilet which I didn't enter. My friends did and the QC obviously failed. According to them, the hole was full and even piling up with shit. We were really impressed when some tourists managed to go to the loo and stayed for 30 secs. We seriously counted with our watch. My salute to that lady!!!

D) Toilets over at overnight stays.

If you are just visiting a gross toilet once, and you survive it, good for you. But if you have to visit bad gross toilets throughout your one night stay, you have to be psychologically prepare for the challenge!

The very first gross toilet I been to was during our Namste Stay. You remember seeing the really beautiful lake with tent house, yup, that's the one I'm referring to.

Imagine this, you have a number of tent houses for the tourists. You have this concrete structure that's elevated with stilts. and you have little cubicles without doors. You squat down and do your business, and all these goodness falls to this big container (hence you are standing on an elevated structure).

Overtime, the goodness piles up, especially during the peak tourist season. THE ENTIRE PLACE IS ENCLOSED.

You have flies hovering around. The stench is impossible. Even with my high tolerance of rural toilets, this was the only one that I almost puked when i first entered!

We tried our best not to drink water and limit ourselves not to re-enter the toilet.
I dashed out without doing my business as I was shocked. Seriously too stunned to do what I set out to do.

We came up with ideas, hold our nostrils, unbutton/unzip our pants before we enter so we use the minimal amount of time to complete our business. We unpacked our tissue paper so we would not waste any time taking our tissue papers.

It worked. But it was a total nightmare!

Tips for travelers
a) If possible, wear sarong or wrapped skirts. It makes it easier for you to do your business.
b) Do not wear complicated pants that come with belts/buckles.
c) be fast!
d) Bring medicated oil or perfume, anything that will prevent you from inhaling.
e) Do not overeat. Seriously good luck to you if you have diarrhea.


Live with the dirt! Haha there were 2 occasions that we couldn't bath as the types of toilet we had were really run-down.
Bring your wet tissues and powder, and have a dry bath instead! Thankfully the weather wasn't too humid hence we didn't feel to bad.

:)