The Ultimate Squatty Potty
I know that bathroom talks are always slightly awkward, but lets face it, as a traveler, I go through a lot of awkward situations. So far, the most uncomfortable has been the squatting toilet.
Now yes, I knew I was going to come across this one day. I had just not expected it to be in Kuala Lumpur. The ride from the airport to KL Sentral had me believing that this was a growing and developed city, and that it is, but it’s not where I expected to find this type of toilet.
My first encounter with it was actually at the apartment I was staying at. It was my first time couchsurfing and it was the only toilet in the unit. I was not ready to experience this, so I held my bladder until the next morning when I got into town. I made my way to the bathroom of KL Sentral (the bus and train terminal), and as luck would have it, it was another "squatty potty," as I’m going to call it.
I let out a big sigh, closed the door behind me, a realized I was just going to have to conquer this. Trying to calm myself down, I thought to myself at least I'll have privacy. I pulled down my shorts and underwear, and assumed the position. I could not believe this was me at this moment.
Within seconds, I began to relieve myself. Both number 1 and 2. And believe it or not, I have to say it was probably one of the most awkward but best bathroom moments. Everything just seemed to flow on out. There was no need to sit on the toilet scrolling through my Facebook feed for 10 minutes trying to push. It just all came right on out.
After wiping up and flushing the toilet, I noticed signs on each of the stall doors saying whether they had the squatty potty or western toilets. HAHA, next time, I’ll have to pay more attention to that.
A few other notes about going to the bathroom in Malaysia.
Because many Malaysia do use the "squatty potty" there are signs like the one below asking people not to stand on the seat of the western toilets. You know they have this sign because people have done it.
I’ve found that most, if not all the stalls I’ve been in have bidets. Typically found in a woman’s bathroom, this was something new for me. Be careful though, because sometimes the switch for it looks like the flusher, and it will spray water everywhere if you aren’t careful. I was using a western toilet, stood up the flush and boom, I hit the wrong button and it looked like I peed my pants. (Yes, another awkward moment, luckily it was super hot out, so it dried fairly quickly).
While most stalls have bidets, not all stalls have toilet paper, so either bring your own in your backpack, or grab some of the paper next to the sink before you go in.