Saw this in Chaweng today. A novel idea for sun loungers.

That is for those who like to smoke while doing their business and not stink up the house.

I went to the gent's public toilets in Central Festival. (The ones at the top of the stairs near the car wash.)

So - as I walk up to the entrance to the toilets - there is the cleaning lady filling up her bucket at the tap outside, and a queue of shop assistance waiting to do the same.

I walk into the bathroom - the room is empty. I walk up to a urinal and proceed to evacuate my bladder.

Look left - a large double window - open. Outside a large group of people watching me.

OK - so the modesty boards in-between the urinals are not very large, but I struggle to see the attraction of what everyone is staring at.

Then - the cleaning lady walks in. Not a problem - I have lived in SE Asia for over 20 years - no embarrassment there.

BUT she starts to mop the floor - around my feet! Honestly - I have not splashed! But now my feet are wet, from the mop. (I am wearing flip-flops)

She has the whole floor to mop, and she picks the bit that I am standing on.

So, with the attention from outside and the cleaning lady, I shuffle around a bit to face a slightly different angle. (Still valiantly trying to relieve myself.) Now I can see the door into the toilet - where the shop assistants are still queueing to get to the tap! The cleaning lady has lodged the door open with her bucket. Two young girls are looking into the Gents.

Time to go thinks I. Zip up, wash hands and leave.

Amazing Samui

Moral of the story - do not use the public toiles at Central Festival.

I went to the gent's public toilets in Central Festival. (The ones at the top of the stairs near the car wash.)

So - as I walk up to the entrance to the toilets - there is the cleaning lady filling up her bucket at the tap outside, and a queue of shop assistance waiting to do the same.

I walk into the bathroom - the room is empty. I walk up to a urinal and proceed to evacuate my bladder.

Look left - a large double window - open. Outside a large group of people watching me.

OK - so the modesty boards in-between the urinals are not very large, but I struggle to see the attraction of what everyone is staring at.

Then - the cleaning lady walks in. Not a problem - I have lived in SE Asia for over 20 years - no embarrassment there.

BUT she starts to mop the floor - around my feet! Honestly - I have not splashed! But now my feet are wet, from the mop. (I am wearing flip-flops)

She has the whole floor to mop, and she picks the bit that I am standing on.

So, with the attention from outside and the cleaning lady, I shuffle around a bit to face a slightly different angle. (Still valiantly trying to relieve myself.) Now I can see the door into the toilet - where the shop assistants are still queueing to get to the tap! The cleaning lady has lodged the door open with her bucket. Two young girls are looking into the Gents.

Time to go thinks I. Zip up, wash hands and leave.

Amazing Samui

Moral of the story - do not use the public toiles at Central Festival.

Your reputation precedes you hansum man.

Your reputation precedes you hansum man.

I wish.

The OP photo reminds me of my first visit to Khao San Road, back in 2001 together with friends traveling on backpacker budget – same friends that dragged me down to a tiny island, a bit against what I wished for, and the reason I ended up here: I did not wish to return.

But back to Bangkok and Khao San Road, where my friends said that I should buy a padlock and toilet paper from the street vendors, which all seemed to have a splendid business going on with a variety of exactly that sort of items, before we entered to their favorite backpacker “resort” in a soi. Me quite unprepared - as last time, and my first time in BKK 14 years earlier, was at Royal Meridian - so I hardly understood why, but did as they advise me to. Well; they also already at home asked me to pack a bed sheet and towel in my suitcase.

What can you expect in BKK for 170 baht a night…?

You can expect a room without door lock, a bed and mattress with no lined, no towels – or anything else for that matter; apart from a broken chair, a worn-out fan and a bulb hanging in a piece of wire from the ceiling – however the room included a balcony to the busy soi; a balcony with a toilet without flush, a plastic bucket, and a short tube with a showerhead. The good news was, that there were a semi-transparent plastic shower curtain to cover part of the “en-suite bathroom”...

Are the old-time backpackers coming back to Samui…?

There's a men toilet at don muang airport which while your pissing away you can look to your left back at the entrance and your in full view of all the shoppers in the news agency/ electrical good/etc etc store.

Member in hand, eye contact with the shopping public.. wierd feeling

Great topic !

The OP photo reminds me of my first visit to Khao San Road, back in 2001 together with friends traveling on backpacker budget – same friends that dragged me down to a tiny island, a bit against what I wished for, and the reason I ended up here: I did not wish to return.

But back to Bangkok and Khao San Road, where my friends said that I should buy a padlock and toilet paper from the street vendors, which all seemed to have a splendid business going on with a variety of exactly that sort of items, before we entered to their favorite backpacker “resort” in a soi. Me quite unprepared - as last time, and my first time in BKK 14 years earlier, was at Royal Meridian - so I hardly understood why, but did as they advise me to. Well; they also already at home asked me to pack a bed sheet and towel in my suitcase.

What can you expect in BKK for 170 baht a night…?

You can expect a room without door lock, a bed and mattress with no lined, no towels – or anything else for that matter; apart from a broken chair, a worn-out fan and a bulb hanging in a piece of wire from the ceiling – however the room included a balcony to the busy soi; a balcony with a toilet without flush, a plastic bucket, and a short tube with a showerhead. The good news was, that there were a semi-transparent plastic shower curtain to cover part of the “en-suite bathroom”...

Are the old-time backpackers coming back to Samui…?

170 ???? That was expensive !! I usually paid 30-50 a night, but ok it was nearly 10 year earlier than you !

Think we all have a few memorable small room horror stories.

I remember Our early morning coffee joint in chaweng (8am open - pretty early for Caweng) doubled as a late night venue. Terrific place (sadly recently gone now to make room for another hotel/resort). Was a great place with terrific staff BUT shared toilet facilities with the local market. Three or four toilet stalls, all of the squat and shoot variety - often with ankle deep puddles. I think there was a bit of a running battle between café/bar and local market folk over who should keep it clean - result being you only visited the john if you had totally mis timed your run and didn't have enough time to get over to the Regent to use theirs'.

The floor was so slippery that we all believed it wasn't actually possible to perform a crouch posture. We were wrong. Regularly watched the lovely (dressed in white cotton shirts) café staff grab a thai womans magazine and disappear for 20 minutes of reading time. How the hell they managed to assume the crouch position while reading, and fending off mossies so big they should have had to display tail numbers, remains a modern day marvel.

The swarm of resident mossies that enjoyed the constant puddles were bloody evil - a pal reckoned one bit him on the end of his best mate - (general consensus was he probably acquired his irritation relieving himself in other ways).

While I was working in private school, the sudden urge hits me. I can't trek across campus to the more comfortable toilets, so I quickly leg it up a flight of steps to the primary school kids' bathroom and find a stall where mosquito larvae sit in the stagnant water. I then realize the latch to the door is broken, so I can't lock it. The door has a sharp metal hanger on it, the kind with two prongs facing upwards. I hold the door through most of the process, but let go of it in order to clean myself. In the process, my sconce is lowered, left vulnerable. A group of kids come charging in at the school bell. One slams the unlocked door into my head, the prongs of the hanger digging into my skull, breaking skin. I'm bleeding. My bum is dirty. I clean myself while blood drips down my face. I go to the nurse and she puts a massive cotton bandage on my head, and I'm left to field too many embarrassing questions as to how it happened.

I once stayed in this place. Ground floor apartment. Never again!!!