asian toilets - personal hygiene

[pumpjack]

i went to a restaurant last night , thai style back street place,  needed to run to the toilet,  i got in there and squatted down and let rip, luckilly i got some tissue paper in 7-11 next door.  cleaned up and washed my hands with the tiny bit of old soap which was there outside in wash basin, wiped hands on my shirt as the towel provided was years old.

 

how to hell can it be hygienic for a person to use these toilets and clean themselves afterward ?  

 

the chef will also use this toilet , there is no water hose only a hole in ground with a bowl in a tub of water ( probably filthy also ) smell of spilt splashed urine is strong.

 

any wonder why i get food poisoning nearly every time i am here. 

[simoh1490]

You found soap, had water, what more do you want, eau de cologne as well!

[transam]

Try one that hasn't got a light in it at night...

[Rhys]

...on your toes...

 

[Jessi]

Many times I notice that men coming out after having a crap,stand in front of the mirror

doing their hair but never to wash their hands.

 

Personal hygiene is not big in Asia.

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, pumpjack said:

i went to a restaurant last night , Thai style back street place,

Well there ya go what do you expect.

[FritsSikkink]

41 minutes ago, Jessi said:

Many times I notice that men coming out after having a crap,stand in front of the mirror

doing their hair but never to wash their hands.

 

Personal hygiene is not big in Asia.

Nonsense, a lot of people in the USA and Europe can learn a thing or 2 here.

[Suradit69]

1 hour ago, Jessi said:

Personal hygiene is not big in Asia.

And yet the term "soap dodgers" is reserved for certain nationalities from the exulted farang utopia. 

 

As far as hygienic food service is concerned:

 

Quote

Foodborne illness, or food poisoning, affects about one in six Americans every year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that of these cases, there are 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths annually.

http://www.healthline.com/health/worst-foodborne-illness-outbreaks#overview1

 

 

[Rimbuman]

I' always have my little spray bottle of colloidal silver with me.

Edited May 12, 2017 by Rimbuman

[twizzian]

Is that the only dirty toilet you've found here?

Best not to think about all the hygiene issues with thai WC's or you'd never eat at any restaurants again.

Think of all those added extras for free though! 

[gamini]

You must be going to very cheap  rundown restaurants. I have found that most of them have far better facilities than most western countries. The petrol stations here have some of the best facilities I've ever seen.

[kiniyow]

It only becomes dirty when I fall back

[peterb17]

I can only presume you have never been to India- if that counts as Asia

[jeab1980]

any wonder why i get food poisoning nearly every time i am here.! 

yet you come back for more.

[Pinot]

It's always bothered me to see the community towel hanging there to dry your hands. I drip dry. You never know where that towel has been.  ;  )

 

[simoh1490]

19 minutes ago, Pinot said:

It's always bothered me to see the community towel hanging there to dry your hands. I drip dry. You never know where that towel has been.  ;  )

 

I bet that exactly what the towel is thinking when it sees those hands coming.

[fusion58]

It's ironic: I've only contracted food poisoning (norovirus) once since I've lived in LOS - and that was from eating at an established chain restaurant.

 

Moral of the story: It's a crap shoot, i.e., all it takes is one food service worker to forget to wash his hands before handling your food, and...

[stephen tracy]

4 hours ago, Jessi said:

Many times I notice that men coming out after having a crap,stand in front of the mirror

doing their hair but never to wash their hands.

 

Personal hygiene is not big in Asia.

It depends.  The western habit of using paper only to clean oneself after s++t is pretty unhygienic.  The bum gun, although a bit messy - at least give you a thorough clean. The Japanese have got it right.  When I stayed in a hotel in Tokyo my toilet looked a bit like R2-D2.

[geisha]

I've  very often  used the toilets in the shopping  malls which are clean. What I do notice is that the kitchen staff from the numerous restaurants leaving the room do not wash their hands ! Also, take a look ( or don't if you wish to eat in those restaurants again) at the kitchens. Some of the worst offenders are the sushi shops and the Chain restaurants you see in every mall. The individuel portions of chicken, pork, prawns etc are piled up in little white trays and not in the fridge. They could be there all day. As for the Indian restaurants, I, who love Indian food, will not go near them.

[giddyup]

I take it you've never seen the waitress or the chef squeezing their zits either?

[ThaiWai]

6 minutes ago, giddyup said:

I take it you've never seen the waitress or the chef squeezing their zits either?

So true, so gross.  They love doing that right behind the counter just before handing out a menu.  I once saw a ladyboy making drinks behind the bar and stirring each one with a spoon and returning the spoon to the same glass but not before licking the spoon clean after making every drink.  

[Khon Kaen Dave]

3 hours ago, gamini said:

You must be going to very cheap  rundown restaurants. I have found that most of them have far better facilities than most western countries. The petrol stations here have some of the best facilities I've ever seen.

I have to agree about the WC facilities at the petrol stations. One of the best is at Pattaya Klang Bus station, where the big Mosque is.In my younger years here, i would often take a young lady back to my hotel room, and i was amazed at the length of time they would spend in the shower. I thought it was maybe because they didn't often get the opportunity to get hot water and decent soap.I was always very impressed that Thai girls personal hygiene was 2nd to none. However, some of the toilets in bars left a lot to be desired, and when me and Mrs Kaen opened two bars in Patts, we refurbished the toilets as a priority.

I could never use the Thai toilets, i always had to remove both trousers, and underwear, and hold my shirt up.

[giddyup]

I could never use the Thai toilets, i always had to remove both trousers, and underwear, and hold my shirt up.

 

Once I got squatted, I couldn't get up. 

[bazza73]

11 minutes ago, giddyup said:

I could never use the Thai toilets, i always had to remove both trousers, and underwear, and hold my shirt up.

 

Once I got squatted, I couldn't get up. 

While squat toilets are as natural to the Thais as breathing, I'm just not flexible enough. Western toilets for me, preferably with a bum gun. I agree with a previous poster using paper only is unhygienic. More likely to induce piles and hemorrhoids as well.

[giddyup]

Just now, bazza73 said:

While squat toilets are as natural to the Thais as breathing, I'm just not flexible enough. Western toilets for me, preferably with a bum gun. I agree with a previous poster using paper only is unhygienic. More likely to induce piles and hemorrhoids as well.

Never got the hang of a bum gun, my Thai partner doesn't like it either. Been using paper for over 70 years, never had piles.

[bazza73]

1 minute ago, giddyup said:

Never got the hang of a bum gun, my Thai partner doesn't like it either. Been using paper for over 70 years, never had piles.

So you are one of the lucky ones. I'd get the occasional one in my years of using paper. Haven't one since I discovered the bum gun 8 years ago. Once you get the hang of them, you don't even need paper.

Each to his own. I hate going back to Australia every six months because bum guns are very rare there. Uncivilized.

[peterb17]

No No!

 

Not a bum gun thread- I really thought we had seen the last of those. 

 

OP - you did not respond to my query about India- if you worry about Thailand- nobody eats in India with the left hand- I'm sure you can work out why.

 

Also I presume you have never been to Africa ( I know not Asia) - I would imagine there you would not survive- lighten up Thailand and especially the Thais themselves are clean. 

 

No more bum gun discussions please. 

[fishbrando]

1 hour ago, geisha said:

I've  very often  used the toilets in the shopping  malls which are clean. What I do notice is that the kitchen staff from the numerous restaurants leaving the room do not wash their hands ! Also, take a look ( or don't if you wish to eat in those restaurants again) at the kitchens. Some of the worst offenders are the sushi shops and the Chain restaurants you see in every mall. The individuel portions of chicken, pork, prawns etc are piled up in little white trays and not in the fridge. They could be there all day. As for the Indian restaurants, I, who love Indian food, will not go near them.

I see this as well, even at some of the "high-end" shopping malls.  The restaurant staff, in full uniform, just walk right out of the extremely-crowded bathroom without washing, right in front of everyone.

 

Are Indian restaurants the worst hygiene offenders?

[hocuspocus]

1 hour ago, giddyup said:

I take it you've never seen the waitress or the chef squeezing their zits either?

I used to know a guy who used to squeeze big moths into the forman's coffee or put chocolate laxative into his drink chocolate.

[smotherb]

6 hours ago, Jessi said:

Many times I notice that men coming out after having a crap,stand in front of the mirror

doing their hair but never to wash their hands.

 

Personal hygiene is not big in Asia.

I agree that public toilets are not as well kept in Asia as in the West. Perhaps nanny just hasn't enforced the public toilet codes in Asia yet. However, I find Asian personal toilets to be clean and I believe personal hygiene, especially among the Asian women, is much better than personal hygiene in the West.

 

How many times have you smelled body odor on Asian women or men compared to Western women or men? I know several young Western NES teachers here; the guys and the girls regularly smell of sweat and their clothes are frequently soiled. I seldom see or smell that among comparable Thais.

 

The entire idea of toilet paper is filthy. Water with which to wash is far superior to paper with which to smear. Do you really think you clean yourself by wiping the feces around with paper? 

 

The last girl with whom I had sex in my apartment before going to Vietnam simply pulled up her panties and took me to the airport. The first girl I had in Vietnam took me to her squatter's shack, but she washed both herself and me before and after sex.

 

I have been married to two Asians and one American. The American was by far the least hygienic among the three--she washed her hair maybe once a week, she covered her face in make-up and didn't even wash it off every night, piles of dirty clothes stood in her closet, the house was rarely cleaned, etc., ad infinitum. 

 

Well, this is all anecdotal; but these are my reasons for defending Asian personal hygiene.