A visit to the ladies room

[doc]

Seriously.
For all those times you go to an outdoor venue and theres pee (or worse) all over the seat, the floor, etc etc forever and ever amen...
http://www.travelmateinfo.com/
HANDY. then just carry a little bottle of water/alcohol (or everclear/151 if it's one of THOSE venues) and rinse after use. Wipe dry. Stash in a plastic baggie. Done.

...but practice first.

Have you used this item? I am intrigued.

[missymaya]

The new gym at the school I work/study at just added the autoflush toilets and even if you flinch, they flush! So they end up flushing about 10 times before your done doing your business. And they're very random too and can be quite surprising

[DebW]

There is also this method using only fingers. The learning curve is pretty steep. I haven't mastered it, but I haven't practiced all that much. Squatting in the woods seems quite natural to me, nothing to clean up, and hands stay clean if you don't wipe. Could be useful in public restrooms, though.

[lph]

Ok, now I'm going to gross everybody out. I sit down on the seat (hey, somebody has to provide those germs), don't know if it's because my mother never told me not to or I just don't know any better I don't think I could do "the stance" to save my life, I'd probably end up with a mighty cramp in both legs, unable to ever straighten up again.

But maybe Norwegian restrooms just aren't that awful? No wet seats, and rarely out of paper.

[Kitsune06]

I *have* used the travelmate, but there *is* a learning curve.
DebW- I found that link awhile ago, that's what started me on that. I can do just fine either way, maybe better 'freehand', but just can't do it with someone watching. Shy bladder.
The keys to success are- strong start, sudden finish, and manage not to drip on your feet!

[Wahine]

I have no problem with sitting on a public toilet seat. My skin is healthy and should be able to ward off any germ just fine.

Now, if you're in China, you don't have to worry about a toilet seat because you're likely to be squatting over a pit in the floor. The technique:

1) Roll up pant legs prior to entry into stall (if you are lucky enough to have a stall and not just several pits in the floor with no privacy) to avoid having pantlegs dragging in nastiness on the floor when you squat.

2) If you have a stall this is a good time to enter and close the door behind you. That is, if you have a door.

3) Most of the pits are a type of basin in the floor and some have a Pee shield, that goes to the front when you squat.

4) Most North Americans are large than your average Chinese person so you probably want to have your feet wider that the suggested foot pads on the ground.

5) Squat and pee

6) pull toilet paper out of purse - because there is never any in the restrooms and wipe.

7) drop used toilet paper into the basket with everyone elses used toilet paper at the side of the pit. Chinese plumbing can't handle TP.

8) Leave stall, fix pants and hope that you have water to wash your hands.

My travel companions and I developed a rating system. the person who went in first would rate it and report and the others would decide if they should hold it depending on the rating. Believe me, some of them were that bad.

[crazycanuck]

Wahine-I've heard about the toilets in some parts of China..

The ones at the train stations in Japan were similar but cleaner. I could never get the squat toilets down pat...makes for some exciting moments

Now the best thing about squat toilets is when you're in the middle of the doing your thing & there's a spider crawling around...

Prior to visiting Malaysia, I wasn't aware of the toilet situation. As it's a muslim country here's more info. I was confused when i saw the bucket & cup beside the toilet at first but then realized..ah..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_toilet_etiquette

c

[bmccasland]

I've done field work in wilderness areas, including Grand Canyon National Park, where we had to pack *all* solid wastes out. So we had a bucket with a liner and a lid, but then got in an arguement with our helicopter pilot - a substitute because our regular pilot was out on medical - that *the bucket* should most definitely NOT be in the cabin of the helicopter, it should be in the cargohold. This poor flyboy was used to flying big whigs around, not scrappy biologists and their stuff.

We were *civilized*, we did have a toilet seat that balanced on top of the bucket, and in another bucket was the toilet paper, a package of lime, and some tabloids for reading. Each bucket had a lid to protect or contain the contents. This humble toilet was on the edge of camp behind some shubbery. We went to "commune with nature."

[lph]

yep. I think my most memorable toilet visits were during summer field work on Spitsbergen.

We dug a little hole 200 m away from our tent camp (well, scrabbled aside as much as we could before we hit permafrost) and erected a small dry-stone wall around. Our toilet seat was very civilized, thin plywood with a layer of cork nailed on

So you'd grab the toilet paper, the matchbox to burn all dry bits up with afterwards, a rifle, and go sit gazing down towards the ice-berg laden fjord for a couple of minutes, which also was the direction any curious polar bears would come strolling from.

Frequently checking across your shoulder in case they didn't...

And no, we never saw any.

[DebW]

I've got a sealed package of 2 Travelmates I'll give to anyone who wants them. When I bought it several years ago, the company got behind on orders, and to make amends, they DOUBLED everyone's order. So I ended up with 4 instead of the minimum order of 2. And didn't like it well enough to use it anyway. PM me is you want them.

[Aint Doody]

This is fascinating. I can hardly wait to get into the shower to try it out!

[extra-vert]

I was on a business call with a client once and I really had to pee - so i thought, 'what the hell he'll never know, I'll pee quietly. Course then I completely forgot about that stupid automatic flush thing - DOPE!

[glamgurl36]

ive seen this before, it's so true....hahah...i hate those things..when i was in spain,hardly any of them had seat covers it was basically just a bowl..needless to say, i had strong thighs when i got home haha

[KnottedYet]

Zen - Explain!!!!!!!

Knot-has-things-to-try-tomorrow-in-the-shower

(and how much of this can I use with my pelvic floor patients?)

And let's all sing "If I had a Penis" by Uncle Bonzai. (that screaming fan you hear in the background? That's yours truly at Bumbershoot.)

[indigoiis]

There is also this method using only fingers. The learning curve is pretty steep. I haven't mastered it, but I haven't practiced all that much. Squatting in the woods seems quite natural to me, nothing to clean up, and hands stay clean if you don't wipe. Could be useful in public restrooms, though.

I learned to do this, using the instructions on this website, in the shower.
but, I have not yet used it in a public restroom.