Potty blog

So many times, I had photos to go with my blogs but I didn't have the time or patience to post them in an internet cafe. Therefore, I've decided to continue the blog of my travels, even though I'm home. Let's start with bathrooms...the same way I started a few months ago : )

You remember this one...an oldie but a goodie. You can't tell, but this is built on the side of a hill. If a board breaks (my worst nightmare), you not only fall several feet into a pile of poop, but you then slip and slide down the side of a steep hill. Yes, these are the kinds of things you think about when perched precariously over poop.







See the skinny red tent? That's our toilet tent. For most of the trip, this is where we...went. One porter was in charge of digging the hole and setting up the tent. And in the morning, the same lucky guy was in charge of topping off the hole with dirt or rocks and taking down the tent.
What's that? Oh thaaat...that's a yak. I'm not sure if you can tell from this photo but he's ENORMOUS. It is a bit disconcerting to hear the clank, clank of a yak bell approaching the toilet tent while you're inside.

Brian's gonna kill me but this photo is too funny. The yaks didn't make Brian nervous at all. I, on the other hand, had already imagined the scenario of being trampled by yaks while in a toilet tent. My earlier run-in with a particularly grumpy yak made me skittish. More on this later.



This was one of the nicer "squatty potties". No, you don't sit on it (though I heard of one traveler that spent months trying to sit until someone told her she was supposed to squat. Seriously!?!). You put your feet on the little ridges. Yes, it's tricky. The ridges a usually wet, which makes them slippery. And of course, I had thoughts of slipping and how bad that would be. The faucet, bucket, and bucket scoop are for "cleaning" and flushing. I never could break my toilet paper habit and headed to the toilet with toilet roll and a plastic bag in hand.

This is one of the showers at Shivananda ashram, the more western of the two ashrams. Notice the proximity of the shower head to the toilet? This explains why we were always sitting on cold, wet toilets.











Without the shower head, this would be an example of a typical non-western shower (aka, the bucket bath). Jubilee was the name of my dorm, which had two floors. The upstairs bucket scoop was mis-paired with the downstairs bucket (obviously, someone was slacking a little on their karma yoga).




That's all for today. Check back again in a week or so. I'll tell the story of me and the grumpy yak.