As a backpacker,
sometimes you may wonder how you will keep clean depending on where you travel
to. Every region is different. On a backpacker’s budget, you will visit some
places that have some really nice showering areas in hotels or hostels but you
might also visit some countries where taking a shower isn’t as pleasant. In many countries, hot water is scarce. I remember when I was backpacking Eastern
Europe and the Mediterranean area, it was cold outside and I rarely had a hot
shower to take. It also depends on the
hostel or accommodation. Some places are
nicer and charge a bit more because they have hot water. But, don’t be fooled. Sometimes when a place says that they have
hot water, it may mean warmer than cold water or it’s hot water that lasts for
about two minutes. When traveling in
Northern India and Northern Thailand, it was pretty cold outside at night and I
didn’t have much hot water to enjoy in the shower. In New Dehli, India, I stayed in a private
room in a budget hotel. It was
absolutely freezing at night there. My
windows in my room were stuck and couldn’t close all the way so the breeze
filled my room. Although I had hot water
sometimes, the window in the bathroom that faced the shower had an odd
design. It wasn’t a normal window where
you can open and close it. It was a row
of vertical and slanted pieces of wood that didn’t have a barrier between the
inside and the outside, it just simply distorted the view so that nobody could
see it. Therefore, the freezing cold
breeze blew on me as I stood in the open shower. Some regions like Central and South America,
it’s usually so hot out that you don’t miss a hot shower but, there are so
cities that are more inland or are at higher elevation that do get quite cold
at night and hot water would be nice but is scarce.
As for the showers
themselves, they can be quite interesting in some places. All over Southeast Asia, India, Eastern
Europe/Mediterranean, Morocco, and others, where the showers are just open
spaces in your bathroom. There is no
such thing as a bath tub or a shower door.
Sometimes a bathroom is so small that you can literally use the toilet
and shower at the same time. The floors
are just slanted so that the water runs in a drain. Some bathrooms have enough space between the
toilet and the shower part. The tough
part about these types of bathrooms, especially the smaller ones, and
especially in hostels where you share the bathroom with others, is that it’s
hard to find a place to hang your clothes or towel without them getting
wet. Some doors will have a hook on them
or some bathrooms will have enough space that there is a hook on the wall to
hang something. Many of these types of
bathrooms have showerheads that unhook and you can use them manually so, just
make sure that they don’t aim at your towel or clothes. It’s interesting for a bit to use these types
of showers but I started to miss having a bath tub, hot water to soak in, and a
bathroom where the shower is separate from the toilet.
I remember staying in
one of my favorite little budget hotels in a place called Ubon, Thailand for a
week during New Years of 2014. It is a
very small town where tourist only use to pass through for its train and bus
stations and small airport. The little
hotel was amazing. It cost me only $12 a
night and I had a private room with a everything that you can think of and a
really nice bathroom with a separate shower and was super clean. I was so happy to be there and it was so
refreshing to have. I just came from
staying in Laos where my shower was literally a concrete shed separate from my
bungalow that had freezing cold water, a sink that was just a sink structure
above an empty hold leading to just outside, and a toilet that you flushed
manually, meaning you poured a bucket of water into it to “flush” it. After leaving India, I stayed in Qatar due to
a flight delay and Qatar Airlines paid for me to stay in the nicest Hyatt
Regency Hotel that I’ve ever been to.
Out of all of the dingy little places that I have paid to stay in, I got
to stay in such a nice place for free. I
ate at their all-you-can-eat buffet for free too, which was great after not
eating much in India! I felt so out of
place though because here I was, a dirty-looking ragged backpacker in this
fancy, sparkling, clean, and expensive hotel.
They gave me a fantastic room with an amazing view. The reason that I mention this experience
because I remember my feeling after seeing the bathroom. After just backpacking India, I was so happy
to have such a nice bathroom. The water
was hot, the shower had a sliding glass door, the toilet was immaculate, there
was a baddet (not like I used it!), many clean white towels, and free little
amenities.
When I was in cities
near the ocean like those in Costa Rica and Belize, my shower water was salt
water from the sea. So I got use to
being quite salty after taking a shower but, I did love my wavy beach hair from
the salt water! J My clothes there were also salty since they
too were washed in salt water.
As for toilets, ooh
toilets. The toilets in many developing
countries like those in Southeast Asia and India are quite interesting. Of course it depends on where you visit and
where you stay but, you will often find toilets that are so foreign to what us
westerners are use to. In Southeast Asia,
you’ll experience a lot of toilets that you have to “flush” with a bucket of
water that is provided beside it. In
India, you’ll come across a lot of toilets that you have to squat over and then
“flush” with a bucket of water. Also,
you will most likely not be provided any toilet paper. When I was backpacking Southeast Asia and India and other regions like the
Mediterranean, I was a serious paper hoarder.
What I mean by that is that I carried a backpack filled with toilet
paper, Kleenex, paper towel, napkins, and any other type of paper product like
that that I could get my hands on.
Toilet paper and napkins are like gold in Asia. Although each accommodation will provide you
with a roll of toilet paper a day (and they aren’t the double or triple ply
either, they’re the ‘you go to the bathroom twice and it’s empty’ type of roll). This is why I always made sure that I had
enough of whatever I needed just in case.
I actually wound up returning home with some rolls of toilet paper left. In airports or other public places, you will
find that many bathrooms in these regions will have a few stalls that have our
normal western-style toilet and others with squatters and buckets. Guess which one I always chose! But don’t expect them to ever be clean, no matter
what type of toilet there is.
Japan actually had the
best toilets of all! Their toilets are
actually heated and have remotes where you can control different things. I never actually used the remotes, it kind of
grossed me out to touch the remote that was beside the toilet seat. In Japan, I stayed at a place where they offered
a shower area that was coed. It’s a
traditional thing that has shower, steamers, and a big tub. I saw the diagram of it on the outside wall
but I didn’t go in.
When you are traveling
on buses for an extended amount of time in regions like Southeast Asia and
India, it’s ever a good experience using the bathroom, especially for
women. At the rest stops where you have
a bathroom break, the “bathrooms” are so overly used that they are so
disgusting. I say “bathrooms” because
there have been times where the bathroom was just a bucket with a make-shift toilet seat in a little shed-like
structure. Some are also such small
single stalls that are like a giant germ box with a wet ground due to it being
a squatter toilet and a bucket of water or a little pipe for the water. You don’t want to touch anything, you have to
hold your balance and squat down, it smells terrible, you try not to pee on
your pants or shoes, you have no place to put your purse or backpack, and you
just hope nobody tries to open the door because it barely locks. Always, always carry some sort of paper
product for toilet paper. I also highly
recommend carrying some sort of hand soap and hand sanitizer. I have witnessed so many times when people do
not wash their hands. They walk right
from the stall and out the door. It’s
part of the culture in some areas I guess.
But, as for me, a traveler being exposed to foreign bacteria, I want to
try to prevent myself from getting ill as much as I can. I try not to drink much water or liquids when
I know that ill be traveling for a long time on a bus or train because I dread
having to use the bathroom. Some buses
have a bathroom on them which are never anything better than other outside. Trains of course have bathrooms on them but
they are rarely any better than other bathrooms. Even the bathrooms on trains in Western
Europe, you will lift the toilet seat and you will see the train tracks and the
ground speeding by beneath! So don’t
accidently drop anything in the toilet that you may want!
Many countries will also
charge you for using the bathroom. The
first time that I had experienced this was in Europe at the train
stations. All bus trips in regions like
Southeast Asia, India, Central America, and Morocco, you will be asked for some
money if you need to use the bathroom in the majority of the places. Sometimes not, but often yes. It’s just another way for the adjoining
business to make money from tourists.
They know that you will need to use the bathroom. They also may charge to give some toilet
paper and it’s not a roll, it’s a few turns around their hand until they think
it’s enough. So, if you expect to use
the bathroom, be sure to have some local currency or a few American cents if
the country accepts U.S money. There
have been a few times that I and/or a friend that I met didn’t have any money
but we still used the bathroom. We just
tell them that we don’t have money and just go in. They’ll get mad at you but what can you
do. You can’t not use the bathroom after
a 8 plus hour bus journey with more hours to go or on an overnight bus.
Overall, it’s important
to never expect much, always be open-minded, and just go with the flow, no pun
intended. You never know what to expect
with it comes to the bathrooms situation and showering when traveling. Often times, it takes a bit of time to get
use to but you will eventually get use to the changes in bathroom types. You will gain a much bigger appreciation for
your bathroom at home and what you are use to, including an abundance of toilet
paper and paper products! It’s all a
part of the experience and the regions cultural differences. I have stories for days and memories galore
to share about bathrooms around the world and I wouldn’t have it any other
way. As a backpacker, it’s just a part
of the journey.
