Being Prepared for the Bathroom

Hello there!

Though it may seem like an interesting blog post title, I think using the bathroom here is so different and I wish that someone had warned me before coming to Thailand about this. The biggest difference between here and the US is the lack of toilet paper. Most public toilets in Thailand do not have toilet paper or a sufficient amount for all of the traffic they receive throughout the day. This may be due to a lack of resources. Every business must supply their bathrooms with both toilet paper and soap and those products can become costly over time. Additionally, if they do have toilet paper, many of them encourage guests to throw it in the trash. One theory behind this is that many toilets here do not flush at the same speed as toilets in the US and it becomes clogged easily. In order to save themselves time and money on more expensive toilets, the Thai people ask guests to throw the toilet paper in the trash can. 

Another major difference is the type of toilets that they have here. Although many bathrooms have the traditional toilets we are used to seeing, some of them are on the ground. They have a toilet seat with no elevation from the ground, which makes the first experience very interesting. In order to compensate, these toilets often have a hose device in each stall to clean up after usage. This somewhat replaces the need for toilet paper in their minds and is less wasteful.  

Some advice I have for visitors to Thailand would be to always pack toilet paper in your bag/purse and hand sanitizer because many bathrooms do not have soap either. Experiences such as these remind me of how lucky I am in the US to depend on simple products such as soap and toilet paper and to not take the little things for granted in the future. I think it's also important to realize that embracing a different culture and way of life can be as simple adjusting to a different bathroom. 

Thanks for reading!

Maddie Pryor

See below a photo of one of the types of toilets I was referring to that I found on the internet: