Today I’m going to take a break from talking about how awesome my adventures are to explain some of the things that have become routine for me. These are the parts of South East Asia that aren’t often talked about, but you aren’t really surprised when you find them, and you really have no choice but to just go with it, laugh, and make the best of it. But first here’s a picture of the sun setting in Nhong Kiaw (where I currently am).

First of all, bathrooms. Bathrooms have been varied from the nicest bathroom I’ve ever stepped foot in (Golden toilet at The White Temple in Chiang Rai) to watery messes that you have to pay $0.50 to use at bus stations (paying for squat toilets is the worst!). As my friend Lee from Vancouver Island put it; “I will never get used to showering right next to the toilet”. Which is true, as normally the shower is just in the bathroom and you actually have to stand right next to or in front of the toilet to shower. Also you never really get used to how wet the bathrooms are.. It is.. Most likely water, but you don’t really know, and it does get all over your feet in the end.

Oh yay, a squat toilet, at the bar, while I’m drunk (this can get messy…)

In general though, bathrooms in Thailand were amazing as they have this invention that I think the rest of the world should adopt. I have heard it called a Bum Gun, but I like to call it “The Spritzer”. It’s the same kind of thing that you have at your kitchen sink to hose down your dishes, but you instead use it in place of toilet paper. That’s right, you squirt yourself clean. It sounds gross at first but it actually makes total sense. If you were to accidentally put your hand in some shit, you wouldn’t just wipe the shit off, you would wash it off, or spray it off.

Toilet with Spritzer attachment:

I have adjusted to this new method and now I am saddened to be in Laos were it is less common (only in the fancy bathrooms). I have even settled for a beautiful Riverview bungalow for $8 a night, it being so cheap because all it has is a squat toilet. Not even a sink, just a squatter. I thought this was fine until I woke up half asleep looking to use the bathroom and realized I’d have to squat. I’m getting better at it though and it’s really not the worst thing in the world. Funny when I first used one of these I had to ask some people how you flush it, the answer; ” three or four scoops usually does the trick” (see bailer in vat of water next to squatter). Also I think I used it backwards the first time. Can you guess which way you would squat on it (facing the front or the back)?

My beautiful bathroom in my Riverside bungalow, note there isn’t even a sink. I’ve been washing my hands by dumping water on my hands using the bailer (in the concrete block filled with water next to the toilet and shower):

But it’s worth it for this view:

But enough about toilets.. There’s just some funny stuff that you see everyday that makes you laugh. I like seeing chickens roaming through restuarants, children out playing on their own, especially when they are yielding weapons (little girl running around with a machete this morning, yesterday it was a very realistic looking water pistol). Pictures of monks squatting while holding dolla dolla bills y’all (see image below), entire families packed onto a single motorbike, people welding without gloves or eye protection and just wearing a t shirt. Or even better, an entire construction site in Bangkok with no one wearing shoes (I guess shoes make it harder to walk across the single beams of bamboo scaffolding), or hardhats. Pfft, safety is for losers.

A chicken running around in the restaurant. You’re next!

I so wish I knew what this picture said, but it shows a monk squatting while counting out bills of money… It is in a golden-ish frame and on the wall in my room.

That being said I really appreciate it here. I see how people care but in different ways and about different things. We live in a world were everything is so structured and we think it protects us but maybe sometimes it stifles us, and we could all benefit from losenning our grip on things a little bit.

Even with all this ridiculous chaos, it feels safe here. Very few people step out of line because that’s just not how people want to live their lives. Shop keepers leave their shops unattended while they go home or take a nap and leave everything out in the open, but.. No one takes anything, because karma. I have seen people forgot to get their change from a sandwich lady and gone back 30 minutes later and she gives the money back. Bar owners don’t steal money from the drunk girls purse (who left it on the counter) and instead try to return it to its owner. I have seen many opportunities were people could have taken more than they were owed, and gotten away with it easily, but they don’t go for it, and I kind of wish our society was more like that.

So yeah, for now, I am trying to savour the last that Laos has to offer me, as there is about one week left until I have to be on the border at Vietnam!

Oh and last night I got to participate in a Sader, or Passover feast, as Nhong Kiaw is currently full of Israeli’s! I never would have guessed that was what I would be doing but it was awesome. They were working from about 4pm to 7pm to get all the different elements in place, and a nice restaurant owner let us take over her kitchen and dining area. Even more special becuase the power went out of the majority of it so everything was by candlelight, with rain and thunder in the background.