Guide to the toilets of Cambodia

Guide to the toilets of Cambodia

Let's face it, if you're travelling for more than a couple of hours you're going to need to use a toilet. Sure, some of the guidebooks give a bit of information on what kind of toilet facilities to expect in a given country, but there never seems to be quite enough information. Where are the cleanest? What's the best place to run to in an emergency? Do I have to use my hand? What's the deal with squat toilets?

Here's a quick guide to what I've observed as the state of toilet facilities in some of the countries I've travelled in as well as a discussion of that horror of horrors (or so you think!), the squat toilet!

Squat toilets:
If you spend any appreciable amount of time in Asia outside of your hotel room you will at some point probably find yourself faced with the intimidating task of using a squat toilet. However, once you've conquered the skill, and it's hardly a skill, and you've experienced the inside of a toilet in a Khmer restaurant in rural Cambodia, you'll probably become thankful that squat toilets are often the norm.

While intimidating to the uninitiated, ask yourself ... Did you ever do it in the woods? Surely you've been on a camping trip or something, whether as a kid or an adult, and had to take a dump behind a tree somewhere? Well, squat toilets are the same concept.

You can find two basic varieties. Squatters that are level with the floor, and what I call 'hi-rise', which sit maybe fifteen to twenty centimetres off the floor. The former are quite easy to use while the latter can be very uncomfortable if you are more than about 5'6" or are the least bit heavy…

Not only do the hi-risers require a performance of a balancing act, they can also stick you in a tight position.

As far as giving advice about using squat toilets, what I say is going to be geared more towards the boys than the girls, sorry ladies.

I think the most difficult thing people inexperienced with squat toilets contend with is how to drop their clothes and keep them out of the line of fire, from either end.

On a conventional western toilet you drop your pants to your ankles, take a seat, count the mould stains on the door or read your Lonely Planet and do your business.
Now, settle yourself over a squat toilet with your pants at your ankles and take a look at how things are positioned. You are going to pee on them is what's going to happen.

When using squat toilets you only drop your pants a few inches down which is just far enough to create some clearance. The seat of your pants will be well above your knees and well out of firing range. Also be careful of the contents of your pockets. As your pants are high, they are in a prime position for items such as keys, coins, et cetera, to slide out of your pockets and into the toilet, usually after you've done your duty.

Some squat toilets flush the same as a regular sit-down toilet, while others have no flushing mechanism. If you encounter the latter, you should see a tub of water and a scoop nearby. Scoop water from the tub and pour it into the toilet and watch as your mess gradually disappears with each scoop of water you pour. This water and scoop is also used for cleaning yourself.

Toilet paper:
More likely than not, with the possible exception of hotel rooms and a handful of fancy restaurants in Phnom Penh, you are not going to find any toilet paper anywhere. Carry some with you at all times and at the same time ask yourself if you want to shake anyone's left hand? Which is kind of silly because plenty of people still use their right hand but they just won’t admit to it?

If you're stuck without toilet paper there's still hope. Some facilities sell small packets of toilet paper. If you're really lucky there will be a sprayer, which is a small nozzle attached to a hose to the side of the toilet. Point the nozzle where you want to fire and push down the lever.

If you've never used one of these before you'll probably find the pressure is more than you expected and you'll make a real mess of yourself if you're not careful. So here's your warning: Test the pressure with a quick blast away from you and then when you're ready to clean, press the lever gently until you're confident you can control the water flow! After finishing with this exercise you'll probably ask yourself, "Now what! Am I supposed to sit here and drip dry!!??!!" Hence, toilet paper and a sprayer are the best combination.

If there's no sprayer your next hope is that there's a tub of water and a scoop.
The conventional advice is you're supposed to splash some water on the messy area. Really, I've never seen the use in that, sort of like spilling a plate of stir-fry on your shirt and trying to wash it off by dabbing a dry tissue on it. Really, if it's a bit nasty down there and all you have is water then you're just going to have to use your hand, get it dirty, and hope there's some soap nearby.
As an Englishman I grew up in an environment where there was no water by the toilet in any form, it was dry toilet paper and that's it.

If you did remember to carry toilet paper with you the next question you may be faced with is what are you supposed to do with it when you're finished? In theory, if there's a waste can near the toilet, that's your cue that it's to go in there. However I know a lot of people can't be bothered to do this and stick the paper in the toilet anyway and more often than not it's not a problem, or at least not a problem they'll ever see.

There's really not a lot of rhyme or reason as to which toilets can handle paper. Some septic tanks in even the most rural places in say, Kampot, can handle toilet paper without problem, while the plumbing in a midrange Phnom Penh hotel can not. So do as those before you, if there's a waste can, stick it in there, if not, flush it down. Let your conscience be your guide.
In general, public facilities in Cambodia lag behind the west in hygiene standards but this is by no means universal. There are plenty of filthy restrooms in the west and plenty of spotlessly clean ones in Cambodia.

Most hotels have western-style toilets with butt sprayers attached. Some cheap guesthouses may only have squat toilets. At even some low to midrange hotels they may neglect to place toilet paper in the room leaving you to chase down the staff for a roll. Public toilet facilities are for the most part nonexistent. A local restaurant will probably have a squat toilet in a shed somewhere but there's no guarantee of this. Squat toilets are usually of the flat variety. Out in the sticks everyone goes in the woods.

If you're in a mined area (and you probably won't be, but if you are, you will hopefully have been already versed in land mine sense), you'll just have to take John Lennon's advice and do it in the road, even if it's not quite what he had in mind. If you're on the highway between, say, Poi pet and Siem Reap, Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh and Battambang, you're not going to be anywhere near a land mine, so don't worry about it. And don't be shy about ducking behind a bush regardless if you are male or female; it's what the locals all do.

I can only think of a few places in Cambodia with public facilities. One is Kralanh, a town between Siem Reap and the border at Poi pet, where some locals got the idea to build a block of toilets to service all the buses passing through town. The idea caught on and several more enterprising families built the same. These facilities, though offering only squat toilets, are clean and usually have toilet paper. They cost 5 baht or 500 riels to use. In downtown Phnom Penh there are a couple of public facilities near the National Museum.
I've not been inside any of these so I can't report on the condition, but apparently when they were first constructed a few years back, several homeless families promptly moved in. If you can find a real gasoline station, and certainly Caltex would qualify, you'll probably find they have restrooms of some condition.

At the Angkor temples, there are old toilet blocks by the pagoda next to Angkor Wat, at Preah Khan behind the souvenir stalls on the west side, at Ta Prohm behind the souvenir stalls on the west side, at the Bayon on the east side, and at Banteay Srei across the road. Expect to pay 500 riels for the privilege. In the past year, additional facilities have been built along the roads away from the temples on both the inner and outer circuits. It is no longer an issue to find toilet facilities when visiting the temples.

There is not one single bus in Cambodia that I have seen with a toilet. I'm not even sure what the dilapidated old trains offer, either (never been on one).

Most of the speedboats have toilets on board that are quite usable. The exception is the small speedboats that are designed to hold about a dozen people and run between Battambang and Siem Reap, they have no facilities. The next size up of speedboats, that seat about 40 people and are used sometimes between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh when the water levels are at their lowest, have a toilet, a hole really, stuck in a small closet which you'll have to crouch down to get inside and you won't enjoy this experience.

Clean, western style toilets can be found in the main airports.