World’s Worst Toilets: #4 The “Company Toilet” (Ladkh, India)

I was sightseeing the town of Leh (Ladakh), when the urge hit. I had to pee.

Don’t you just hate when the percolating pee-pot hits FULL, when you’re on the road with nowhere to go…? Well, maybe not nowhere…

Public toilets? eek.

When I’m traveling, I like to avoid them. So I thought I’d outwit my surroundings; I went to a well-known telecommunications store in India (whose name shall remain anonymous) and asked for their employee john. They were kind to oblige.

Okay, so I wasn’t handed a corporate bathroom key, but company toilets… can’t be that bad, right?

Ha ha! A narrow escape from the horrible reeks and squatting messes of a public pot!

I could feel myself aglow, inwardly cackling with travel genius. I was brilliant!

A rectangle hole cut from a soft (termite-eaten) wood floor sat alone in tiny room on the third floor of the store’s building. The hole fell to a 20 foot drop, where you could see evidence of those who’d gone before you.  The wood around the hole bowed and creaked when I straddled it.

Who needs a flush chain when you’ve got a shovel? Just throw a little dirt over your business after your done.

This was a native Ladakhi toilet and it was only the start of my using one. I am told that it gets so cold that the poo freezes and turns into manure.

Damn you India, you’re ruining all my delicate sensibilities!