While on the subject of all things Turkey, Muscati & wife posted a picture of this toilet they found in a newly remodeled building in Muscat.
For those that are not from this part of the world, this is what we commonly refer to as a "Turkish toilet" and it can still be found in a number of public bathrooms across the Middle East. And yes, it can be still found in Turkey. I came across one in Istanbul nearly two years ago.
I’m one of those who is totally grossed by this "hole" and wish they would stop making this monstrosity. Read the comments as well, they are eye-opening and very detailed 😉 I hope this didn’t
gross you out 😉 I just thought that this "hole" was worth highlighting. Enjoy!
Via: [Chan’ad]
I BEAT YOU ALL.
Check this out:
Experts Gather in China for Toilet Summit
AUDRA ANG
Associated Press
BEIJING – Laugh all you want, say public hygiene experts at the World Toilet Summit, but the importance of “loos” you can use is no joke.
The three-day event, which began Wednesday in Beijing, is an international commode conference. Some 150 scholars, toilet designers and environmentalists from 19 countries gathered to exchange ideas on topics such as the latest toilet technologies, lavatory management tips and the relationship between toilets and tourism development.
“People are saying ‘We want good toilets!’ because toilets are a basic human right and that basic human right has been neglected,” said Jack Sim, founder of the World Toilet Organization, a co-sponsor of the summit.
China, known for fetid public toilets that often are little more than open trenches, is eager to show off its advances while preparing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Delegates to the conference are to be taken on a tour of new and renovated public toilets in Beijing.
But with a packed conference schedule of slide shows, lectures and question-and-answer sessions, there was very little room for humor.
“You can laugh at it for a short time,” said Sim, whose group is based in the hyper-clean island nation of Singapore. “But after a few seconds, you should start to pay serious attention to the subject” that affects your quality of life.
The convention is in its fourth year, with Singapore, Seoul and Taipei as previous hosts. Participants this year came from countries as far away as Finland, Japan and the United States.
Photos of showcase lavatories were also displayed at the conference, from a ladybug-shaped one in a public garden to another modeled after a grass hut in a wildlife park. Facilities with baby-changing stations, wheelchair ramps and gleaming white ceramic urinals were also featured.
“New public toilets are an important symbol to demonstrate the development of the city,” said Liang Guangsheng, deputy director of Beijing’s Municipal Administrative Committee.
In the past three years, Beijing has spent $29 million on building or renovating 747 restrooms at tourist spots, according to the city government.
“The toilets are sanitary, convenient and private,” Yu Changjiang, director general of the city’s tourism bureau said. The city also aims to make them suitable for users of all ages, for the disabled, and energy and water-efficient.
“People settle for good food, good clothes and good living conditions without paying enough attention to the toilet,” Yu said. “Toilet issues are a very important symbol of people’s quality of life.”
The city has come up with a rating system of one to four stars for its public wash rooms, reportedly based on such criteria as granite floors, remote-sensor flushes, automatic hand-driers and piped-in music.
The capital now has 88 four-star lavatories, 161 that qualify for three stars, 312 for two and 110 for one. Countless others, are perhaps best not mentioned.
Maintenance is as important as construction, said Simon Tay, one of the speakers at the summit.
“It’s something that China needs to think about,” said Tay, chairman of Singapore’s National Environment Agency, a government organization. “I hate the word luxury toilet because really good toilets should be an everyday common thing. It doesn’t have to look like the Shangri-La toilet … in order for it to be something that we can be proud of.”
Yes Muscati, I’m familiar with the concept. But that thing is too big to be a “mashtaf” and besides I can’t imagine anyone using it without baring their behinds. But apparently, as suggested in the text, that urinal stall also has shower curtains! I know it was too good to be true!
Arash, that’s not a shower head. It’s what they call in Arabic a “mashtaf” which is used to clean yourself after you’re done. Most households have them now as well as most public toilets.
Rivda, the secret with the hose is to block the flow of water halfway with your thumb, thus creating a high pressure flow that cleans everything. I had never heard of anyone using a bucket of water, that’s just unnecessary!
Haha, I just found a picture of a urinal with a shower head (scroll down)! This is from a place outside the “holy city” of Qom, and should be amongst the handful of urinals installed in Iran. Mind you the mullahs have also ruled pissing-while-standing illegal, so finding one of these in the pilgrims’ route to Qom is kind of ironic. But you don’t want to be najes before the prayers, so a shower head is also installed. Now either their customers have, er, rather extended “members”, or people take off their pants to avoid getting wet with that large shower head, defying the whole concept of easy and fast to use urinals!
These are the only kind you can find in public places in Iran, especially those built after the revolution. Partly because the mullahs claim that it is healthier to squat rather than seat. There’s also a clause in the Shari’a that you have to enter the cubical with your left foot. Yes, they are experts in everything!
Linda,
Trust me, as a woman it is VERY hard to use this bathroom. I’m sure it was created by a man who was too self-obsessed to think about the biological make-up of the other gender;-)
That is like some toilet in usually agricultural homes and barracks here in Portugal 20-30 years ago. Usually they arent build anymore, but there are some still around.
Yes, “hubby” I do have a secret about flushing that I’d like to share with you: it’s called the “bucket.” That hose or the facucet cannot be for flushing, because, if you think about it, the hose and the faucet lack water pressure to do the cleaning. Here is how the process of flushing actually takes place: you fill a bucket with water, and taking several steps backward, you hurl the water onto the surface of the toilet meanwhile cringing, in the hope that no sh** will fly at you. I have more secrets to share, but I think this is enough for one day.
Admin
Please wrap up the subject. Its going in all directions now. This happens when the shi… hits the fan.