Research toilets before nature calls

by Mike Barish on

Gadling is nothing if not a clearinghouse for great information in the name of public service. To that end, and in the spirit of our Catching the Travel Bug series, I am pleased to share with you the wealth of knowledge that is SitOrSquat. This delightful website has carved its own niche on the internet as the preeminent place for user-reviews of public restrooms.

Simply plug in a city name and using the power of Google maps and the assistance of user-generated and uploaded content, you’ll be able to check out reviews and photos of restrooms in parks, restaurants and bars. The only limitation is how often users actually upload content to the site.

For example, from time to time I like to grab a Jameson on the rocks at Welcome to the Johnsons, a dive bar on the Lower East Side of NYC that is themed like an old 1970s living room. It’s dirty, cheap and loud. Just the way I like my bars (and my women). But, it may not be the best place to get into a fight with that afternoon’s burrito. Not sure if you can handle it? Well, check out their toilet ahead of time.

So the next time you’re hitting the ground in an unfamiliar city or neighborhood, be sure to grab a guidebook, a Zagat guide and peruse SitOrSquat. You and your underpants will be glad that you did.

10 hilarious bathroom signs

by Scott Carmichael on

The bathroom often seems to be a great source of amusement.

Different signs around the world are usually poorly translated, with pretty hilarious results. Other signs are just plain weird, or have been defaced by folks with a healthy combination of humor and boredom. I have collected 10 signs that grabbed my attention.

We can not allow you to use the bathroom!

Can’t find anywhere to pee? Blame the terrorists. Photo taken at the American embassy in Tokyo.Good old Engrish bathroom sign

It has separated! Don’t mistake!

Presented without comment…



Really, what could I possibly add to describe this fantastic Chinese bathroom sign?

Even Lego minifigs need to relieve themselves!

From the bathroom door at the Legoland Discovery Center


Wash those genitals!

Sure, it is probably (hopefully) a joke sign, but it made me chuckle.

Please use butt to flush!

Ahhhh…. Nothing says “fun” like some juvenile humor and a black marker….

Girl’s what?

Bad grammar is everywhere, but this sign is on the bathroom wall at a school!

Aliens do number 1 and 2, just like us!

This sign is found at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, Washington.

It took me some time to figure this one out…

This sign is from a bathroom in Turkey, and no matter how often I look at it, I can’t figure out exactly what they are trying to tell me. It appears they are just trying to say that this is the way to the male and female bathrooms.

A lesson in hand washing

No offense, but if you work at this company and need a 6 step lesson on how to wash your hands, you might want to ask yourself whether you made the right career move.

More toilets in India: the Museum of Toilets

by Jamie Rhein on

Martha’s post on the World Toilet Summit in New Delhi reminded me of the one museum I wanted to go to in New Delhi, but never took the time. The Museum of Toilets is wonderful, according to a good friend of mine. He went on and on about it. The museum is a lot more than one toilet after another. As you might imagine, there’s a huge history about toilets that dates back to 2500 B.C. when the world’s first drainage system was put in. Taxes on toilets first happened in 69 A.D. and the first public toilet showed up in 1214 A.D.

And if you’ve ever been to a bathroom showroom, even today, there are many ways for a toilet to flush. I remember when I went to Denmark, my first experience living in another country, I was intrigued by the way the toilets flushed there and by the rules of toilet use. In Denmark you put the lid down when you’re done. The Museum of Toilets also gets into toilet use etiquette along with toilet design. Toilet politics is another big topic–who gets to use them and who doesn’t. Who cleans them. I don’t know if this is included in the subject matter, but I just thought of it. How many bathrooms are in a house? Over three and the assumption is that homeowner has some serious cash. Two and a half is a luxury. (The one in the photo is a replica of King Louis IIIV from the museum’s Web page.)

If you can’t make it to the museum, the Web site is fascinating read. Along with the overview of toilet use and societies there’s a section that highlights the history of particular toilets, photographs included. There is even poetry. This verse was written in the Middle Ages about Paris.

“My shoes my stockings, my overcoat
My collar, my glove, my hat
Have all been soiled by the same substance
I would mistake myself rubbish”

With what to do with human waste a large part of every society’s problems, the museum’s subject is a serious one to consider.

Controversial Urinals in Vienna

by Neil Woodburn on

Having been in Vienna last summer, I was disappointed to learn a little too late about a most extraordinary bathroom.

The Toilet-Bar Vienna is a small public bathroom located in an underpass near the National Opera. As you can see from the photo above, this is no ordinary bathroom. For the small price of just 75 cents, patrons of the urinal arts can relieve themselves in some of the most decorative urinals ever conceived by man.

Unfortunately, someone blabbed their mouth off to the opposite gender and local women’s rights groups eventually forced the proprietors to remove the sexist objects.

The creator of the lip urinals eventually sold them on eBay, so who knows where they might appear next. If you happen to run across them in a bathroom located in some sexist corner of the globe, don’t tell anyone!

NY Air Travelers Have Rights. Well, Some Anyway …

by Martha Edwards on

I’m sure we’ve all heard of, seen or experienced first hand the horrors of flight delays. Aside from long in-airport delays, I’ve been pretty lucky in that I’ve never had to wait inside a plane for hours without food or water. But others haven’t been so fortunate, like the people on this flight or this one.

But don’t think that the powers that be haven’t noticed how much it can suck being a lowly coach passenger. Governor Eliot Spitzer has signed a ‘passenger’s bill of rights’ which is meant to protect air travellers in New York in case of such delays. According to the bill, New York airlines must provide passengers with food, water, fresh air, power and working bathrooms on any flights that have been sitting on the Tarmac for 3 hours.

Wait a second …. 3 hours? That seems like a bit much … I wonder how Eliot Spitzer would feel about waiting 3 hours to go to the bathroom. An hour sitting in the tarmac is enough to warrant fresh water, food and bathrooms if you ask me.