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.

Bolshoi in Russia: Taking a cubicle to a whole new level

by Iva Skoch on

Greetings from Moscow! Bolshoi in Russia is my variation on Big in Japan. (Bolshoi means “Big” in Russian. Get it?) Stay tuned for my live dispatches from Russia this week.

Nothing in Moscow is free. Not even toilets. Worse than that, not even portable toilets. They charge anywhere from 15 rubles – 30 rubles (about 70 cents – $1.3) to use them. And no, you really don’t pay for them to be clean. You pay so they can employ a person to collect money from you. See how that works?

This is my favorite part. They usually use one of the portable toilets as an “office” for somebody who collects cash from people. Think about that every time you complain about your life in a cubicle, OK?

From Russia, with love.

A bathroom problem of “Olympic” proportions

by Jeremy Kressmann on

When I first saw the venue designs for this summer’s Olympic games in Beijing, I was quite impressed. The Chinese have pulled out all the stops to create several cutting-edge stadiums for the games, including the Beijing National Stadium designed by award-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron and the Beijing National Aquatics Center, which looks like a huge floating cube of water.

However, as the BBC reports, China may have spent a little too much money on those architecture fees. Prompted by frequent visitor complaints at test events, the Chinese are scrambling to replace traditional squat toilets at the venues with western-style “loos” for an expected 500,000 visitors. According to the BBC, who quotes Yao Hui, Deputy Head of Venue Management, “Most of the Chinese people are used to the squat toilet, but nowadays more and more people demand sit-down toilets.”

Gee, Yao, do you think? I have no problem adapting to a traditional squat toilet if I’m coming to visit China on my own, but perhaps when you have visitors coming from as many as 200 different nationalities you might want to standardize? I guess if you’re headed to this summer’s games in Beijing, make sure you bring your own toilet paper and maybe take a look at this for advice. Also take a look at this for more “traditional” background info on Beijing before your visit.

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The top 10 World’s Dirtiest Cities:


You’ll never guess what made the list!

Where to find the best and worst bathrooms

by Martha Edwards on

Catherine recently told us about a handy cell-phone service that will help you find the best bathroom in west London. My first thought was, It would be nice if they had something like that in North America, but as it turns out, they do. MizPee can tell you where the nearest clean bathrooms are when you use it on your cell phone, as Justin told us a few months ago.

But you know what else MizPee does? It allows you to rate the bathroom — they have a Honor Roll for the best and a Wall of Shame for the worst. Best bathrooms include those at the Time Warner Center and Apple Store in Manhattan, and the worst can be found at Starbucks in Union Square West and the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.

My vote for the worst bathroom goes to the ones in LAX. I have never been to a decent one while traveling through that airport.

India and now Korea: more toilet talk

by Abha Malpani on

India isn’t the only country having toilet summits; one is going to kick off in Korea on November 21. This one takes a special twist though as it encourages people to open their homes in the name of improving world hygiene — according to the UN about 2.5 billion people live without proper toilet facilities.

To commemorate the General Assembly of the World Toilet Association in Korea and to amplify his call for toilet sanitation, former Korean Mayor Sim Jae-Duck has demolished his own house and constructed a US$1.6 million house in the shape of a loo. Before he moves in, the house can be stayed in for a rent of US$50,000 a night and proceeds will go into building toilets for those who cannot afford them.

In the West, toilets and toilet paper are taken for granted and people complain about the dog poo they occasionally step into. In India, the government lets out pigs into the street to eat people’s excretion — there’s just so much of it.

In some villages of say 300 people, residents share one toilet. Hard to contemplate huh.

People crap isn’t the only problem, cows crap in the main streets too. That cow-dung we actually use as manure and fuel to cook on. It’s even splat onto walls of houses in villages where electricity is unaffordable, to keep them cool in scorching summers.

I think I don’t need to elaborate further on how unhygienic things can get from lack of toilets and sanitation facilities. I’m really happy that nations are collaborating to think of solutions for this massive problem.

[Via AFP]