If you travel to a small town in Southeast Asia or anywhere off the beaten western tourist path, you’ll eventually encounter a squat toilet.

(Travel tip excerpt from our Thailand trip post)

We encountered  several squat toilets throughout our Thailand travels. Ladies, I know it looks a little intimidating. In case you are super confused right now, I’m going to tell you what to do:

1. Face the back of the stall (don’t turn around like you would with a western toilet, I tried that and things got a little…splashy).

2. Put your feet on the flat sides of the squat toilet that look like maxipad wings

3. Gather up all your skirts into a wad (this is where long flowy hippy skirts can be a help or hinderance, depending on how you look at it), pull down your underwear and squat. Hold your underwear out of the way so it doesn’t get sprayed.

4. Do your business. Hopefully you brought your own toilet paper–don’t expect any in Thai public restrooms. Some restrooms have someone selling it for 5 baht outside the bathroom. Don’t flush the toilet paper, put it in the waste basket.

5. Flush the squat toilet manually by dipping the bucket into the water trough next to the toilet and pouring it into the toilet until it is clear.

6. Wash your hands…there might not be soap so a travel size hand sanitizer is also a recommendation for your purse.

It got easy after a few times. Just imagine peeing in the woods but aiming in a very specific spot. As for sanitation, not having to sit on a public toilet seat was kind of nice, and I’ll take the squat toilet over an outhouse or pit toilet any day.