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Tags: Toilets / Bathrooms / Beijing Olympics / 2008 Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Olympics / → All Tags

Toilet Travel: Are You a Peach or a Banana?

Digging deeper into the files of random, unstandardized stuff from China: Apparently going to the bathroom is an even trickier matter than just figuring out the squatting thing. The extra challenge comes in figuring out which toilets belong to your gender.

A recent survey of public signs in Zhengzhou, for example, decided that 60 percent of the signs are unclear. One restaurant had banana on the sign for the men's and a peach on the women's; another place had a waterfall symbol for men and a picture of rain for women.

As if needing to pee in a foreign country isn't stressful enough, trying to guess which door you should enter definitely lends an anxious layer to the whole situation. But it could lead to some exciting gossip about Olympic athletes winding up in the wrong place with the wrong people, so we say, bring it on.

Related Stories:
· Banana and Peach Surprise on Menu [Ananova]
· Beijinging: Do You Sit or Squat? [Jaunted]
· Toilet coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Leo Reynolds]

Tags: Toilets / Bathrooms / eBay / → All Tags

Better Hold It Travel: Seattle Unloads Public Toilets

As teenagers, we were threatened with the conversion of the house phone to a pay phone complete with booth if we spent one more danged minute catching up on the latest high school gossip. Now you can do the same to your toilets if you win one of five eBay auctions for public toilets as Seattle yanks its facilities.

In 2004, the city installed five Hering-Bau WCmatic machines, offering unisex johns for free to tourists and locals--and the homeless, prostitutes and vandals. The New York Times even got a source to admit to smoking crack inside one.

After pouring $5 million into the project over four years, City Hall is hoping to make back some of its money in the auctions, which end August 1. The eBay ads suggest that a pre-owned automatic toilet can save you a lot of money, since they normally retail for $500,000.

They'd make a great base for an urban prank--anyone spare us some change?

Related Stories:
· Seattle's Automated Toilets Go Way of the Box and Chain [NYT]
· Why Public Toilets Should Pay You [Slate]
· Toilets coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: fireeyedboy]

Tags: National Parks / Active Travel / Toilets / Bathrooms / Camping / → All Tags

National Parks Travel: The $70,000 Toilet

If going to the bathroom was the one thing holding you back from scaling a mountain, then worry no more. Mount Rainier National Park will celebrate the grand opening of its new $70,000 toilet on Monday. That's right, the park will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony for a bathroom at the Cougar Rock Campground.

Surprisingly, this isn't an excessive government outlay. A Japanese environmental activism group donated the toilet, since Mount Fiji is Rainier's sister peak.

The facility uses cedar chips and natural composting to operate with very little water and apparently very little odor. Apparently.

There's only one issue with celebration. According to the park's official site, an unusually high amount of late season snow will keep the Cougar Rock Campground closed till June 13. What if they gave us a new toilet and nobody came?

Related Stories:
· Mount Rainier National Park [Official Site]
· Mount Rainier to Hold Ribbon-Cutting for Toilet [AP]
· National Parks coverage [Jaunted]

[Not a photo of the five-figure john: latca]

Tags: Beijing Olympics / 2008 Olympics / Beijing Olympics 2008 / Beijinging / Beijing Field Trip / Toilets / Bathrooms / Asia Travel / → All Tags

Beijinging: Do You Sit or Squat?

Our own femme fatale, Monica Guy, has the pre-Olympics buzz from Beijing for us this week.

It was all going so well at April's inaugural event at the shiny new National Stadium in Beijing.

Bottoms were wiggling as a women's 20 km race-walking event got underway. Sexually frustrated male journalists were wriggling in their seats as they watched, and Chinese investors were rubbing their hands in glee. After all, they'd poured four billion yuan ($576 million) into the concrete-and-steel lump. It all looked very promising.

Until the Westerners began to visit the restrooms. A ripple of consternation spread through the watching crowd. Squat toilets, someone whispered. You know, Turkish toilets. State-of-the-art Swiss-and-Chinese design, 36 km of twisted steel and great solar power systems, and the Chinese had installed squat toilets.

more ›

Tags: JetBlue / Litigious Travel / Bathrooms / Toilets / → All Tags

The Unasked Question about JetBlue and the Toilet Seat Flier

By now, you've undoubtedly heard about Gokhan Mutlu, who's suing JetBlue because the airline allegedly forced him to sit on the toilet for an hour and a half during a California-New York flight.

If not, here's the quick version of the story: Mutlu had a voucher from a JetBlue employee which got him the last available seat on a flight February 16. He claims that after a flight attendant complained about her jump seat, the pilot bumped Mutlu from his seat--and into the lav. "Go hang out in the bathroom," the pilot supposedly told him; he's asking for $2 million for his troubles.

We think there's more to this story, but here's the one thing we really want to know: Shouldn't the other passengers on the flight be the ones suing? After all, they were the ones denied access to the bathroom! We're not begging to spend a whole flight trapped in a smelly, drafty, teeny lavatory, but at least we wouldn't have to hold it the whole flight.

Related Stories:
· Bathrooms coverage [Jaunted]
· JetBlue coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: mil8]

Tags: Italy Travel / Gadgets / Toilets / Bathrooms / → All Tags

Italian Bathrooms: The Good, The Bad, The Squatty

There isn't much to be said for the public bathrooms in Italy. Some don't even have toilets, but rather a hole with two spots for your feet. Trust us, this contraption takes squatting to a newly unpleasant level. It's pretty much pee at your own risk.

And it's not just dive bars and gas stations with squat-a-rific bathrooms. We've seen discotheques and restaurants with the same, er, technology.

All potty talk aside, Italy does have one fantastic bathroom invention, which we came across at a Treviso nightclub, Amami. It's a pay-per-use hair dryer and straightener! Finally, someone is thinking clearly.

The gizmo costs €2 per use and we assume you get just enough minutes of power to sexy up your mane--or dry your pant legs.

Related Stories:
· Amami [Official Site]
· Toilets coverage [Jaunted]
· Italy Travel coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Toilets / Bathrooms / Airplanes / → All Tags

Men Rejoice in Shorter Plane Bathroom Lines

It seems like an idea that's been a long time coming, but a German manufacturer is ready to put men's urinals into airplanes, including 747s and A380s. Apparently they've realized that not only is it a smart idea to reducing queuing time in flight, but statistics show that the majority of coach passengers are men.

The new one-man urinal cubicles take up much less space than conventional toilets, of course, and they also save water since they don't need to be flushed so regularly--according to the manufacturer. No airline has yet owned up to ordering any, though.

Somehow, our immediate thoughts went to that other common use of airplane bathrooms, joining the mile high club. But if these cubicles are even smaller than regular toilets, it'll have to be a mile high club for highly acrobatic passengers.

Related Stories:
· Urinals on Planes [Ananova]
· Silverjet's Inflight Girl on Girl Lav Action [Jaunted]
· Toilet Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: markhoestra]

Tags: Celeb Travel / Lily Allen / Scandalous Travel / Toilets / Bathrooms / → All Tags

Scandalous Travel: Lily Allen And Boyfriend Clapped In Club

Singer Lily Allen is denying reports that she and boyfriend Johnny Borrell were thrown out of a classy London nightclub. According to eyewitnesses, Allen and Borrell (who is a singer for the band Razorlight) were discovered in the men's room of the club Dolce and summarily asked to leave.

Lily says it's nonsense:

I always go to the men's toilets when there's a huge queue in the ladies'.

We can't fault Lily for spotting an opening and attempting to cut ahead. Despite our sister once walking in on a retiree in the Bahamas, we have done this. How evil and dangerous is it, really?

Related Stories:
· Lily Allen Denies Being Thrown Out Of A Bar [ICYDK]
· Glastonbury Festival 2007 Post-mortem [Jaunted]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Contact Music]

Tags: Toilets / Bathrooms / Hong Kong / → All Tags

A Golden Throne in Hong Kong

Hong Kong jewelry company Hang Fung's golden toilet is certainly not the first toilet to become a tourist attraction: New Zealanders even make a contest out of interesting public bathrooms. And we've examined a few of the most beautiful around the world. But Hang Fung's golden toilet is certainly the most valuable toilet you'll ever come across, as it's made out of solid 24-carat gold.

Tourists--especially those visiting from gold-loving mainland China--adore the shiny loo, which is part of Hang Fung's Hall of Gold exhibit featuring a total of six tons of gold artifacts. But with the price of gold creeping ever upwards, Hang Fung is considering melting part of the toilet down if gold prices reach $1,000 per ounce. That'd give them a whole stack of cash they want to use to expand their stores in China.

So it's another "here today, might be gone tomorrow" attraction. Drop by as soon as you can for a gawk at the Hang Fung golden toilet. But remember, like the sign in the photo says, no photos. Yeah, right.

Related Stories:
· Golden Toilet Leaves Hong Kong Jeweler Flush With Cash [Yahoo]
· When You Need To Go in New Zealand [Jaunted]
· The World's Most Beautiful Toilets [Jaunted]

[Photo: AFP]

Tags: Airlines / China Travel / Toilets / Baths / Bathrooms / → All Tags

HOWTO: Take a Bath on a Plane

You wouldn't have thought it possible, would you? But Chinese passenger Jin Sheng figured out how to bathe himself in a toilet cubicle on a flight between Nanning and Chongqing this week.

Other passengers complained that the man, who turned out to be a first-time flier, was taking too long in the toilet; others noticed water escaping under the door. A flight attendant opened the door with a key and found the man half naked. When he'd discovered hot water in the lav, he'd decided to clean himself up for the first time in a week.

The airline was powerless to do anything as regulations don't prohibit passengers from taking a bath. And we think that after he'd skipped showers for a week, his fellow passengers were probably glad that he did, anyway.

Related Stories:
· Passenger Has Bath on Plane [Ananova]
· Real Places to Take a Bath [Jaunted]
· China Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: spcoon]

Tags: Toilets / Contests / Bathrooms / New Zealand Travel / Tourism Boards / → All Tags

When You Need To Go in New Zealand

The annual New Zealand's Best Loo competition is on again. A loo is, of course, what all those colonial types call a toilet, so this is a New Zealand Tourism-sponsored hunt for the country's best public bathroom. Apparently bad restrooms are the most common thing tourists complain about, so the tourism board is trying to raise the standard across the country through this contest. Tourism chief Barry Lucinski reckons

The state of a town's public loo speaks loudly about the town itself and its level of public spirit.

Know a good loo in NZ? Entrants need to write 300 words about why their favorite public bathroom should win, and also send in photos. What exactly you're going to say for 300 words remains a bit of a mystery to us but presumably too much toilet humor won't actually be considered funny.

Related Stories:
· Hunt Is On For NZ's Best Loo [NZ Herald]
· The World's Highest Bathroom [Jaunted]
· The World's Most Beautiful Toilets [Jaunted]

[Photo: sbisson]

Tags: Mont Blanc / Toilets / → All Tags

The World's Highest Bathroom

This year is full of firsts for big mountains. We've already had cell phone coverage reach Mount Everest, so now Himalayan trekkers can phone home with the news of their big achievement (or of course ring for rescue if they haven't made it).

Now authorities in France have installed the world's highest toilet, on Mont Blanc. The decision to install two toilets at a height of 4,260 meters was made after they noticed the peak was "full of yellow and brown spots in summer". The toilets will be emptied regularly by helicopter so Mont Blanc's annual 30,000 visitors will be more comfortable at the end of their climb.

Related Stories:
· Europe's Highest Toilet [Ananova]
· Where Cell Phones Now Dare To Tread [Jaunted]

[Photo: Kalense Kid]