For a country that is portrayed as being backwards, Cambodia goes all out on their toilets. We found “6’s” everywhere. Everywhere. At first we assumed it was the result of using WC’s in foreign-friendly restaurants. Then we went on the bus to Siem Reap and stopped in a roadside restaurant where the toilet was…a “6”, though I took off half a point for inconvenience since the toilet paper was by the sink and nowhere near the toilet. Once we arrived in Siem Reap, the toilets continued with their perfect 6.0 rating. That is, until I went to Angkor Wat. Somehow I managed to find the only toilet in all of Cambodia (or at least the places where I went in Cambodia, which were, admittedly, tourist centers) that was not a “6”.
We were still in the temple area, and I was struck with a sudden and urgent need, so I followed the signs to the toilets. Upon reaching it, I could tell from a distance that I had found a traditional toilet. For 2000 riel (50 cents), I bought three squares of tissue. Without that tissue, the toilet would have been a “0” (for a reminder of the toilet ranking system, refer to this post). I’m quite content using whatever toilet is available, so the whole affair with manual flushing, tossing the tissue in the bin outside, and not washing my hands didn’t phase me in the least, that is, until Diane went to a different toilet and returned to triumphantly inform me that it was, in fact, a “6”. Not only was it a “6”, it was absolutely free. Damn the luck! I figured she deserved a break since she bartered a woman down to $10 for a book, and then, once the transaction was complete, was swarmed with at least eight other people offering to sell her the same book for a dollar.
We went on our merry way and only encountered bathrooms with perfect scores from that point forward. Now that I have regaled other travelers with my tale, it seems that there is a consensus, and I AM the ONLY person that found a “1”…or at least, the only person that was willing to pay for the privilege.
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