Adventures with the Squatty Potty

For those of you who have been in this part of the world, you know what that is. I mentioned before that the Thai don't use TP much when going to the restroom. The thing is, they don't usually use western style toilets either, especially when you get out of the city. The ones I saw were more like porcelain sinks with a drain on a raised platform. So, when we traveled today to the church's young professionals retreat in Saraburi, we had to stop at a couple of gas stations on the way to potty and eat. I learned after the first trip to roll my pant legs up - as part of using the squatty potty Thai keep a basin of water next to it to "flush" and clean the floor. So, it's wet, and since I'm not entirely convinced it's just water I rolled my pant legs! I'm also very grateful for the TP Matthew purchased a few days ago - the first stop had some on the wall before you entered the stall, but the second one didn't. I would have taken a picture, but somehow it just seemed rude to take a picture of the inside of a bathroom.

And that was just one of my adventures today! While I learned early on in Bangkok that the lines on the freeway are just a suggestion (it's perfectly accepted to drive in the shoulder like another lane), I did not know that backwards on the freeway was OK. But, lo and behold the driver today missed our exit and rather than continue on and come back like we would in the States, he just stopped and drove in reverse. I fully expected to be squashed in seconds, but nope! People just drove around us. Truly amazing!

The youth told us last night that Red Bull was originally a Thai drink. I don't know if that's true, but they do have an energy drink that has two red bulls on it here. Matthew decided to try it, and said, and I quote, "it makes Red Bull seem like water." The dude is totally wired. He feels like he drank a brick, but he's wired!

I know many of you reading this may be wondering about avian flu here in Thailand. So far, none of the infections have been here in Bangkok that I'm aware of, and in fact historically there are more in Vietnam, it's just I think the first death has been here (a chicken farmer). There are brands of chicken herewho keep themselves flu free by only having sequestered chickens, and that's usually the brand the restaurants use as well being sold in grocery stores. I did some research today since I know others are concerned, and found that bird flu is not food borne anyway. It is contracted by handling infected chickens. The only risk would be if it mutates and goes person to person. That would be scary. But, in the mean time I figure the chances were greater I would catch anthrax from my mail in 2001 than I would catch bird flu right now. We've talked about it and decided to get scared when there's real reason to do so, like confirmed mutation or human-human transmission. Granted, makes you not want to eat chicken!

Just a day and a half until we leave for home. My goodness my world is bigger now! I think we'd be happy here, but it will be nice to return to the familiar!