Europe
Recently, the most popular in Europe have become stalls with automatic doors. Drop a coin - the door opens and the complex starts working: water is supplied, pleasant aromas spread, music plays. After each visitor, the room is sanitized: jets of sterilizing solution with shampoo wash the stall, then streams of hot air dry it.
In some toilets in European capitals, you can take a shower, clean your shoes, buy socks or tights, and even stock up on condoms. However, in Paris's toilets, for some reason, signs forbid the use of razors and toothbrushes.
England has the most public toilets. They are located near cathedrals, monuments, and museums - that is, in places where tourists gather. All British toilets are distinguished by cleanliness, but otherwise they are completely unlike each other - different flush controls, different interiors, different music. Portugal is the only European country where every toilet, in addition to the toilet bowl, has a bidet. In Italy, one should distinguish between signs on doors: Senore (men) and Senori (women). In some establishments in Germany, boards like school boards are attached to stall doors, and colored chalk is provided - draw and write whatever comes to mind.
At the entrance to toilet facilities in Poland and Hungary, attendants sit and watch over guests. Payment is taken not for an abstract visit to the toilet, but for specific actions. Urinating costs one price, defecating costs another, and washing hands a third. The attendant adds up the cost of each individual action and collects the total at the exit.
Asia
In Mongolia, traveling Europeans are shocked by people who relieve themselves in plain sight on the roadside or between railway tracks. The same can be seen in India, but in that country the "Accessible Toilets Movement" has opened a large number of "hygiene palaces" designed for users of all castes and social strata. The cost of use is purely symbolic, and here you can also get water, a bucket and soap, use a shower, a laundry and a barber's services.
In Beijing there are paid facilities with quite clean stalls and completely European toilets. To prepare the capital for the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese government will spend $30 million on renovating public toilets. In Thailand, rose petals float at the bottom of toilet bowls, and in Bangkok's gay quarter you will find special stalls for sexual minorities - they are painted with a pretty girl with a thick, upward-curled mustache.
In aesthetic terms, hardly anything can compare with Japanese "meditation rooms". Since the inhabitants of the Land of the Rising Sun do not separate soul and body, they see nothing ugly in their natural functions. A typical toilet is located in a garden, among trees, stones and flowers. Without leaving the spot, you can admire nature, listen to the rustle of rain and the singing of birds. It is said that at least half of Japan's poetic masterpieces were created in these places of seclusion.
World of Islam
Wherever a faithful Muslim may be, he must know where Mecca is located. In hotels in Islamic countries there are signs - looking at them, visitors learn which direction to pray. When attending to natural needs, one should take a position such that Mecca is not directly in front or behind. A believer should refrain from visiting the toilet on a train or plane when the direction of movement changes frequently.
True Muslims do not use toilet paper but water. Therefore, they almost never have hemorrhoids - ablutions are performed in a natural manner. In the toilet, to the right of the toilet bowl, you will find a flexible hose with a tap. Sometimes a copper tube protrudes directly from the toilet bowl, pointing upward - a stream of water shoots out from there. If there is no hose or tube, there is a plastic scoop and a barrel of water in the toilet. You should know that only the left hand is used for hygiene procedures. Moreover, for some reason it is believed that a Muslim should urinate while sitting - urinals are extremely rare in toilets.
It cannot be said that a toilet in a Muslim country can be found on every corner. But on the territory of a mosque there is always a washroom-toilet. On the streets of Istanbul and other large cities, you can see signs of two kinds: "Asian style" and "European style". In the first case, you come across an ordinary hole in the floor, two footrests and a jug of water; in the second, you find an ordinary toilet, a washbasin and a hand dryer. If you wish, the attendant sitting at the exit generously sprays you with pungent cologne.
USA and Australia
In America and Australia, however far apart they may be, toilets are very similar. In both, the toilet bowl uses a peculiar flush design: a bottom water supply. At first, this feature can be mistaken for a malfunction. The water stands very high, filling the ceramic bowl almost to the brim. When flushed, a strong vortex forms that goes down the drain, and the toilet instantly fills back to its previous level. The flush is often dual-flush. Pressing one half of the button drains 3 liters of water, pressing the other drains all 6 liters that fill the tank.
In the 21st century, the toilet business requires modern information support. In America, there is already an Internet portal that makes it easier to find public toilets in the 12 largest cities. Australia, meanwhile, became the first country in the world to prepare an interactive map of toilets. The nationwide database provides information on the location of 13,000 facilities and the quality level of each on a five-star scale.
Modern bio-toilets are used not only in cities, but also in rural areas. And you can solve the problem of having a toilet at your dacha plot very simply: order a bio-toilet that can be installed both in the garden and in the vegetable garden.
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