We're at High Camp, 4800 meters, and preparing for the big day tomorrow.
All the way up we have used squat toilets. I have traveled around India, and my friend Ming once gave me very useful advice: "when traveling around India, if given a choice between a squat toilet and a Western toilet, always choose the squat toilet." So I know how to use squat toilets, even if my flexibility is a bit challenged. And I always wash; I never wipe. It's not so easy for some of the other Westerners. I wish on flights into South Asia, instead of those pointless instructions about oxygen masks, the air hostesses gave useful instructions about how to use squat toilets.
#1 is no problem. Except, most of us are taking Diamox, the altitude medication, and as a side effect, it makes you pee about every half hour. So, late at night, like 3 AM, it's freezing outside and there's a queue for the toilet - the Diamox Queue!
#2 is more of a challenge. I have a routine. At the first crack of dawn, after the Diamox Queue has subsided but before the trekkers arise, I wake up and go to the toilet, while it is still reasonably clean. And then I do my Daily Business. When I finish I feel great, "Aaaaah, no more Daily Business for 23 hours and 50 minutes!" Once, on my rest day, I violated my routine and slept in. There were two large groups, one French and the other Italian, in the hotel. By the time I got to the toilet at 9:00, it was cluttered with toilet paper and even sanitary napkins. My Daily Business was so unpleasant! I used a whole bucket of water trying to make it all go down, but the papers had definitely clogged the toilet. Finally, I gave up thinking, "it's not my problem!"
Now, at 4800 meters, the pail of washing water is frozen with a thin layer of ice on top. Somebody used a stick to break through the ice to access the washing water. I took one look and thought about tomorrow's Daily Business.
I popped an Immodium and artificially constipated myself until we get back down to lower altitudes.
All the way up we have used squat toilets. I have traveled around India, and my friend Ming once gave me very useful advice: "when traveling around India, if given a choice between a squat toilet and a Western toilet, always choose the squat toilet." So I know how to use squat toilets, even if my flexibility is a bit challenged. And I always wash; I never wipe. It's not so easy for some of the other Westerners. I wish on flights into South Asia, instead of those pointless instructions about oxygen masks, the air hostesses gave useful instructions about how to use squat toilets.
#1 is no problem. Except, most of us are taking Diamox, the altitude medication, and as a side effect, it makes you pee about every half hour. So, late at night, like 3 AM, it's freezing outside and there's a queue for the toilet - the Diamox Queue!
#2 is more of a challenge. I have a routine. At the first crack of dawn, after the Diamox Queue has subsided but before the trekkers arise, I wake up and go to the toilet, while it is still reasonably clean. And then I do my Daily Business. When I finish I feel great, "Aaaaah, no more Daily Business for 23 hours and 50 minutes!" Once, on my rest day, I violated my routine and slept in. There were two large groups, one French and the other Italian, in the hotel. By the time I got to the toilet at 9:00, it was cluttered with toilet paper and even sanitary napkins. My Daily Business was so unpleasant! I used a whole bucket of water trying to make it all go down, but the papers had definitely clogged the toilet. Finally, I gave up thinking, "it's not my problem!"
Now, at 4800 meters, the pail of washing water is frozen with a thin layer of ice on top. Somebody used a stick to break through the ice to access the washing water. I took one look and thought about tomorrow's Daily Business.
I popped an Immodium and artificially constipated myself until we get back down to lower altitudes.
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