Irregular: Toilets in Strange Places
By Jo Phillips
To honour October’s theme of irregularity, here’s an irregular article about an irregular thing. More specifically: toilets in unusual or irregular places. Those with wanderlust among us would be quite familiar with how different toilets are all over the world and this article would demonstrate in just which odd places toilets can be found.
The Sahara Desert, the world’s biggest (excluding the Arctic and Antartica), is a vast wasteland of sprawling sand which is home to just under two million people, nomads and permanent residents alike. The desert is just where you would least expect a toilet, despite being home to a variety of cultures. There is something both haunting and humorous about the image of a single stall in the middle of an endless landscape of beige.
Next up we are transported to another corner of the earth in Halong Bay, Vietnam. Canoe, kayak and boating enthusiasts would be struck to come across this pair of portaloos located at the water’s edge, tucked in by surrounding foliage and rocks.
Remaining on the topic of water, Lake Powell is also home to a collection of strange toilets. Floating on the reservoir between Utah and Arizona, these particular toilets have been criticised as an eyesore to an otherwise splendid view. Those responsible of the lake’s environmental well-being have argued that they prevent tourists from ‘going’ in the lake itself if they are unable to reach the land bathrooms instead.
Denali (formerly known as Mount Mckinley) is a popular challenge for climbers in North America. The mountains toilets are of course not only found in unusual places but look irregular too. These toilets are wooden boxes amongst a sheet of snow, with (as seen by the picture) little privacy from fellow climbers.
The final of these oddly-placed toilets is not even located on Earth but is, arguably, the least unusual toilets on the list. The International Space Station has to accommodate its astronauts and each of their human needs. Designed for weightless environments is not glamorous but surely the cleanest of the lavatories in this article.