Pay and Use

One of the things that causes foreigners the most anxiety in India are the toilets. I'm going to go into that subject in another post that I am working on, but in the meantime wanted to blog about my experience today.

So I am walking along Chowpatty Beach, Mumbai's famous beach which in the evening comes alive with tons of people, food vendors and hawkers selling all kinds of crap like you'd find at the Swan Valley Rodeo. During the day it is a beautiful and endless promenade along the ocean. No swimming though as the water is too rank.

So I am waking along, it's so hot and I have to go to the bathroom. I may be alone, but one of the things I enjoy about India is that there are Pay and Use toilets everywhere. You pay 2 rupees and away you go. I've always found them to be quite clean and not an unpleasant experience. Well the one I came across today was a little different. I've mentioned that Mumbai has over 18 million people. That's a lot of people! And thousands and thousands, perhaps millions even, I don't know, are homeless and/or do not have running water. So they use these Pay and Use toilets for everything: bathing, washing clothes, and perhaps even going to the toilet while they are there. I say that because I'm pretty sure that the poorest of the poor don't pay 2 rupees just to use the toilet. Instead they just go wherever, which unfortunately you can see and/or smell at times. But bathing and washing clothes are more worthy of those precious 2 rupees.

So I see the Pay and Use and I think GREAT! Because it's always a stressor when you have to go and you don't know if you'll find a place. Well, I walk up to pay and see men half naked in their ol' bikini briefs (which by the way is not a good look for men when they are wearing tight pants..it's why thongs were created for women) bathing on the men's side on the left. Kids are coming in and out naked. I pay and naively walk into the women's side on the right which looks like the inside of a car wash, with naked women and children bathing and washing clothes. Clothes are strung up everywhere, there are basins full of clothes and water and suds flowing all around. I kind of stand there taking it all in, and I mean all of it (certainly more than I ever wanted to see), until an older, naked woman motions for me to go into one of the open stalls. I succumb to the pressure and start to go in (in my flip flops) but there is A LOT of water and suds, so I start to retreat to dry safety. Then she motions again for me to go in..so I relent and with great care splish and splash over to the stall as everyone sloshes around doing their thing.

I go into my stall which is a squat toilet (which I normally prefer) and as I stand facing the door, water and suds from their activities are flowing under the door back at me and into the toilet. Usually you pour a bit of water into the squat after going, but there certainly was no need for that. It was so wet and as you can imagine I didn't leave dry.

And as I carefully stepped out of the "Chamois Car Wash" amongst the nakedness, and with my wet feet, I thought, boy it sure would be great to have a disinfecting wipe right about now. And at that moment I sure missed you Kelly, as I know you would've come through for me :)

And as I sit here in an air conditioned McDonalds I feel my feet tingling and hope it's not some type of infection festering. Next stop, to the store to buy some wipes. Cuz Mumbai is a place where you have to expect anything, and next time I'm gonna be prepared!