Today was a big day. I peed in my first squatty pot! I showered in the bathroom that has no curtain but does possess the dirt of many a decade. Let me tell you a little bit about how this works. There is something that looks a bit like a toilet, but it is really close to the ground. Next you take water from the cistern next to it using a bowl and dump it down the toilet until the waste is removed. Somehow I chose the only day I did not wear a skirt to use a squatty pot. I tried desperately to keep my capris from touching the floor. There was at least a sink outside with soap, which was very important because not enough soap in the world could remove the eww-factor.

Using the special bathroom features found in rural Thailand, I feel like I have washed away a level of prissiness from myself.

Things I don’t understand about Thai bathrooms:

* Every bath has a spray hose next to the toilet. This, I have been told, is used similar to a bidet. My questions: How do you dry yourself afterwards? Do you pull up your panties all soaking wet? And if so, doesn’t that make it look like you peed yourself?

* What’s with the opposition to towels? Many bathrooms have no hand towels paper or otherwise. I’m learning to air dry or use my clothes, but I am not entirely liking it.

Oh, and I got to ride an elephant today … through an historic park with ruins of a 700-year-old civilization! It couldn’t have been more exciting. We fed the elephant afterwards, which was also fascinating. (For more information on all the cool things we did today, check out our group’s blog located under the Blog Roll on the right.)