No trip to Angkor Wat would be complete without visiting the toilet. Sadly, the ruins themselves and our guidebook are bereft of signs indicating where and how the long-lost inhabitants of this ancient and mysterious temple handled their waste. But there’s no lack of signs just a notch to the south, at the clean, well-stocked, and (for ticket-holders) free public toilets.
This first sign seems to forbid throwing ice cubes into the urinal, but, as an insider in the region, I believe that it actually rules out depositing trash, including bits of toilet paper. A third possibility is that it opposes washing one’s hands in the spray – of water. This is a practice that I witness quite commonly in Indonesia (with my peripheral vision).
The next one is less mysterious but has a grandiosity that befits its setting:
Like one of the temple’s friezes, it is rich with meaning yet perhaps requires interpretation. As I read it, this sign bans, from left to right:
- cigarette smoking
- squatting on the toilet
- using the anus-spraying hose to wash one’s feet, and
- washing one’s head or taking a full shower, with whatever device.
Many Southeast Asian bathrooms have hoses that people use, perhaps along with their left hands, to clean themselves in the toilet. The bathroom near my office offers both a hose and toilet paper. Such hoses resemble dish-scouring ones in many U.S. sinks.
Finally, in my hotel room in the nearby town of Siem Reap, I found this sign:
I did anyway.
Indonesian observations 