Location: Middle of nowhere, Malaysia
Our red-curtained charter bus didn’t have a tiolet, so we roll up to this rest stop at 1 o’clock in the morning.
Twenty minutes we were told.
I stepped off the bus and headed over to the toilets, fully knowing they would be be good ol’ fashioned BYOTP squatty potties. As I turned the corner, I was slightly perturbed to see little man wearing a white hat sitting behind a table collecting 30 sent (10 cents) per use. Nope, I thought to myself. I’ve managed to last 90 days without having to pay to use the potty and I wasn’t going to break my streak now. I was going to make it the whole year without paying for this “modern convenience.”
So I turn around to see what else I can do to pass the time. I see that there is a store that is open at 1 a.m. and decide to have a look. I see the banana chips I’ve grown so fond of in Cambodia, but they look as if they have been rotting on the shelf for several decades.
As I left the store, I am faced once again with the man in the white hat. Do I give in? I reason with myself that it’s just 10 cents and I’ve spent money on more foolish things. I shamefully approached the table secretly hoping that he would nod me by him without having to pay. No such luck. I dropped my ringget before him and entered the hall of squatty potties.
It just doesn’t seem right to charge poor travellers to pee in a hole in the ground.
As I exited, I dug hastily through my purse to try and get my hands on the last two bites of strawberry-flavored radical storms so I could taste something sweet in order to comfort my mood. I paused briefly near the side of the building when I felt something hit my arm. It felt like something had dripped off the roof, so my natural instinct was to look up. No condensation to be found. Much to my dismay, I looked down at my arm and see a fly the size of a hummingbird staring back at me. I didn’t have time to process if my eyes were playing tricks on me, so I shook off my shirt and luckily it flew away. I mean, we’re talking mutant fly here. I wasn’t even sure my team would believe me when I told them about my new pet fly.
1 hour and 20 minutes later, we finally hit the road.
I am happy to inform you that I survived to document the rest stop experience! And to top it off, my teammates cheerfully informed me after I told them about my traumatic episode that the white hat man didn’t have change for their hundred, so they didn’t end up having to pay.
Oh, Malaysia, may I learn much from you.
