My Journey Part 4

My Journey – Part 4 (The battle of the toilet!)

So... I'm in the bus station, needing a break and also a wee. I enter the toilets and the first thing I noticed is that they're a little small so I would have to leave my suitcase outside. I enter a cubicle and my reaction was to walk out again – I thought I'd entered the men's restroom.



The actual toilet itself was just a hole in the ground, there is a little ridge on one side of it and a bin behind it as well as a tap. I bumped into a woman who walked straight into the same toilets. Not wanting to look like a fool, I sat outside the toilet as if waiting for somebody – checking my watch – yep, still had an hour and a half to wait. Not only did I have a long time until I could get my bus, but the journey from the station to Geochang was 3 hours long. I desperately needed the loo so I knew I would have to face this weird nightmare sooner rather then later. I wondered whether to ask somebody how to use the toilet, when approaching a lady I greeted her with a “Hiya” and enthusiastic wave. Her expression conveyed she thought I was completely nuts before walking away from me. Okay... to plan B.

I decided to give the loo a go. I re-entered, leaving my case just outside again. The first cubicle I walked into this time had shit all over the floor – I came to the assumption that it didn't really matter where you did the business as long as it was done within that small space. Not wanting to stand in somebody else's excrement – I stepped out and entered the next stall. It was cleaner by no stretch of the imagination but at least it did not have brown turd smeared everywhere. 'where the hell have I chosen to live for 12 months?!' I locked the door and examined the weird contraption for a good 5 minutes before deciding the best way to do this. When I had finally come to my conclusion, I heard voices just outside and realised my suitcase was there, so I quickly abandoned my second attempt at toileting and washed my hands (I didn't want any onlookers thinking I had actually used the toilet and did not hold hygiene standards.) I walked outside to see my panic about the suitcase was misjudged. There were just two women chatting and laughing on a bench outside the toilet – I smiled politely and grabbed my suitcase. I would obviously look suspicious if I ran out the toilet then ran back in so I decided to wander around the station and see if there were any other toilets I could use.

Another 10 minutes went by and I did not find any other rooms to defecate in. So I meandered back and decided to switch on my laptop to see if I could find any articles on toilet usage in Korea. As soon as the laptop came on it beeped at me telling me it had low battery. Megan was online so I thought it best to tell her I was okay, to let everybody know I was fine and to amuse her with my toilet expedition. She was not disappointed as far as I could tell. 10 minutes later I was back to square one. 'Right, I can do this!'

I waltzed into the toilet, dropped my kegs and pissed.

I'm not going to go into details, but I will say it was not a 100% success!

Right... now to wait for the bus.

To be continued...