Sooner or later in Southeast Asia, you'll open a toilet door and find a hose mounted beside the bowl. Travellers call it the "bum gun," and it's standard kit in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar — showing up everywhere from guesthouses to shopping malls and increasingly across East Asia too. If your first instinct is to leave it alone, you're not alone. But it takes about two minutes to learn, and once you do, you may wonder how you managed with paper.
The sprayer exists because water washing after using the toilet is the norm across much of Asia. There's a cultural layer too: you spray with your right hand, since the left is traditionally considered the "dirty hand" used for washing — one reason offering food or handing things over with your left hand can read as impolite in the region.
The technique is simple. Test the pressure first by aiming into the bowl — some sprayers fire harder than others, and you want to know before it matters. Sit or hover in a light squat, aim gently upward, and squeeze the trigger softly. A full-force blast is a cold shock at best, particularly for women using it to freshen up. Locals sometimes use the left hand to guide the stream; if you do, wash well afterwards. Then air dry or pat with a little toilet paper, and hang the nozzle back where it belongs. Never press the nozzle against your skin.
Two things will catch out first-timers. First, the waste basket beside the toilet: most Southeast Asian plumbing can't handle paper, so used toilet paper goes in the bin, not the bowl. It looks odd if you're used to flushing everything, but it's completely normal across developing countries with older pipes. Second, hygiene worries: people fret about who touched the hose before them, but door handles and sink taps in any public restroom carry just as many germs — and washing with water arguably leaves less behind than dry paper.
Plenty of regular travellers end up converts. The spray is genuinely refreshing in tropical heat, useful during menstruation, and even handy for rinsing a toilet seat before you sit down. A small bottle of hand sanitizer in your day bag covers the rest.
For anyone heading to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia or Myanmar on a first trip, this is worth knowing before you arrive — you'll meet these fixtures in hotels, hostels, bus stations and temples alike. There's no way to opt out of them entirely, and fumbling in a cramped stall with no instructions isn't fun. Learn the grip, respect the pressure, and you'll be rinsing like a local within a day.
Story via GRRRL Traveler.