My Itchy Fingers

Answer to Nature’s Call #3 – Toilet Signs, Taiwan Trip #15

Itchyfingers were kinda surprised to find the public loos in Taiwan were mostly the squat kinds, except in the train stations and in one of the nicer shopping centres we visited. One of the first loos I visited was in a shopping centre. It was our first night in Taipei, walking around after dinner. We had thought that the shopping centre was a 24 hour bookshop we planned to visit as they had the same name. Went up several floors and saw no books… 😦 So I thought might as well go visit the loo since we might be staying out for a while before returning to the hotel. 

But I was a bit shocked by the loos in the shopping centre….such nice and hip shopping centre selling upmarket things but the loos were…..

This was the cleanest of all the cubicles…but after looking at the condition
of the other cubicles, I was in no more mood to use the loo anymore…Notice
the design of their squatt loo is different from ours, which is totall flat? The
metal thing on the right is for you to step on to flush. All tissues were supposed
to be thrown in the bin at the left. 

I remembered some other countries also don’t encourage tissues to be thrown into the toilet bowl…think it was Vietnam or Cambodia…can’t remember well cos they merely had a small discreet sign. None of these other countries had such big signs to remind users not to throw the tissue in…except in Taiwan…. 😀  

A ‘poem’ on the gracious use of loos at the Shilin Market….You really have
to understand the language to fully appreciate this piece… :p

Well, Itchyfingers shall attempt at a (very!) loose translation for those not proficient in Mandarin… 8)

It said, (from left to right):

“To pee, lean forward; Urine, won’t drip out.
To squat, aim correctly; Loo, will remain fresh.
When done, flush immediately; Faeces, gone you go.
Foreign matters, throw not; Betel nuts, spit not.”

Haha….lousy translation….but you get the idea…. 😀

Another friendly poster in the toilet at Taroko National Park. From left to
right it said, “Toilet paper makes me suffer from indigestion. Sanitary pads
block my intestines. Please do not throw these into the toilet bowl. Keep
public toilets clean.” 

Now I think back, the toilets at that first shopping centre were actually not that dirty. They were just old and the flooring a bit wet. I think because they thrashed the used toilet papers into the bin, there was always this stinky smell in the loos…so I wasn’t used to it that night. Haha…

Itchyfingers also din forget to take nice toilet signs to add onto our collections. 

This nice one at Tiansiang, Taroko National Park showed the tribal people

Another at the Shung Ye Museum of Formosan Aborigines

Another cute loo sign…but this was not a loo….it was a restaurant!

Before we were in Taiwan, I had been reading about this cute restaurant. But due to its popularity, reservations had to be made at least a day ahead. We were not sure if we could afford the time to go and find the place since we weren’t supposed to be staying only in Taipei city. So we decided to give it a try only if our timing allowed us to fit in a last minute visit. But we accidentally bumped into this branch at Shilin on our way to the train station…and wow! So cute! I wanna try! But we were already full and the restaurant seemed to be full house…. 😦

With loo as a theme for the restaurant, what do you think the decor would be?

Big pile of sh*t on a toilet in the window display…why did they keep the 
Happy Hour sign behind?

Cute loo and sh*t shaped merchandise on display….wow!

I peeped into the restaurant for a long while before finally willing to leave. Too bad we didn’t have a chance to visit any other outlets during our short stay in Taiwan. Next time, Itchyfingers will be back and we will make sure we visit the restaurant! :O

Also see related posts:
> Shit Happens – Taipei, Taiwan Trip #8
> Holy Sh*t!
> Answer to Nature’s Call #2 – Toilet Signs, Singapore
> Answer to Nature’s Call #1 – Toilet Signs, Bangkok