Delicious Burdens

I debated whether or not to bring a tabo to Malaysia. In the end, southern
comforts prevailed and I packed the kids’ tabo. What? It’s for them, too!

Our first experience of Malaysian toilets wasn’t exactly promising. As soon
as we landed at KLA, I took one of the girls to the public toilet and we
passed several doors of the squat-to-pee kind. My heart sank until we
reached the first stall with a sit-to-pee toilet. Phew. I also noticed that
every stall was fitted with a handheld bidet.

Yes, mum, you were right.

When we got to the hotel, the automatic bidet—installed just under the
toilet seat—left me with mixed feelings. It seemed a little gross to have
this retractable spout splash water on you. Wouldn’t the dirty water fall
right back on top of the spout?

The bidet isn’t quite effective on small kids. For one thing, their bums
don’t reach far enough and the spray ends up on their lower back, splashing
water upwards. Any attempt to scoot back makes the kids feel like they’ll
fall into the toilet.

But for the adults the bidet is fantastic. By wiggling a little you can
score a direct hit on any region you’re aiming for. The spray is firm but
not…intrusive. It’s very thorough.

And yet it’s not the same. There’s just something about the tabo…