Thursday, December 28, 2006

Toilet instructions

This was in the bathroom at our homestay in Yogya. It was clearly affixed to the toilet by the manufacturer. The top says "Correct use of the closet (i.e. water closet)." And the large pictures are labeled "Men" and "Men and Women."


At first I couldn't figure out why there was a need for instructions. But then I remembered the "do not squat on the toilet" signs you sometimes see in Jakarta. People are replacing their squat toilets with Western-style ones, and they don't want their houseguests leaving footprints on the seat.

I'm still a little unclear about the pictures on the side, under Maintenance (Perawatan). The top one must mean "do not scrub," but why can't you scrub? "No chemicals," on the bottom, I can applaud from a water-quality point of view, but if you can't scrub or use chemicals, how are you supposed to clean this thing?

As to the middle one, my first guess was "Do not make tea." But it must be "Do not add boiling water." Is that something people do? It never occurred to me to pour boiling water into a toilet ... until now.

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