Toilets on the Trek

You can plug your intestines with peanut butter or Cheese Whiz only so long before you find the immediate urgency to use the toilet facilities along your hike in the Himalayas. Along the trekking trail in the mountains of Nepal there many villages and comfortable lodges where you can make a pit stop, but due to the practical matter that there is no indoor plumbing (or any plumbing for that matter), so the "toilet" is usually in a wooden shack (with out without a door) separate from the other buildings. It is built so that it is elevated from the ground and situated so that is will not cause sanitation problems with its runoff. The layout inside is just enough room to stand in place over a hole cut out in the floor. Below is a pit dug in the ground that probably already has a lot of deposits in the bank.

What you won't find is a place to sit, a roll of toilet paper, or a sink to wash up. You're on your own as far as the TP and washing your hands. It's also up to you to figure out how to get your business to properly land within the hole and to avoid tagging yourself. One bonus feature you'll find there is a pile of dried, aromatic leaves and a small broom to sweep them to cover your evidence before you leave. Of course this is the luxury model when you're up on the trails. If you're in a camp there will be a mini tent a little distance away that is a challenge to squeeze into, and inside is a small, open pit in the ground. With this experience it's actually a relief to get back to a more developed village with plumbing, and they'll have a porcelain toilet that you can flush with a bucket of water next to you. Of course you still have to squat to the ground, but it feels so much more civilized.