Since last week’s post about outdoor loos in England generated so much chatter about toilets around the world, let me tell you about one of the most amazing bathrooms I have ever seen.
When I was pregnant with Graceful, one of the major airlines was offering amazing deals on airfare to New Zealand. Pete saw the ad in the paper, did some research, and called me at work to see what I thought about a pre-baby vacation. Less than a month later, we were on a plane to Auckland.
Remember, I said was I pregnant. About five months along, so at that stage where I no longer was vomiting all the time and was instead hungry all the time. I was also at the stage where I had to pee a lot more often too, which meant that I visited a lot of bathrooms between Virginia and New Zealand — airport bathrooms, airplane bathrooms, rest areas, restaurants, museums … you get the idea.
We visited a public rose garden in Auckland and of course I immediately needed to find the facilities. Lo and behold, we found this:
So shiny, so pretty.
Needs must be met, so I dashed in and did my business.
Here’s what the interior looked like:
Inside, everything was gleaming white and very clean. It also seemed as though everything was slightly damp, including the walls. I shrugged and continued doing my business. After was I done, I stepped outside.
Immediately, the door slammed shut behind me and locked aut0matically. There was a loud noise for a minute or so, followed by a different loud noise. Then it got quiet. The door unlocked.
Pete and I poked our heads inside. The entire bathroom was dripping wet and smelled slightly antiseptic.
People, it was an automatic self-cleaning toilet. How cool was that?
[Contrast that with a few days later when I found myself in a Kiwi rainforest, squatting behind a tree. Definitely not self-cleaning.]
If I could have installed bathrooms like that when we built Jenworld, I’d be a happy woman. Seriously, how awesome would it be to have a clean bathroom every time I used it? Even better would be if I never had to remind the Jenworld juveniles to pick up their dirty laundry after their showers or hang up their towels. The self-cleaning bathroom would do it all for me AND make sure that the toilet paper is refilled when empty.
People, today let’s forget about the scuzziest bathrooms we’ve visited and instead talk about the best ones.
I used a toilet like that in Paris. It was a lot smaller, but same principle. I was serenaded with Madonna singing “Like a virgin” while I peed. I could have done without the music, but I sure liked being able to pee when I needed to, even if it cost a franc. McDonald’s is my usual toilet home away from home, but Paris. You know. One McDonald’s that I knew of.
Speaking of toilet paper, I began using home made cloth wipes (only for fluid excretions as of yet) a couple months ago. Totally satisfactory. Then yesterday I purchased toilet paper for the first time in a while and was appalled at the price. Now I feel both virtuous and thrifty.
Jenny
Target has become my “go-to” for public restrooms. They can usually be counted on to be a cut above the average public loo, which is to say no visible filth. My motto is go fast and don’t look around too much.
They have those in San Francisco. It is good for two reasons – one, the bathroom is always clean and two, the homeless can’t sleep in there overnight.
Nice! Although wet seat? Ewww. Even if it is a clean one.
The public loo I find most fascinating is the one made out of one way glass (in London). Not sure I could “go” with that view…
There was a toilet like that at the beach we went to last summer. I went to get changed out of my swimming costume in the ladies changing room but there was a male cleaner and it was closed so I was told to go to the disabled loo, the one that washed everything.
I got in there and it was foul, several people had gone in, not shut the door properly and the loo was blocked…I couldn’t bear the smell so I left. Only I shut the door properly so it locked and the cleaning began…only for me to discover I had dropped my knickers! I tried to reopen the door and couldn’t.
Several French people explained to me (in French) that I had to wait. I replied in French that I knew that but I had…I could not work out what “dropped my knickers” was in French! Funnily enough, we never got taught “to drop your knickers” in French class at school, and eventually I just said it in English, to the amusement of a TV journalist who had been there filming a disabled swimmer earlier, and whose English was good enough she knew exactly what I had said.
I stood there, in my cossie, clutching my trousers, bra and t-shirt, waiting, waiting. Eventually I got back in and my knickers were there, soaking wet and smelling awful. Needless to say I gave up and pulled my trousers on top of my costume. I did wonder if I would be a footnote on the news thanks to the journalist!
Wow, there are so many places I can think of that would benifit from a bathroom like that!
I am fully FOR self cleaning bathrooms.
Where do I sign up?
I want that bathroom.
Just think, if you had one like that in your house, you could throw the kids in there before shutting the door. Clean bathroom, clean kids. Now *that’s* multi-tasking, baby!
I love bathrooms with automatic faucets and flushers. If only they would have automatic door openers, too!
The strangest thing happened yesterday while I was gone…my husband cleaned the bathroom! What a treat for me!
The ones in San Francisco are slightly smaller, but still wonderful.
Whenever my daughter and I would step out of one, we would say “TaDah!
this is the same idea i had in mind with my drain in the middle of the floor idea. But, I’d be perfectly happy (I said PERFECTLY HAPPY) even if it did not self clean. I can clean, yes I CAN! but I would appreciate being able to use a garden hose to do it. Thank you. No hands and knees chasing down stray, um, curly type hairs from the other gender. . . all over. That don’t seem to want to stay in my cleaning cloth no matter how much I wet them beforehand.
Oh, and on a somewhat related note (re: my lusting after a bathroom that had a drain in the floor, covered in tiles floor to ceiling) have you seen those outstandingly beautiful colored garden hoses? Red, purple, yellow, orange??? Oh man, garden hose lust big time here. But, they’re upwards to 80 bucks in this part of the land. Can’t put out that much for a hose.
he he.!
whoopsie daisy, the name of that hose was the Dramm Colorstorm garden hose, for those that want to google.
I want one of those toilets from the Amsterdam airports. They have a fly etched into the toilet bowl – to aim at.
http://jessalogic.blogspot.com/2008/02/potty-training-for-grownups.html
Can you believe?? AWESOME.
In Seattle there is a very tall building, I think it is the Columbia Tower. I had lunch in a private club there. In the rest rooms, each stall was like a little bathroom with a toilet and sink and a huge picture window looking out over the city. There are no other buildings that are as tall, so it is completley private. Stunning.
The bathroom at my previous voting precinct was awesome. It had leather seats in the sitting area, Bath & Body Works soap, thick guest paper towels with imprinted palm trees, and granite top sinks with brushed aluminum fixtures. At a voting precinct!
haha. I love those self cleaning loos. We have them all over the place in NZ.
Ah, also best bathrooms ever?
There’s this bush railroad on the Coromandel Peninsula in NZ, called ‘Barry Brickles Railway’. This very reclusive potter/artist started building it up through the bush 20 years ago, all by hand, even carrying everything up throught he bush, up a mountain etc… it’s taken a long time and a lot of work. Anyway, you catch the open train up, and at the top – at the ‘Eye-full Tower’, there’s this toilet. It’s one of those decomposing loos. But it’s the building that it’s in that is spectacular. Barry has a thing for building walls and stuff out of bottles. There is the most glorious mosaic glass bottle wall.. the sun streams in, yet it’s private.
oops. Don’t think pics worked.
Links to them here:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/jacey925/P1020321.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v359/jacey925/P1020320.jpg
What do you think of this bathroom?
http://thereifixedit.com/2010/03/08/epic-klduge-photo-whac-a-mole-ever/
Self-cleaning? Oh the wonder of it!
There’s one at a restaurant downtown that is even nicer than my living room. The seats are heated and the toilet offers a dryer and all kinds of rinse options. At first I thought it was the handicapped stall, but nope, it’s just a very high end toilet. Doug says in the men’s room there’s a flat screen TV mounted above the urinals and the movie “Starship Troopers” is always playing.
Needless to say, it is our favorite restaurant.
The men’s room at the X Lounge here in Charlottesville is really unusual. There’s a wall of moving water and you aim your pee at the wall (men only of course) instead of into a toilet. My husband claims it is the most fabulous bathroom anywhere and even though we don’t really like the X Lounge, we talk of returning just so he can use the bathroom.
The Hooters in Richmond has a very souped-up bathroom. It’s a strange experience, using it, because the restaurant itself and the building are so crappy and then you go into the bathroom and it’s like you’ve been transported to an entirely different restaurant. Klassy.
We did the ten star tour of Japan – and the hotels all had Toto toilets – fully electronic command panels that instruct the toilet to have a heated seat, self opening and closing lid, spray arm with warm or cool water to wash your..’er..bottom and a warm forced air dry! Couple this with an in room flat screen tv and a telephone, not to mention luxe bath products – I didn’t want to leave the bathroom to see all the lovely sights!
Oh! That’s the rose gardens in Parnell yes? I used to live a block away from there. The world is a small place!