Can You Spare A Square?

Travelling makes you adapt to new situations. You learn how to become more resourceful, a better negotiator and a multi-tasker.

For me, I am proud to say that one of my Travel Talents (let’s call it) is that I am very resourceful when it comes to using toilet paper.

Now, before you jump to conclusions and think that pre-travel I was a paper waster, that’s not the case. It was just the fact that I never really ever had to worry about not having paper around.

Every Travellers Dream...Unlimited Toilet Paper

Well a year in South East Asia can change all that

A while ago I wrote about how I perfected the art of toileting and the process involved in using a squat toilet and now here I am months later writing about toilet paper. This seems to be a bit of a theme…

Anyway, my point is that typically throughout Asia there is no toilet paper in bathrooms. Some guesthouses may provide it, but generally you have to buy your own. In most bathrooms there will be a ‘Squirter’ (Which is a whole other ballgame, but you may be interested in watching the pros of using one by a fellow Aussie traveller) or a bucket of water in which you must use to clean yourself with. Now, while by no means am I a travelling princess there are just some things I can’t bring myself to do; and cleaning myself with a dirty bucket of water is one of them and using a jet stream like squirter is another. (I think the squirter is something you either love or hate!)

An Empty Roll Is Never A Good Sign

So, for our year in Asia I was the toilet paper queen. I’d carry two rolls around with me, one in my daypack and one in my backpack. Ready with the 3 ply whenever nature called. We’d cherish it like it was worth more than gold and I’ll even admit when staying at places that did provide us with toilet paper, upon checkout, we’d take what was left over too (I considered it the same as free hotel toiletries, wouldn’t you?)

So because of this reason, and now the fact that toilet paper was worth more than gold to us, I had to learn how to become resourceful with the paper. I couldn’t just use whatever amount I wanted, I had to think wisely. I mean what if; due to my carefree attitude towards square usage, we ran out of paper, stranded in the middle of nowhere and left with nothing but a bucket of water or some dried leaves? All my years of camping as a child had prepared me for using leaves, but I’d just prefer not to if I could!

Toilet Paper Heaven

Without grossing you out on the details, let’s just say that the paper usage to bodily function ratio was dramatically decreased from travelling throughout Asia.

I sometimes think of the episode in Seinfeld when Elaine asks the lady to ‘spare a square’. We’ll, if she’d asked me, I would have said ‘I can spare you five!’

Watch the clip of Elaine from Seinfeld (unfortunately embedding for this video has been disabled)

Have you become resourceful with something when travelling?