Turkish… delights?

Intimidation starts right at the door!

Having travelled mostly to European countries before, I’d never thought I might one day find it quite intimidating… going to the toilet!

Around here it happens to me every time I go to a public toilet at a mall or a restaurant.

Here are a couple of rules to get over this delicate situation:

1)   Don’t go during prayer time, for the corridor leading to the toilets will probably be crowded by ladies kneeling down on their prayer mats, which can be quite impressive at first sight.

2)   If you’re lucky, you can pass on to rule 3). If not, and it’s almost always my case, the first door you will push will open on to a relatively clean yet horrible Turkish toilet (squat toilet)! And if, like me, these things traumatised you as a child, you will then have to take the expression of disgust off your face and carry on to the next door to see what’s hiding behind! Repeat until you find a proper toilet seat.

3)   When you’re finished and go wash your hands, you should then avoid looking in the mirror: it’s no place to check your hair or make-up: Can’t you see you’re the only one showing your hair and wearing make-up here? While you concentrate on not looking in the mirror, you can observe that the Saudi women, instead of looking in the mirror, take up their face veil and wash their face thoroughly (I’m talking about great splashes of water here!) 

I suppose wearing a face veil must feel like wearing a face mask; after a while the skin just feels kind of dirty and sticky.

4)   Concentrate on looking “modest” until you finally come out of the toilet with a triumphant look on your face: you made it!