My Friend Godzilla, and the Satisfaction of Peeing on the Floor

Post # 2 about Vietnam:

Godzilla - Best Roommate Ever!
So on Phu Quoc Island (find your own deserted beach!) we stayed at a very remote eco-resort called mango bay. Apparently eco-resort translates to: "self cooling huts (how do they do it??), sporadic solar electricity, and on-site roaming herds of cattle (seriously, they walk right up to you on the beach and around your hut!)" And it was pretty great. Where as most buildings are designed to "keep nature out" these buildings are designed to "only keep out nature that doesn't fly, climb, or measure over 20 inches wide"... which leaves a lot of nature.

On one of our last days, we were taking some photos of the little lizards who were in charge of bug-control when a reptile head the size of a fist peeked over the wall! It disappeared again, and we were left with a weird sense that we were that movie about the giant snake... you know, "The Really Big Snake that ate Brooklyn... and was so Big it Didn't Even Have to Unhinge its Jaw..." anyway, the mystery creature showed up again on the other side of the room, exposing it's head and some of its back. Since the creature was pretty high up and the lighting was dim because the solar power was having one of its "i don't wanna" periods, we had to struggle to see what it was. The entire identification rested on whether the thing had legs or not.
Legs = Lizard = take photos
No Legs = Snake = run away!
While we strained to make out the legs, or lack of such, the thing suddenly bolted up the wall, and we saw that he was in fact, a lizard... an 18 inch long lizard! We named him Godzilla, and he was a nice roommate, didn't make too much noise, and ate lots and lots of bugs! and possibly a small dog...

Pee on the Floor!!!
So I have peed in lots of squat toilets, raised squat toilets, squat porto-potties, squat toilets on fast moving trains (reference to blog title? yes!), and have used some pretty basic toilets, like the kind you flush by dumping in the water yourself, and have also used toilets that were holes in the ground, absorbent dirt.... and once i managed to pee over the edge of a bridge. Anyway, i was thinking Vietnam would have something interesting toilet wise to offer... but at first we saw only nice, boring white flushable toilets and I thought we may be disappointed. However, in our quest to frequent non-tourist areas, we stopped for coffee at a little bar that blared bad asian pop music. I had to pee... bad, so I asked for the toilet, and they lead me to a little bathroom stall in the kitchen, which featured a loosely strong towel in place of a door. I entered... but there was no toilet, no squat toilet... no hole... no absorbent dirt... and no bridge. It was just a raised tile floor. I called out and looked confused, the woman gave me a "oh! of course how could i be so silly!?" look, and i assumed she had shown me the wrong place, and would soon take me to the squat toilet/hole/absorbent dirt. However, instead, she handed me a pitcher full of water. I pointed to the floor and made a peeing sound, she nodded her head. And with that, I had official permission to pee on the floor. I figured I would pee on the floor, then dump the pitcher of water to wash it down the drain... only... i didn't see a drain... So I peed on the floor anyway, cause i really had to go, and figured if i dumped the pitcher, the water would find its way to the invisible train (harry potter music in the background). Well... i did... and it didn't... instead the water/pee mixture flowed over the raised tile and into the kitchen. I wondered what might happen if one had to poo... then stopped wondering, because the imagery was not good.