Sitting in the toilet, looking around, and all of a sudden my sight was fixed to the toilet paper. Now that I think about it, Indonesian isn't really a big user of toilet paper (in this post I only talk about what occurs in Indonesia. I dunno if it also occurs in other Asian countries). Well, we use it but not as often as Westerners (in this case, Americans).
Okay, let me explain.
In Indonesia, if we want to clean ourselves after doing the business in the toilet, we use water to clean ourselves. The toilet paper is being used for wiping the excess water so that our underwear won't be wet and we throw the toilet paper into the garbage can. While in the West, people are actually wiping the down-under part with the toilet paper itself and then throw the used toilet paper inside the toilet bowl to be flushed away.
Since the Westerners use it a lot, so pretty much their life depends on the toilet paper. I still remember how frustrated I was when I ran out of toilet paper (I used to live in the West for a while, so I know how it feels). Every month I had to buy a big pack of toilet paper, which was not cheap, especially when you're trying to buy a good quality one that wouldn't hurt your down-under part but also clean them really well. At the very least I had to have a 9-roll pack in my house. I had to make sure I will not run out of paper. Oh, that feeling when you ran out of it while you're doing number 2. Argh!
In Indonesia, in a regular household, we don't really care much about having toilet paper. If it's there, it's there. If it's not, eh, no problem. Well, at least that's what happened in my house. O roll can last for months since nobody really uses it. And if I wanna use it, usually I use it for wiping my face when it's dirty or sweaty or for when I blow my nose and trying to clean it. Or even use it for cleaning the spill on the table (don't be surprised when you see on the table in the restaurant a round container for toilet paper since we use it for after eating). We rarely use it for the toilet business. The one time we use it for toilet business is when we go to the restrooms outside our house, i.e. at the mall or restaurant or office building. Why, because usually in those areas, they don't have the water sprayer next to the toilet. They don't want to clean all the water spill all the time, so they maximize the use of toilet paper for the toilet business. But this also brings some conflict inside me. I know that in the West, people are throwing the used paper inside the toilet bowl, but here, I always feel afraid to throw it inside coz I think that we don't have that system to make toilet paper crushed inside the septic tank. I dunno for sure though, but that always brings me a dilemma. Should I throw it inside the bowl or not? Ah, I hate that feeling.
Since we're not really using it for toilet business, we rarely call it as toilet paper. It's just tissue roll for us since we're using it mostly for other else.
So how do you use toilet paper in your country? Is it like in the West or is it like in Indonesia? Can you throw the used toilet paper inside the toilet bowl or not? Or anything else I need to know about toilet paper? Let's talk!