Brit blogger says he’s found the world’s worst toilet where the walls are used as loo roll
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A British travel blogger who spent £150,000 and traveled 75,000 miles to more than 90 countries to find the world’s worst public toilet says he’s finally found it – in Tajikistan.
Brighton-based writer and blogger Graham Askey – known to his friends as ‘King of the Porcelain’ – scoured the world for the most disgusting loos.
After visiting 91 countries and blogging extensively about some of the worst examples he’s found, the 58-year-old has now discovered the “perfect hellhole”: a rickety tent with walls that double as a toilet roll.
The retired builder says the 5-meter-high toilet in northern Tajikistan is so bad that those desperate enough to use it have to duck over sun-dried poo.
But by far the “most repulsive of all,” Askey says, is that the fabric walls are used as shared toilet paper.
He says some “wall” sections were torn off and thrown out on the cell floor. There is also a danger of disturbing deadly snakes and intrepid rats that have all made their homes in the nearby rocks.
According to Mr Askey, the toilet in Tajikistan’s Ayni region, on the western edge of the Pamirs and not far from the border with Afghanistan, is so filthy that locals refuse to use it unless “absolutely desperate.”
Askey, a self-proclaimed “squatter spotter,” visited hundreds of public restrooms in six of the world’s seven continents before crowning Tajikistan’s outhouse as the worst of all.
Graham Askey estimates he spent a whopping £150,000 traveling the world and photographing the public toilets
According to Mr Askey this is the ‘worst toilet’ in the world, which is located near the border with Afghanistan in Tajikistan
Mr Askey has visited 91 countries in his quest to assess the world’s public toilets – and says all the countries listed in his new book pose a serious health risk
This collapsing structure is a makeshift toilet that Mr Askey encountered in Bangladesh
A hut on three-meter stilts in Indonesia also made the list thanks to its deadly defying walkway
He has included 36 of the “c**ppiest c**ppers” he encountered in his new book Toilets of the Wild Frontier, which hits shelves this week.
Other public toilets that were on his ‘c**p list’ include a sink in Bangladesh and a bath with ‘numbers one and two liters’ in China – plugged in.
A hut perched on three-meter stilts in Indonesia also made the list thanks to its death-defying walkway, as did a wooden chair with a built-in toilet seat in Benin that, prominently on a raised platform in the center of the village, is labeled by Askey as the “least privacy-conscious toilet” he’s ever come across.
Mr. Askey developed his peculiar fascination with public toilets – and in particular their poor construction – during his first overseas holiday to Morocco.
Since then he has visited 91 countries, traveled approximately 75,000 miles and spent approximately £150,000 visiting private and public bathrooms around the world.
He only photographed the outside of the worst toilets he frequented to spare people the “eme-inducing” contents, and would spend the “absolutely minimal amount of time” inside to avoid nausea.
The photos he took have been viewed thousands of times on his “Inside Other Places” blog, which he wrote for the fictional Toilet & Urinal Restoration & Design Society (“TURDS”).
His unique posts about distant parts of the world became so popular that he decided to collect the top 36 in book form.
This tub, found in China, was filled with ‘liters of number one and two’, according to travel blogger
These toilets in Uzbekistan are solid constructions to say the least, but they are still on the list of the worst 36 public toilets in the world
For another toilet in Tajikistan, it is the precarious perch on which it lies among the mountains that sees it on the list
Located on a raft, this toilet in Indonesia drains straight into the water below
This bathroom in Benin contains little more than a wooden chair adapted to fit a toilet seat with a bucket underneath
Though intended as a satire, it also aims to highlight the health risks of poor sanitation.
Mr Askey said: ‘Make no mistake that every entry on my list is incomprehensible.
“Some may look good, but trust me – and I know – they are the most inhospitable places on Earth, and it would be unthinkable to spend even a minute in any of them, except in the most miserable of conditions.” .
‘They all seem to attract audiences who have not yet mastered the basic art of ‘pointing’.
“After my many travels, I thought I’d seen it all, with s**tters on stilts, sinks seemingly full of pee, and bathtubs apparently used as makeshift swamps.
“But after enjoying some of the dirtiest sanitation you’ll find anywhere in the world, the toilet in Tajikistan has got to be the worst in the world – it’s perfect hell.”
“Since there is no toilet paper available, the builders cleverly built it with a fabric cover to provide wiping functionality – and it seems the locals have taken full advantage of it!”
Mr Askey added: ‘While readers will undoubtedly find these woeful public toilets hilarious, it should be understood that they pose a significant and largely unnecessary health risk, which can be significantly reduced by supporting charities such as ActionAid and World Toilet Day.’