On toilet paper
Toilet paper—or crapper paper as my dad used to call it—is a big issue on overland travel. The ‘bottom’ line is—you supply your own. Nothing wrong with that. How in heaven’s name could an overland company anticipate how much crapper paper one person, let alone a truck load of passengers, might go through in 24 weeks. At the very least, it depends on how good your gut stays. In some circumstances you could use quite a lot.
We’ve been lucky so far—hardly used any of our own paper. Mostly we’ve stayed at campgrounds that actually put paper in the cubicles. Plus most of our daytime toilet stops have been at service stations or supermarkets. Again, there’s been paper on the rolls. Not good paper, I hasten to add, certainly no more than 1/2-ply. Imagine the thinnest paper you can. Got it? The toilet paper is thinner than that. But who cares when there are rolls of it.
The toilet paper run in the Parliamentary Palace in Bucharest.
The toilet paper in most tourist sites has been just as sorry, but I had a pleasant surprise today. We visited the Parliamentary Palace in Bucharest, Romania. It cost a bomb to build and a slightly smaller bomb get in—a whopping A$12—but the toilet paper was half decent—and it’s okay with me if that’s how they spend all my admission fee. I was delighted to get this quick, and rather dark, shot, of two housekeepers (or are they palacekeepers) carrying giant packs of toilet paper through one of the grand hallways.
I’ll let you know how it goes as we travel east into Asia. From now on, most of the paper on sale will be an industrial-type pink version that is 2-ply but not finger-proof. It lasts a few days at best because there are about 50 squares on a roll. The same stuff was abundant in Africa—in a range of lurid colours.
But I have to add a note about Africa, where toilet paper was even more of a day-to-day issue. Unwittingly, we bought the grandma of all toilet papers in a supermarket in Yaounda, Cameroon. Poor John tracked it down. It was white, 2-ply, soft, sturdy, finger-proof and super tightly wound. The packaging claimed each roll was equal to four. I reckon each roll was more like eight or maybe 20? I felt as if we owned the never-ending roll. The four-pack we bought lasted us for the entire rest of the trip—or about six months. Poor John and I are on the look-out. Wish we could remember the brand name.
Where to next? 
We had a joke here about how one knew when the train entered Romania…it was when all the toilet paper dissapeared:))
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That’s so funny. I’ve heard a lot of toilet paper jokes, but never that one. Thanks.
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Hi Sy
I’m still getting used to the format of this blog. My daughter set it up and I haven’t had a proper chance to go through all the help notes. I’ll try to set up something for questions—if it’s possible—and add a map.
Not sure about the ability to revise your own comments, but I’ll look around.
I see that you can indeed edit your own posts. Yay! Off to look for a map now.
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Do as the locals do, use a coffee tin with water and your left hand….
Sy S
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P.S. 1) Is there an area to ask general questions ?
2) Can I revise an initial post by clicking the “reply” and editing it ?
3) A map of some kind and marking each place as you go along, would be nice; only a
suggestion.
P.S. #2- Thanks LeggyPeggy for your reply (on another post). To respond to my comments above:
1) A separate area for General Questions, Comments not related to any specific post would be
good.
2) I had initially posted this message, then two hour later it said pending approval (words to that
effect). However, I tried to click on “Reply” just below this post and it did indeed revise the post
(in which I had added my P.S. comments). I will try a second time to revise this post and if you
can read this new P.S.#2 (and only one post) then once again I was able to revise my initial post.
3) A map(s) would be great showing the overall areas of your adventure traveling from Europe to
Asia to Australia. And perhaps adding the actual route you have already traveled on (to date)….
Just a thought, since I have already “Googled” and checked out maps on your travels so far…..
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Hello LeggyPeggy,
Sorry for all the clutter with all my posts/revisions…. Ideally there should be only one screen and my revisions. Maybe your daughter will consolidate my posts… but not a big deal either way. And great that your daughter is handling the Blog web pages and site. Plus you have better things to do, then all this… like enjoy each adventuresome day.
Sy S.
Metro NYC
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Hey Sy — I figured out how to tidy it up. Yay!
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