Joe Louis dreams of a nice hot shower
There are many challenges that come along with hiking up a mountain. The chance of altitude sickness. The physical strain of walking for uphill for hours. And the bathrooms. Fortunately, on the Annapurna Circuit, the devolution of the lavatory situation occurs gradually, as the ascent up the mountain takes place.
Before the hike, back in town, the bathroom outlook is rosy. Most hostels will have toilets with seats and the showers have heads, even if the pressure and water temperature are vary by day and location. But these luxuries soon disappear. On the first few days of the hike you will be introduced to squat toilets and gas-powered showers at the local tea houses. Although squat toilets look foreign, they are actually supposed to be healthier for your organs, in some eastern medicinal manner that is beyond my high school biology knowledge. Fortunately though the gas powered showers are at least warm, even if the gas head more closely resembles a faucet.
As you progress upward, restrooms make way for outhouses. These are external “rooms” on the side of the tea houses, with a squat toilet and a solar-powered shower. The thing about solar power – not always reliable. You better beat out your fellow campers if you want a piece of that water warming energy!
By the time you are a week in, you are probably close to or at Manang. At this point your only option for washing up is the infamous bucket shower. Your host will warm up a bucket of water by the oven and give it to you with a smaller scoop bucket inside (and probably charge you a $1 for the hassle). There are different approaches, all uncomfortable. I talked to people who like to warm their feet in the bucket first, before attempting the actual washing. I dove right in. Keep in mind that the air around you is freezing cold and so just being naked is painful. When pouring the scoop of water on your body you will experience a second of clean joy. But that second is fleeting and now you will feel even colder than the freezing feeling from before because you now you are also wet. So hurry and scoop again! But wait it’s freezing now again! So scoop fast! Brrrrrr. It’s cold just thinking about it. I recommend taking bucket showers as soon as you get to a tea house before the night time chill settles in.
For the next week of the hike you are likely to just forego showering altogether. Everyone else is so don’t worry about social etiquette. Besides, that pesky bodily aroma will be buried under several layers of clothing. During the evenings at least.
See what other bloggers are saying about bucket showers:
“The bathrooms were normally a shared outhouse with a squat toilet, cement floor, a bucket to put water in, and sometimes a ‘shower’. However before you get grandiose visions of shower heads and curtains…think again. A shower normally consisted of a faucet head situated about a foot above my head; you literally stood underneath a faucet. I normally found it easier to simply fill the bucket with water and take bucket showers”
–OttsWorld
