I think I've put a picture up here before, but if not, allow me to present the "squat toilet." It is so named because it's essentially a hole in the ground that you squat over and do your business.
Needless to say for a pampered Westerner like myself, a squat toilet is the thing of nightmares. Thankfully I've only had to use one once in all my years here. This is because for the most part any bathroom made in the past fifteen years has a western style toilet.
The surprising thing though is that they will usually have both, a western toilet and a squat toilet. In fact even new public bathrooms made now will still be made with squat toilets. This because believe it or not there are still people who prefer this kind of toilet. Although I'm sure this will change in the future as skinny jeans become more popular and people won't want to take off their pants just to be able to squat.
Granted I can see the squat toilet's advantages, but they are not great enough that it outweighs it's drawbacks. The biggest drawback is usually guys will stand up and pee in them, which ends up with pee being all over the floor. Granted you get this with any bathroom, but with a squat toilet there ends up being pee EVERYWHERE!
But I must admit other than the one time I was forced to use one cause i was out in the mountains and had no choice, there is one time that I actually elected to use one. Without getting too graphic, let's just say that the medical exam for getting a permanent visa in Taiwan is very extensive, so a squat toilet is very convenient for collecting a specific type of sample.
