I think it's time for me to tell you about my experience in the public toilet in Karachi airport. I was queueing to check in for a very early flight to Lahore when I got... that runny guts feeling so I left my laptop with my agent and hurried off to find the bogs. The terminal was absolutely brand spanking new and the men's bogs were gleaming marble, spotless, beautiful and attended by a young Pakistani boy who was going round with a mop and rag, really proud of his new job in the newest and most beautiful toilet in Pakistan.
Unfortunately though some dirty so-and-so had been standing on the seat, which was covered in dirty wet shoe prints. So not wanting to sit down I dropped my keks and just bent over and hurriedly let rip. Slowly it began to dawn on me that I wasn't hearing the expected sound of hot liquid pouring into the pan so I turned to investigate and discovered to my horror that the whole lot had shot out horizontally, hit the wall in a burst and was dribbling down over the pipework and spreading across the floor. What to do? I performed my ablutions and did my best to clean up with the water hose but in the end had no choice but to leave most of the suppurating mess slowly spreading out like the waste from Chernobyl.
I felt terrible as I washed my hands and as I left the men's room I looked back to see the sweeper who had reached my trap and opened the door; I watched as his jaw dropped in horror and he looked up at me in disbelief... all I could do was shrug and make that universal "sorry" gesture and leave him to clean up. Now I know how the French make such a mess in campsite squatters....