Turkish Plumbing
 

Is it true that Turkish plumbing will not tolerate toilet tissue? I was told that toilet tissue will clogg the toilets and baskets placed next to the toilets are used to dispose of the tissue -- even in the upscale hotels.

I think it is not true.

Actually, it is true in some locations. Not in Istanbul, but definitely so in some of the places we visited and stayed in. Where it was in accomodations, the baskets were changed frequently. It wasn't a problem. In truth, I found Turkey much cleaner than other European countries (there were many more places in Italy that were a bit "distasteful").

We didn't have this in the 4+ star places we stayed at - Istanbul, Antalya.<BR><BR>But in the budget places we stayed at, this was indeed the case.

True for all toilets we found except our hotel in Istanbul (2-star). We adapted to the custom because we sure didn't want to be the cloggers! As for cleanliness, there were some awful toilets but hey, when you gotta go you gotta go!

It seems to depend on the place. I have been something like eight times to Turkey, and the only place where I have met this was the busterminal in Izmir. It also was the only dirty toilet I have seen there.<BR><BR>But that is a practise in all Greek islands.

Just returned from 20 days in Turkey and we were prepared for the hole in the ground toilet along with not flushing. Well......We found that every hotel we stayed in had modern flush toilets, most restaurants had the same. Actually the worst place was the Spice Bazzar my wife even lost her prescription sunglasses down the hole and for some reason failed to retrieve them. Hotels averaged around $20-50 a night so were not the 4 or 5 star type.

In many European countries the plumbing is not designed for paper. In Turkey, they wash themselves after using the tiolet, so they consider paper is only for drying, so they have no problem with the idea of putting it in the waste bin.<BR><BR>In 10 days in Turkey, I only saw one hole-in-the-ground, and it was at a mosque. It was not very clean, but I was desperate.

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