After just shy of three years in Cambodia we finally made it back to North America on our first home leave. The first sign of culture shock on this trip has been particularly rough. It started when we arrived at the Seoul airport and discovered that most of the toilets required toilet paper.

I haven’t written about this before but most bathroom hygiene in Cambodia is water based. Traditionally, one washes with a small bucket (which is also used for bucket showers). Newer toilets have external bidets. I can’t take a photo of an external bidet (because we’re in Pennsylvania) so I’m using a photo from bidet.org as a reference instead.

When we first moved to Cambodia in 2019 we continued to use toilet paper but, slowly, transitioned to using the bidets in our house (and just about everywhere else). It wasn’t something we even really thought about until our trip home. Then the girls each had separate panicked moments in the bathrooms on our layovers. Where’s the sprayer? How are we suppose to clean? Oh right.

We’ve been fully converted without even realizing. Toilet paper, even the softest we’ve tried, is very rough in comparison; leaves us feeling a little sore and not nearly as clean as normal.