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As I am telling about my journey, people always come up with questions to one of the most embarassing and intimate things: going to the toilets.

Yes, we all need to go, wherever we are and when you are in foreign countries and remote areas, it might take you your last nerves to fulfill nature's urge.

In Europe the toilets are the one place where you will definitely be alone and hidden from all the looks. The only place where you can be just for yourself.

Well that's not the case everywhere.

So much should be said first: the Romans had public toilets where they could sit next to each other and discuss important matters (you can see one place like that in Carthago, Tunisia)

In the Kalbeliya village in Rajasthan, India, it was out of question to go alone to the toilets (as a woman). Going to the toilets is not even the right expression as there are no toilets. You go with your partner just out of the house, a bit away, into the desert.

My Kalbeliya mother Sua used to choose the place. I would then squat next to her and was expected to do the business.

Well useless to say that I was feeling a bit under pressure the first time !!! But you get used to anything...

The women have a special way of pushing back their skirts so they can squat but not reveal anything of their anatomy.

Hm. Also for this I need some failures to understand how to place my skirt (thank God for petticoats).

One afternoon, some women of the community came to me. "Hey Sister" called one, whileand shortly pulling up her skirt. I didn't know what it was supposed to mean at that point. I understood when I was squatting with three other girls under the Indian moon, somewhere in the Thar desert.

Also the whole day, Sua would ask me if I need to go to the toilets. I kept saying "No, I'm ok", until I understood the question was rather if I could acompany her to the toilets.

So why do you go together to the toilets? Well first because something might happen. A snake could bite you. Someone could turn up and bother you.

But what I also think is: particularly young girls are very busy the whole day, cooking, washing, caring about everything. Going to the toilets with your friend or sister is probably the only time where you can exchange a secret or a worry...

In Ladakh there were toilets in the house. Or rather ON the house. You needed to climb up the stairs to the flat roof to reach a little corner surrounded by a little wall. Behind this very small privacy, a hole had been digged for you. Everything which falls inside is used as compost later. Usually there is a shovel and earth to throw through the hole afterwards.

Yes you can look in the hole, I did it but sorry, I can't tell what I saw !!!!

Anyway, strikingly, the place is not too stinky, probably thanks to the cold. And of course it avoids using water which is very scarce in Ladakh and even more in winter.

In the Africa, the toilets were represented by a little cabin with a seat like in Europe but of course no flush system. The cabin was located in the compound reserved for the cows at night. You needed to go through them peacefully in the early morning, when they hadn't been released yet.

And in all other countries remember: paper is a luxury...

Toilets in Ladakh

A kind reminder in Bali airport...

Somewhere in the Tunisian Sahara...