Hang Son Doong tour 8 and Composting Toilets'

SD8 - Friday 6th March to Tuesday 10th March

The Garden of Edam

A fairly standard tour (I was with Watto), with five Vietnamese, four Americans (two couples) and a Russian (who lives in Oman). All nice people but because of the language differences the tour tended to split into two groups, so at times it was a bit like herding cats. Once again it was very misty as we approached Camp One so the 'Hand of Dog' viewpoint was not as impressive as it could be, the only other real points of note were that on the last night (in the Hang En Camp) we were provided with Vietnamese Vodka instead of the usual rice wine, tasty, but a bit stronger, we think this was provided because drinking too much of the rice wine can cause unpleasant side effects (swift filling of the red buckets) in addition to the expected hangovers. The Hang En Camp is now populated with thousands of Ens (or Swifts as you might know them) which means that some areas are subject to a constant rain of poo. The weather is not too hot at the moment so the walk out was comfortable.

Swarm of Bees spotted on the way out from Hang En

You may wonder (or maybe not!), with all these people going to the cave, what happens to all the waste. Rubbish is either burned, carried out or composted along with human waste. At each camp, there are three composting toilets, two for customers and one for the porters, although sometimes the porters also use the customers toilets. One of the toilets at each camp is a 'loo with a view'.

View from Hang En 'Loo with View'

The toilet is a simple wooden framed building which is covered by tarpaulin, sometimes with a door or a roof depending on location.

Toilet 'Building'

Inside the building is a metal frame with a toilet seat attached, nails on the frame provide convenient toilet roll holders.

Inside view

Underneath the frame is a red bucket, which hopefully (if your aim is correct!) catches the waste.

Inside view

Having finished your business, you use toilet paper as normal before 'flushing'.

Rice Husks and Scoop

At each toilet is a large sack of rice husks, this is the 'flushing' and is done by covering everything with a large scoopful of the husks.

View from Camp One 'Loo with a view'

The rice husks absorb any moisture and smell and also accelerate the decomposition into compost. When the bucket is full it is emptied into a large container where it turns into compost (significantly reducing in volume) before being carried out at the end of the season.