Squeegee solution
This item appears on page 51 of the January 2015 issue.
When Julane Anderson described the hotel showers without curtains in Bulgaria (Oct. ’14, pg. 55), she could just as well have been describing a bathroom arrangement we frequently encounter in India. We call these bathrooms “self cleaning,” a term we borrowed from our friend Esther Perica.
When faced with one of these bathrooms, we hate having to waste one of our precious bath towels to dry off the wet floor. If we don’t do so, however, not only is it a dangerously slippery situation but we could end up tracking dirt from our shoes into the bathroom and then onto the carpet.
My husband, Clyde, had considered a brilliant and easy solution for years: buy a squeegee in the local marketplace. Finally turning the idea into an adventure, we walked around the Mahalaxmi Market in Pune, India, in February 2013 looking for a shop selling plastic items. We bought a red handheld squeegee for about INR50 (near 80¢), which we now pack for all India trips.
JANE B. HOLT
Hinesburg, VT