Woah! This ‘Tandas Awam’ at Terengganu Won “Best Toilet in ASEAN”

By Karissa Lund • 25 Jan 2019 in News

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We know what you’re thinking, “Is this real?” Surprisingly, it is. As Malaysians, we know how bad our public toilets can get. For some reason, the typical Malaysian public toilet is always wet, dirty, with shoe marks on the toilet bowl, and don’t get us started on the smell…

If you think that’s bad, wait ’til you stumble upon the worst ones like toilets that don’t even work – straight up looking like that infamous Trainspotting scene or leaving a “surprise” for you.. Eww! Let’s just move on to the good news..

Setting the benchmark for every ‘tandas’ out there to aspire to, the Rantau Abang public toilet at the Rantau Abang Conservation and Information Centre has been named among the best toilets in Southeast Asia.

The clean, user-friendly toilet with attractive landscaping, won the ‘ASEAN Public Toilet Standard 2019-2021’ award in conjunction with the ASEAN Tourism Forum in Ha Long City, Vietnam, last Friday.

According to NST, MPD secretary Fadli Yusof Zakaria, said a total of 16 public toilets from all over Malaysia were nominated for the award and the Rantau Abang one was the only toilet from the East Coast listed among the five best toilets in the category.

Some of the toilets listed are at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Restoran Foh San in Perak, Masjid Cina Melaka and Plaza Merdeka in Sarawak.

Caretaker/cleaner Faridah Sariman, 46, was flushed with excitement when she found out about it.

“I was so surprised and did not expect for the toilet to be recognised at ASEAN level,” said Faridah, who’s been cleaning the toilet with her husband Zainuddin Mat Ali, 44, since six years ago.

Based on what Faridah said to NST, the clean secret behind the Rantau Abang toilet is, cleaning it three times a day, good lighting, good ventilation and instead of store-bought air freshener, she uses a mixture of pandan leaves and ‘bunga rampai’ to keep the bad odours out!

Here’s some pics of the award-winning public toilet: