Paddling to Malaysia: New Challenges

This is the inside of one of the porta-potties at the site. I'm usually shy about using squat toilets, but I decided to suck it up and follow the pictogram instructions on the back wall (there is a big x across the picture of someone facing the door and a green check mark on the picture of someone facing the back). Notice the empty roll of toilet paper...we'll have to go armed with our own. The tube/hose at the back is so that you can wash yourself (with your left hand of course) instead. That's not happening for me. I saw the end one of those tubes resting on top of the bowl where it had obviously sat for a few uses...I'm not touching the end of those.

Besides squat toilets, there are some other specific challenges we face:

Sun: The heat is making a huge difference in everything we do. It is like the hottest day of the summer in Ottawa, with a little extra scorching when the sun is direct. Staying at the race site for more than a few hours is very draining and we changed how we warm up. We are already warm, so doing the usual run would overheat us, sending our blood out from our muscles and to our skin for cooling. So, we're doing gentle stretching instead to get our muscles ready, which for me is a bit of mental block because I'm so conditioned against stretching before doing some exercise to warm up. I'm coping by first doing loosening things, like hip rotations and slow side left-right, right-left punches. Sun screen is of course very necessary, but we have to be careful that we don't block our pores and stop the sweat getting through. I'm wearing Neutrogena SPF 55 on my face and Kinesys Sport SPF 30 spray for the rest of my body.
Boats: I mentioned before the boats are different, so I've had to shift my stroke a tiny bit to accommodate the lack of leg room. I'm noticing some new muscles being used that haven't been before.
Language: The organizing committee has provided us with a liaison officer, but her command of English is not 100%, and fair enough. I'm sure the German team has it worse than us and the Chinese teams last time in Toronto must have faced this too.
Drug Testing: This is actually not a new challenge, but we heard last night that the testing will be randomized by team and by racer number. In Toronto in 2006, they also talked about this, but we didn't actually see anything. If they do more than just threaten it this time, we'll have to deal not only with someone watching us pee into a bottle, but also with trying to do that while squatting at the toilet.
Drink: The woman who greeted us at the airport said that 'The water in Penang is safe, no problems. You must boil it, but it is clean' (?!?) Our Rough Guide says that the water in the main cities is drinkable, but the Lonely Planet doesn't distinguish between urban and rural and just says 'Don't drink the water'. We've been buying large 5.5L bottle of water and using it to stay hydrated and to brush our teeth. A few times we have slipped up and put our toothbrush under the tap, but we've been okay so far. I know other team members have been brushing their teeth without using the bottled water and are okay. Coconut water is a boon...it has hydration and electrolytes all in one, and it's fun to put the straw in the coconut and drink it all up.
Food: We're all quite worried about eating something bad and getting sick, but so far we've been okay. The hard part is getting the quantity of vegetables we normally get since most platters are rice / noodles and meat with a tiny bit of veggies. Bihun, a clear noodle soup with bok choy is probably our best bet for food vitamins.