Embarrassing travel culture shocks

[WildBalonz]

Since it’s summer and holiday season I thought it might be fun to share some silly or funny or embarrassing cultural shocks we’ve all had when travelling!

I’ll start with an incident that is both funny and embarrassing depending how you look at it. A few years ago me, my brother, his wife and her brother (my brother and sister in law) went on a trip all through China. We were on a tour bus traveling through some rural areas outside Guangzhou. We had a pit stop to stretch our legs and use the toilet etc and our driver proudly told us that the public loos we had stopped at had western toilets which were very uncommon in these areas. Great we all thought, however what he didn’t mention is that instead of individual cubicals they had very small almost like shower screens separating each toilet. Not much privacy at all! It made for a very embarrassing poo for me my sister in law and two other ladies on our tour 😂. I laugh at it now but at the time it was probably the most awkward and embarrassing experience our lives. Luckily she’s a good sport and we joke about it these days!

My culture “shocks” are all from Britain, I’m from abroad.

• Tea made with milk. In Europe we squeeze lemon juice in it, so tea with milk looked utterly baffling to me first.
• Dinner being the main meal, whereas in Europe it’s lunch. We usually eat something cold and light for dinner, at least in my family.
• How spoiled British children are😆
• How British children are not dressed up properly in winter, little boys sometimes just wearing shorts and a light blazer! Sleeping babies in buggies outdoors with bare feet in mid-January. Arthritis, joint problems later in life, welcome!
• Eating crisps and chips with vinegar. Wtf! 😫
• The popularity of the abomination called Marmite. Wtf! 😩
• That in social settings there’s more emphasis on drinking,rather than an eating/culinary culture.

All this happened a long time ago, I’m pretty much used to these things now.

Tokyo, accidentally mixed green tea paste into my sushi, mistaking it for wasabi. The chief was not best pleased!

Vegetarian me ordering Früchte des Meeres on honeymoon in Germany 😮
I don't know what fruit I thought grew in the sea (Spongebob Squarepants was dreamed up many years later😂)

That is what toilets are for. What are people supposed to do? Poop their pants? Always stay at home?

@Takoneko it was 2015 and we saw Aoiyama on the street (he was quite a unique figure back then as a European), I was always a huge fan of his and also saw him in 2023 in Nagoya when he won the Fighting Spirit Prize and then it all went downhill.
We are going to the sumo tournament at the Royal Albert Hall in October which I am UNBELIEVABLY excited about

What do you mean "choosing"? Are you permanently constipated?

All this toilet talk… can someone explain the concept of ‘washing’ your bum with one of those hoses in a Wetroom? I mean does poo filled water splash everywhere for everyone else to stand on? How do you dry yourself? Do you have to open up your cheeks and spray? Genuine questions 😂

😂

No - go at home I think is the point.

I think it's actually pretty normal to want to avoid going to public toilets generally as they are usually unhygenic. Even in a 5 star hotel they aren't going to be cleaned in between every visitor and plenty of people piss, mensturate, get shit on seats and wipe it off. They aren't clean places.

Obviously you go if you need to but unless you are caught short with diarrhoea or have irritable bowels or something, it's not that difficult to avoid opening your bowels in a public toilet during the day.

We are also going to the Royal Albert Hall (for the final day) and I’m super excited too!! I got a Kirishima cheer towel on my last trip to Japan, so I am ready to go!! We saw Aonishiki in April which was pretty cool. He feels like he’s a European on the up at the minute.

If it was normal then Sheldon's toilet schedule in The Big Bang Theory " wouldn't get such racocuous laughter.

So is going for a wee acceptable in a public loo? How is this more hygienic than a poo?

And there is Gerald Durrell’s anecdote in My Family and Other Animals where Leslie is annoyed, as the manager couldn't bring him toilet paper. Margo pipes up helpfully that the toilets all have boxes full of paper.

I went to Amsterdam as a teen. As soon as we arrived after an overnight bus journey we headed for a pot cafe. Obviously.

As soon as I smoked one puff of this massive really strong spliff, I stood up to go to the bathroom. But was totally disorientated and walked straight face first into a glass door and got knocked out!

Nobody batted an eyelid except my mates, and the staff gave me water mixed with salt and sugar while I'm was lying on the floor in this busy cafe.
I was alright after that and my tolerance to decent weed managed to increase significantly. 🤣

I worked one summer at an American summer camp in Maryland where the cubicles were like that. I hated it.

So is going for a wee acceptable in a public loo? How is this more hygienic than a poo?

Because you can easily urinate without putting your skin in contact with the toilet seat where some else has pissed etc. No public toilets are going to be clean or hygenic but if you've sat down on a public loo seat, you really need to have a shower before you get into bed! Urgh. Some people probably can defacate without sitting down but for Westerners it's usually a seated job!!!

I use public toilets but I think the faux outrage at someone basically saying they avoid defecating using a public toilet is just unwarranted. I think it's pretty normal to have one or two bowel movements morning/evening and do it at home -unless as I said you have diarrhoea or medical conditions that mean this isn't practical.

I’m one of those people who is fine one minute then suddenly I get all sweaty and crampy out of nowhere and I absolutely have to do a poo and it’s not going to be a nice one either. I’ve done poos in lay-bys, into plastic bags, in a man’s toilet in a random cigarette shop in rural Hungary, in a very posh toilet at the MTV awards next to the singer from Suede… if there’s a reasonable place to go to do a poo I’ll have done one there….

I am what the Germans call a Heimscheisser, but still find these posts really weird. I can’t go go in public loos, even when I really need to go and it’s sometimes meant I spend hours in discomfort because even though I need to go, I just can’t. I think it far healthier for people to go when they need to. It’s really odd to judge people for using a toilet for its intended purpose as and when needed.

I really need to know the answer to this.

In Varanasi in 2004 and seeing dogs eating flesh from a dead human body that was bobbing at the edge of the Ganges.

Hovering should be way more socially unacceptable than pooing in public toilets. Who do you think it is that’s pissing all over the seats? It’s the hoverers.

100%

Squatting for a few minutes at a time is not easy and I think there are a whole lot of fibbers who say that they do. I can picture it… squatting, thigh muscles trembling, reaching for toilet paper, not touching the dispenser… all while trying to aim.

Up to 7 all over Pakistan.

Since this thread seems to be largely about poo and toilets I’ll add my disgusting experience on a train to Khartoum (in the days when you could backpack in Sudan). The train broke down in the desert and everybody got out and sat in the sand on the shady side of the train. People were still using the train toilet which was a hole emptying directly onto the track. Hours later a pyramid of poo developed which was visibly writhing with white worms.

Oh oh true story from YESTERDAY.. so I was in the local park watching my kids play basketball, when some child who’s parent obviously couldn’t have taken him to the place right by us marked “toilets” went over to the edge of the court and did a poo. Right there. As if that wasn’t horrible enough, my bloody dog suddenly ran off (so fast I couldn’t hold the lead) and went over and ATE THIS BOY’S SHIT!!!! I swear on everything that’s swearable on.. I was revolted, horrified, embarrassed, angry,?gagging all at the same time. Never mind the lazy parent - what the actual fk does my dog think she’s doing eating fresh human shit???