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!

When I moved to the southern US about 30 years ago, I was quite enchanted by all the women who talked about their girlfriends. Lesbian heaven, I thought, until gradually I realized that it just meant friend who is female, and I was a little disappointed.

And another one. Everyone was very hospitable to me when I arrived in North Carolina and offered me cocktails with gin, whisky etc in them and I wanted to stock up myself to reciprocate. What I didn't realize was that every state has different rules about alcohol sales, and where I live, you can get wine and beer in any supermarket, even petrol stations, but spirits are only sold at state-run ABC stores. I really wanted to get a couple of bottles of spirits in, but was too embarrassed to ask my new colleagues where on earth they were sold in case they thought I had a drinking problem. (Eventually I came across one of these stores and never looked back.)

I’d say the Diana reaction really was something new in the scale of it. It felt overwhelming at the time. I think it became a channel for a lot of people’s general unhappiness at the world at the time. The perceived coldness of the Royal Family felt a bit of a metaphor for how people felt about the state in general perhaps. And I know as someone who had fairly recently lost a parent myself, the general sense of grief in the air probably brought that back too, and made me feel a sense of grief over Diana that I didn’t really feel. The press and public calling for the Queen to leave her grandchildren to comfort ‘the people’ was a useful corrective for me to getting sucked into the sadness, but it was such an unsettling period and I can imagine landing into it would have been really weird.

I happened to spend the following Christmas in the States and had multiple queries on how I was ‘coping’. My initial response of ‘well, it’ll be tricky without her popping in for mince pies’ didn’t go down well so after that I just sighed a bit.

I remember going to Majorca circa 70s as a little kid and getting a local bus to somewhere which was full of Mallorcan people with live chickens and rabbits. I think there was a food/livestock market nearby. I was mortified to find out that people ate rabbits. I unknowingly ate 'conejo' in a Valencian paella once and felt quite queasy. Bit silly really because meat is meat but for me bunny is a pet. My ex is Mediterranean and loved rabbit but he rarely ate it as he would have to cook it.

A colleague of mine once said people who take tea with lemon are 'just showing off' and I tend to agree. Also, sorry, but continental Europe cannot do tea. A cup of water that was boiled about an hour ago and a Liptons tea bag; noooo!

I agree about British children being spoilt though. And the drinking culture.

On a lighter (non-poo) note.

Everyone commenting on the Diana collective grief situation should have a look for the Stewart Lee sketch about the ET balloon. Very insightful (and funny), although SL's style of comedy doesn't really lend itself to clips. I might have a dig around later and see if I can find it...

I realised that it’s actually about the strength of the tea. British tea can be very strong - especially the breakfast types - and full of tannin, so the only thing that will dilute it and make it drinkable is milk. The tea in Europe is very mild, so you either drink it neat or with lemon juice. Also, the British learn how to make tea from Indians who also make it with milk, whereas Indian culture had no influence over European habits. Other cultures drink tea with butter, such as Tibetans, or with jam like Russians, so it differs from region to region.

Yes, good points. Although the British also have/had (it's quite old-fashioned) 'China tea', which I think was drunk black, and is weak compared to India teas.

Still, butter and jam do both make a kind of sense to me as they're sweetening and/or add dairy and dilute the tea, but adding lemon is just adding a layer of sourness

It’s just different tea types, as a pp said. Strong, tannic Indian tea with milk, light, subtly flavoured China tea with lemon. I like both, though, having grown up in Ireland, I usually drink Indian made strong, with only a tiny amount of milk.

Liptons is a crime against tea, wherever it’s drunk.

Yep a toilet is a toilet. I didn’t realise there were rules against where I can shit 🤦‍♀️

I was offered a cup of tea on a Swiss train. I'd just woken up so gratefully accepted but my mouth wasn't ready for the peppermint tea I was given. It was the first time I'd had peppermint tea and now I love it, always reminds me of Switzerland.

American Liptons tea on the other hand was a bit of a disappointment for a Brit.

Indian milk tea with cardamon is proper comfort tea though.

Also Karkade (hibiscus tea) is lovely on a hot day.

I've still not got over this myself TBH and haven't been back on a holiday there since! I have some IBS issues where the toilet paper situation would be horrendous, so I'd rather not, although I would love to see much of Greece. I'll have to do a cruise where I can just poo on the ship!

Also a toilet one. In Moscow, waiting for the train back to Finland and needed the loo so went to the station toilet. Walked in, paid the old woman a few coins and she pointed at the toilet roll. Took some, walked into the cubicle and found it was a squat toilet. Walked back out again - decided I could wait until we got on the train!

Generally people don’t have much choice. When the need hits you have to go…

Sounds more like you were in a terrible hotel

Hmmmm... As I've said elsewhere I don't always know for sure what my body will do until it's done it!
Afaic a toilet is there to collect my "droppings", bethey liquid or solid!

Ordering tea with milk in multiple places in Massachussets and more often than not having to explain. They did all have teabags but seemed to be the addition of milk that made it weird?

Generally speaking, Americans who drink hot tea drink it with lemon, so milk with tea can be seen as an oddity. Of course, being from the South as I am, I drink iced tea, also with lemon. Having lived in the UK, I do know how to make a proper pot of tea, and I do like milk in it, but I would never order hot tea in a restaurant in the US; it will likely be a lonely teabag and a pot of tepid water.

Speaking of drinking habits and culture shock, like many Americans I am mainly a coffee drinker and also a bit of a coffee snob. When I was a student in the UK years ago, I was shocked at the prevalence of instant coffee. I know that has changed quite a bit, but the last time I was in the UK (ten years ago), there was still quite a bit of instant coffee available, especially in hotel rooms.

Well I haven't been to Japan and, if they stare more than elsewhere, I don't think I'll go!
I'm blonde (usually!) and, I'm told, "traditionally attractive", and in Thailand and Singapore - particularly the former - I literally caused men to fall off roofs!
(Fortunately they fell into a swimming pool!)

I found this in a restaurant in Vichy I think it was. The "toilettes" were through a swing half-door. I expected to then see "femmes" et "hommes", but instead saw a communal urinal with a "little" boy staring intently at his spout.
"No", I said to myself, wondering if I was supposed to do something similar!, when a woman appeared from what looked like an alcove but which actually housed a couple of quite clean cubicles (with washbasins!).

OMG my jaw literally just hit the floor.....

Where the fuck else was she meant to do it? In the aisle of the tour bus?

OP, my friend had the same shock in China!

In American supermarkets they will pack your shopping into plastic bags and be proud to say they've double even triple bagged bottles!

Where and when on earth in the UK were you sold an electrical appliance with bare wires. UK regulations have mandated moulded-on plugs for years (The Plugs and Sockets etc. (Safety) Regulations 1994). And before that, almost everything came with a replaceable plug.

I remember the days of having to fit your own plugs, back in the 70s (I am 61). My dad taught me how to do it, but it's now quite a useless skill.