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!

I’m quite interested now too as to whether they are still common!

I would actually feel fine sending my child if they wanted to as teen as I remember it quite fondly in terms of confidence building and experience - I think I would actually feel better about it then back in 2003 when I did it - I just remember having my Nokia phone and it basically didn’t work abroad without costing £5 per tiny text message and the nightmare of just making a phone call home. This is where I would be praising today’s technology, plenty of ways for a child to easily get in touch.

But I totally see what you mean though when I think about - sending your child abroad to stay with total strangers…..I dread to think the paperwork.

That’s where I also learnt that German secondary schools commonly have a smoking area for students. That there is a different atmosphere in schools entirely - no spending hours standing in line quietly, no assembly, no “faffing” - bell goes and everyone moves / leaves to go home. Much more relaxed yet still works. I saw that in the primary school too.

I've had butter tea while hanging out with the Tibetans in India. I also remember rock hard chunks of cheese (much harder than Parmesan) kept on a string. You'd pull them off one at a time to gnaw on.

Indian chai is delicious! They boil the tea bags in milk for about 20 minutes with spices. It's VERY sweet though!

I'm Finland and my DD's upper school does a student exchange with a school in Germany. No idea of the details of how it works though as so far they are just exchanging letters with their partner school, and they'll build up the communication until the 3rd year of the exchange project when they actually go abroad/the Germans come here.

They have (or had; I haven't been since the early 00s) squat toilets in some public places in Japan. I mean in big cities like Tokyo, that are otherwise super modern. I found it really weird; they were scrupulously, squeaky clean, but they were squat toilets nonetheless! There was something very old about seeing beautifully, tastefully dressed and groomed Japanese women coming out of public loos and knowing that they'd all been squatting…

I had the same when I arrived in the UK in 1990. I bought a hairdryer and they asked me 'do you want a plug to go with that?' I just stared in befuddlement.

Such a culture shock

I find this shocking too. And it's tipping everywhere. Eating out, bar, hotel staff.

What if you have arthritic hips and knees? There’s no way I could squat, and hovering would result in wet feet!

@Allseeingallknowing

"What if you have arthritic hips and knees? There’s no way I could squat, and hovering would result in wet feet!"

Same here, but I can recommend a SheWee.
Practice in the shower or bath, there's a knack to it.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work for a dump.

I actually don’t mind a good, clean squat toilet. I think they are quite a practical option for public loos. I’ve come across a few in Japan and Taiwan, especially at shrines, temples and public parks. In some places there are a mixture of western and squat toilets and little icons on the door to tell you which are which. Using the squatties can be a convenient way to skip the queue, as lots of tourists don’t want to use them.

When we were in Cairo last year, two men were having a fight in the middle of one of 4/5 lane carriage ways.It was a bit handbags at dawn with other people trying to hold them back.

Oh God. Was in New Orleans once, we're talking 25 years ago (where do the years go!) and we went out to a seafood restaurant and there were loads of Oysters served on a bed of ice... and I thought yummy so ate several oysters and I thought let me just have some of the ice (I don't know why I even thought that was okay) but I took a nice mouthful of this 'ice' but of course it wasn't ice it was rock salt and I just had to swallow the whole mouthful - it was absolutely disgusting. Felt like such an idiot! Thankfully nobody noticed or if they did they didn't say anything!!

...err...Two! 😬

A coach tour in Italy. We stopped to use toilets at a big shopping centre. As we woman arrived at the ladies toilets we were told they were out of order and we could use the men's. We trooped in to use the cubicles. Unfortunately the men in our group didn't know this and followed afterwards to use the urinals. Suddenly all the women emerged from the cubicles with full view of the poor men peeing. Embarrassing for everyone.

You are not really posting this as a serious comment I assume? Either you are having a laugh or you are a friend of Hyacinth Bouquet

My DH is from Venezuela. When I first met his family about 30 years ago I'd only travelled in Europe, Scandinivia and N.America.
Apart from the toilet paper not going in the toilet, biggest shock for me was turning on the water and nothing coming out. Bearing in mind it was 40 degrees and no air conditioning, I nearly cried at the thought of no shower after a long haul flight. It's ok, his lovely family tried to reassure me, water will be here tomorrow. So large parts of Venezuela didn't have any mains water supply, huge tankers came round once or twice a week and filled up a well in the garden, the water then had to be pumped up onto the roof to give some water pressure. I came home with a deep love for the people and their culture, but also a deep appreciation for clean, running water and a reliable electricity supply!

My family made a similar mistake with a cheese board years ago. The shame as they carried the decimated remains off to the next table!

On holiday in Tunisia as a child in the late 1960s. Taxi driver juggling oranges as he drove down a narrow street with loads of pedestrians, cyclists, camels and donkeys with us as a family as passengers. Mum and dad were terrified. My sister and I were thrilled. Taxi driver wetting himself laughing.

Wow. That's a funeral.

This is what I have so often wondered.

I don't, to my knowledge, have arthritis but at nearly 59 now and with a few medical conditions to boot, things are no longer what they once were in my younger days when I could have used a squat toilet without too much issue (and did if we encountered them on the occasional holiday). Now though, if I managed to get down there then I would find great difficulty getting back up again.

I can't see them as suitable for many disabled people, so have wondered what they actually do in countries where these are the norm for public toilets? Is there just little or no provision for them?

Was she supposed to hold it in until her return to UK? 🙄

Some of us Brits felt the same. It was very, very sad but the hysterical behaviour of some was quite shocking!!

She was in china, what was she supposed to do, fly home. Lol

You beat me too it. My exact thoughts

The portion sizes, and ultimately food waste, in the States.