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!

There speaks a lucky person who doesn't suffer from IBS......

Not so much a custom thing
More a warning

Watch out for the Hong Kong underground
The trains stop and start really quickly and with metal banked seating if you’re none the wiser you slide along the row into everyone else.
Somehow Hongkongers have a way of staying put.

Living there i never got used to it. I spent most journeys sliding into commuters and constantly apologising 🫤

Its like that in Finland too, at public pools. Showering naked is mandatory and there's no cubicles, and then everyone goes to the sauna. Took a bit of getting used to when I moved here but now I love it, a purely female environment where everyone is comfortable in their skin, no matter what shape or size or wrinkles.

How do the people who say they would never open their bowels anywhere but home must have amazing control. How, how do you hold it all day? Do you go on holiday? Is waiting all day to get back to the hotel the same? You must go in your own suite at the hotel surely.

Would 'pink wine' have worked?

I lived in Greece for several years last decade. Still doing the bogbins - and will be doing it there for ever or until they entirely change the waste pipes.

My sister used to live in France and would travel back to the UK regularly. They would normally take food with them so would stop at picnic areas rather than service areas so there tended to be squat loos. On one occasion the automatic clean for the toilets got out of time so as she walked in the floor was washed together with her shoes. After they had eaten she went to the loo again and yes her feet were washed again. So beware.
My Dh and I went to Dunkirk and we both needed the loo. Gents was marked on one side of the road and ladies on the other. I crossed over the very busy road and went down the steps to meet Dh in the middle. Why?

Well !

I have a nice strong coffee in the morning and I’m away.
Without fail.
So I never get caught out

Im beginning to think I should have name changed for that personal bit about my 💩 scedule. What the hell, let’s live a little

More coffee vicar 😁

I'm constantly amazed at the level of disposable plate and cutlery use in the USA, even in people's private homes it seems to be alarmly normal to use paper, plastic or styrofoam to eat off and foil trays to cook in. Even their drinks receptacles at the dinner table are plastic beakers or sippy cups with integrated straws. And when they aren't using disposable plates they are still eating off plastic ones. It seems incredibly infantilising. I'd feel like I was forever stuck in a 5 years old child's tea party.

Travelodge breakfast also comes wrapped in plastic. No need for cutlery because they only give you finger food.

I have heard that some people in the US do that at home on a daily basis - quite common apparently. Mind boggling.

Yes, but you know they didn't film all the people who couldn't give a shit or who were annoyed at having their plans ruined on the day of her funeral or in my case, lost wages.

How much are you paying your therapist ?

Id be asking a refund

When you need a shit, you need a shit

Culture shock for me
USA. Portion sizes / aggressive cabbies in NY / efficiency of bartenders managing a whole bar solo with the navy in town (as compared to waiting 20 minutes for a drink in a multi-staffed Wetherspoons).

DH biggest culture shock was the level of violence in Guatemala City. No-one went out at night. Going for lunch from the office meant going to a pizza restaurant with machine gun-toting guards outside and a notice to hand your guns in when you arrived....

Someone mentioned the being ignored rather than acknowledged in Spain while waiting, then being treated very well when the person got round to dealing with them. This took a bit of getting used to when hiking in Spain. I also found that while Spanish people are very formal, they often have a slightly idiosyncratic, even subversive streak underlying the politeness, always made for memorable and very positive experiences in restaurants/bars/hostels etc Tons of character and very kind people. Would go back in a heartbeat.

My culture shock also exists within the UK.. I come from London but live in Midlands so the idea of putting your car away in the garage, using the back door as your main door, arriving at events 30 minutes early are all rather strange to me. Particularly memorable is being asked to do Peggy Mitchell impersonations when working at a local beer festival, to great delight of the customers "Get Aht Mah Pub!" etc.

Not at my hotel in Korea twenty years ago. However, at my hotel in Crete, I did have to put the paper in the bin so maybe in Korea it depends on the actual building.

"Even in Starbucks if you go with a reusable cup. The employee can’t touch it. So they fill you a plastic cup for you to pour it in to your cup completely defeating the object. It’s mindblowing"

Pubs and cafes across western Europe are like this now though. If you take your glass to the bar to ask for a refill they have to give you a new glass.

What is the reason for that do you know @Gwenhwyfar?

Oh, come on …😂

Are you 12?

Was about to out this down . My parents live in Cyprus . They have proper plumbing but many places still don’t

• "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."

Southern Europe maybe, not the whole of Europe (or just your family).

Haha! Yeah, I worked in the Netherlands in my early 20s and we were all fascinated by the inspection shelf

Years ago I went to Sri Lanka, I stayed at a beautiful full board hotel. One morning we hired a car to take us out for the day, as we were leaving the staff gave us food boxes for our lunch.

At lunchtime we asked our driver to recommend a local restaurant where we had a lovely meal with him. At the end of the day we arrived back at our hotel and the driver went to get our lunch boxes out of the boot. I immediately told him it was fine, could he please throw them away! He looked at me aghast and quietly asked if it was ok if he took them home for his family.
I have never felt so ignorant and ungrateful in my life, it taught me a valuable lesson about how precious food is how privileged we are to be able to discard food without a thought. Needless to say he was given a much bigger tip than was usual from a very shamefaced tourist 😢

In my childhood, things came without a plug so the pp might just be a bit older than you.
It was very annoying at Christmas to be given a toy you couldn't use yet because it didn't have batteries or a plug.

This. I ended up practically dry-cleaned in Arles the first time I went there because I could NOT find a single public or cafe loo that did not involve squatting and they were all fucking filthy. I know why French women don't get fat: they daren't EAT in case they need a poo while they're out!