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!

Yes in other gulf countries there are special sealed off pork selling sections of certain supermarkets. Paradoxically BC it's so selective you often get higher quality products than you would in regular pork eating countries (high end sausages from Germany etc).

I also saw a Peppa Pig baking kit in one

Absolutely, the moment you shared must have been very embarrassing at the time, but now when you look back on it, it probably makes you laugh. Things like that can happen to anyone, anywhere. Some places don’t even have proper toilets, so at least you were given a spot no matter how it was where you could relieve yourself.

Having lived in Italy, that's not a general Italian custom. However, there is a certain type of Italian man who is a nasty bully. I don't know if it's just women or foreigners, because I haven't been with someone else when it's happened, but I've met a few of these guys. Arguing back loudly and vigorously in Italian seems to deflate them.

I remember one man in a hotel in Florence starting on me for damaging the curtains in my room (I had done no such thing!) and demanding a massive payment- this in front of a tour group I was leading. And someone else in an Internet cafe somewhere (where you always had to show ID) arguing until he was blue in the face that my passport wasn't British because it didn't say " Britain" on the front, it said "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland" 😆😆😆 I won both of these arguments, but I had to stand my ground very loudly and firmly in a way that British people aren't accustomed to.

A family of friends was also recently kicked out of their sleeper compartment on a train with extreme rudeness and brutality (they had been told they could sleep in til say 8.00am when the train terminated, but were instead roused at 6.00 and treated like criminals- "Out! Out now or we call the police!" kind of thing).

As I said, #notallItalians. Just a few people you encounter. But it's definitely a thing.

On the extended toilet chat .

https://toilettwinning.org/

Omg, that reminds me of something. Leading a tour group from Naples to Rome, the coach driver brought his dad along, who was also a coach driver.

First of all the coach made a stop along the side of a road leading out of Naples to pick up a cardboard box from a guy standing waiting at the side of the road (and I still have no idea what was in that box), then as we were approaching Rome on the motorway the driver announced he needed a break, so his dad swapped over with him without slowing the coach down or stopping 😱

I very rarely do unless I have a bad stomach. Honestly can’t remember the last time I did. If you only poop once a day in the morning it’s unlikely that you would need to many times in your life. Although it is a bit weird to find it unbelievable that other people have exactly the same bowel habits. If you have to go, you have to go!

I remember the toilets in Germany, the poo didn't drop into the water below, but sat on a shelf so you could have a good look before flushing it away! That was 50 yers ago, don't know if they still have them now

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I live in a town in central Portugal with no rubbish collection. We just bag it and take it to the nearest street street bin (down the road). We do have separate street bins for recycling and a special one for recycling oil. The bins get emptied daily. People also leave stuff that might be useful for so done else just in front of the bins. You often see suitcases, shoes, crockery etc there. If it's not claimed it's collected by the bin collector the following day.

This just tragic 😂

God yes, crossing the road in Hanoi terrified DH and I so much we would take long detours to the nearest corner where it seemed easier to get across the bonkers traffic.
(We did hear that the accident rate for mopeds was, er, not great.)
Also, seeing tiny children, toddlers in many cases, seated behing their parent on the back of a fast moped just clinging on, (and no helmets at all) really freaked me out.

Also, again in Vietnam and again seen on the back of a moped - half a dog.

I've never encountered this in private homes in 30 years of living in the southern US. Hotels for sure, but I haven't really noticed it in restaurants, except that during the hurricane last October they had to use them because there was literally no water for washing dishes.

I really don't think you need to have bowel disease to poo in a public loo. As long as you're leaving it clean for the next user? It's what it's there for. A bit of a smell is not the end of the world - it's just part of life. A few germs off a clean loo seat aren't anything to worry about. (Hovering on the other hand can give you a UTI.)

I personally love a central European poo inspection shelf. Fascinating.

God yes, we did a trip of Da Nang, Hue and Hoi An and the roads in Da Nang and Hue made me feel like really was going to die trying to get across. I used to hold on to my partner from grim death and shut my eyes 😁 Fabulous people and country though.

Absolutely and also for those with kids, going to the toilet can be a bit of a hang up for kids as it is and it's certainly not great to make kids think it's not ok to go to the loo when they need to go and they are embarrassing and disgusting if they go to the loo at school etc!

When I worked as a language assistant at a lycee in Brittany in the mid 2000s they still had staff AND student smoking areas. Last year in Texas was quite the thing - people wearing guns in restaurants, the fact that Trump Burger is a thing. And totally agree with past posters about the plastic waste! A plastic cup of water with a plastic lid and straw appearing when you sat down to eat - I would perhaps understand at a takeaway but this was eating in.

Derailing slightly but my darling step-mother was a nurse on geriatrics for years and has remained fairly evangelical that it's better and easier to move your bowels in a squat position. She advised me to do it after my c-sections 😄So all these squat toilets may well be healthier!

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The biggest culture shock I've had was when I first visited England.

The Royal Family, aristocrats, the class system, private schools, the House of Lords

It's like a medieval land.

I've actually had that with a coach in the UK. They did stop at services so at least you didn't have to go and dig a hole in the ground.

My father also had a shock with steak tartare, but I think not in France.
In Belgium, raw meat is called Americain, which has led to a few hapless Americans thinking it will be food they're familiar with.

Another here who got lost in Shanghai, @NotDarkGothicMama, only instead of involving the police I asked at a small hotel on the outskirts

The receptionist had no English at all and my Mandarin is rubbish, so reluctant to say no to a visitor - which is apparently considered poor form in China - she went and got some poor bloke out of bed to help!!

If I'd realised what she about to do I'd have tried to stop her and I couldn't believe how nice he was about it (and of course he solved my problem)

I'm not in favour of any of those things, but apart from the House of Lords, they exist in many other countries.

Last year in Texas was quite the thing - people wearing guns in restaurants, the fact that Trump Burger is a thing ...

It's a while since I stayed in Texas, @HeirToTheIronThrone, and I really thought you were joking here until google helped out: https://nypost.com/2025/06/02/business/inside-trump-burger-the-new-themed-chain-devoted-to-praising-the-prez/

What I really hated there though was that in so many of the more modest restaurants you get a horrible tin tray with a bit of butcher's paper over it instead of a plate ... hideous

I deliberately order steak tartare (or Americain) and am always checked to make sure I understand what I'm ordering. I've been told I don't want it, suggested the aller-retour version (seared basically), and applauded for my English bravery. That's been the case for twenty-odd years of enjoying raw beef. I do boggle at the idea that any waiting staff want to open themselves to the world of complaint that just letting English speakers order steak tartare often leads to!