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!

@onehorserace

Men in Saudi Arabia coming into supermarkets to wank off while looking at women.
What!!!!!!?? Gross.

I would well believe it.

When i was in Turkey, I was walking down the street.

An old man ran after me and asked me how much I was.

He thought all western women were prostitutes apparantly.

No, I am not from Bolivia.

I just chose a random username.

I often use countries as usernames and passwords, because I remember them.

**

The English people on here who are talking negatively about other countries, and who then can't take the slightest criticism about England, is a bit odd

It's like they see England as "home" and everywhere else as "foreign". So they can't grasp that anyone would have a culture shock coming to England. No, England is just a country, the same as every other Plenty of people have a culture shock when they come to England.

A different perspective.
I'm English, & once had an American boyfriend who was a long-term resident here.
We had dinner with a couple of his friends visiting from USA. They were very odd, refusing to make eye contact with me, & looking very uncomfortable.

I had to say something, knowing that Americans can be very rude forthright.
I was told that eating with my left hand (holding a fork) was making them queasy. Even my Muslim friends would not be upset by this.

To be clear these are not Saudi. They would be immigrant workers who are only allowed in certain bits of supermarkets. Eg Bangladeshis. They don't have a lot of exposure to Western women.

Funny calling the Americans rude, when the stereotype about the English is that they are rude too!

Everyone can see it about another culture, but they can not see it about themselves

To be fair I think most of it all revolves around hygiene issues. Eg I hate to see bins with shitty paper in toilets in certain countries. I know why but I don't like it.

Years ago, some Americans who were newly arrived in Britain invited us for dinner. They served a large salad with chopped up marshmallows on the top and glasses of Dr Pepper's. They were lovely people, but it took a while before we could forget our first dinner with them!

What the heck was in the salad?

But most of Asia thinks our toilet habits are disgusting, don't they? ie We don't even wash our bums after doing a shit!

It does go both ways- the British aren't the unchallenged arbiters of hygiene standards.

Can't remember. Might have been cold meats and the usual lettuce combo. But the marshmallows are etched in my memory 😅🤣😂

I don't think it's most of Asia but there are a few countries. I do love a bum hose but the ones in public toilets would make you heave.

Shades of the Bottom Inspectors in Viz

Coming from one of those, apparently rare, countries with just one I agree that having a House of Lords is just bizarre.

We learned to do it in school but most of us already knew how.

I wonder how many plugs in the UK at that time had the wrong fuse? You would have to buy the correct one separately so everyone used the one already in the plug.

Exactly what I thought 😂. Wasn’t the best way to spend quality time with my sister in law. At least we had toilet paper and not the bum guns. Oh it’s definitely my most embarrassing toilet experience 😂. I don’t know what could be worse lol

’bum guns’ made me laugh out loud 🤣🤣 now I have to explain to DH why I am 😂

Especially hereditary lords!

A house of Lords is absolutely shocking in this day and age.

Why do people in England go along with it?

Pretty much anything in Japan is crazy weird

one that stood out to me was that chairs, especially in coffee shops and on trains, are about 20% smaller than here. Which is not ideal when you’re a nearly 6ft girl and not the slimmest. Not always a bad thing though because on trains people would rarely sit next to me so as not to encroach my personal space

the other very odd thing was when I went to a public “swimming” pool, at half past the hour the whistle went and everybody got out. Sat on the side for five minutes. Whistle blew and everyone got back in. I duly complied and found out later it was to ensure nobody “over exerted” themselves. As an aside, most of the lanes in the pool were dedicated to “pool walking”, not swimming.

This is being phased out but I think the Labour government chickened out of making the final cut a few months ago?

No, they introduced a Bill. It’s currently in the Lords after passing through the Commons. Due for report stage in July. As it currently stands it boots the remaining hereditaries but keeps the bishops.

OMG Ive been fortunate enough to live in five different countries all over the world...(including China)..Its different from 'just visiting' a place and you get to know the culture - believe me, when you need to poo you will go anywhere !
some ppl need to think outside the box and get out more !

Eh poo is normal. I put my foot in it when I asked a guy on a plane if he was English. Couldn't tell by the accent. He got mad and said, " I'm Scottish!" And was so upset he moved seats. I was embarrassed, he was offended. Then I learned that's akin to calling people from the south (US) Yankees and it all made sense. I wouldn't care, but some get super upset. Regardless I felt bad I had such a terrible misstep.