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!

Well, I think we know how you got your username

Yes I've heard this and tbh I find it AMAZING.
I and my sister were taught that when you sit on a toilet, you "relieve" yourself of whatever wants to come!
I SUPPOSE that if I was in a packed club on a Saturday night and my body wanted to do more than pee, I'd try to resist it, but otherwise...
You have to 'go' sooner or later...!

Congratulations on your fantastic bowel control!

@TwinklyRoseTurtle

not everyone wants to walk around with shit held inside them. If you do fine, but it’s not disgusting for others to shit when they need.

Pee? How unladylike. Ladies tinkle.

Yes mine also involves a toilet in India!
I went into a kind of shed where there was just a hole in the ground and you need to kind of squat with your feet either side of the hole.
Problem was my back was hurting badly after sitting in a car for several hours and as I bent down it went into a spasm throwing me forward with my head down and my hands clutching my skirt up!
The door flew open as my head hit it and I landed face down in the dust.
God it’s humiliating to think of it now years later! It was outside a busy cafe.🤦.

I can't believe how weird people are abut this. What do you do if you need the toilet at work? Do you really wait until you get home?
Toilets are literally there for you to use, why make yourself ill?

So what are people away for an extended time supposed to do? What a ridiculous way to live.

I can’t either. It’s so much better to hold it in for another 8 hours until you find a more private loo 🙄

Kind of a reverse of this.
At uni had a Spanish housemate who put her pooey paper in our bathroom bin instead of flushing it.
We told her she didn't need to do that here but she insisted 😱

I’m not sure what relevance ‘on holiday’ has. Your private hotel bathroom isn’t a public toilet.
Im blessed with a very regular system. I get up, poo, and that’s that until tomorrow. No conflict with work or day trips. I wouldn’t fancy pooing in a public loo because I mainly want to get in and out as fast as possible, and I don’t need to anyway.
In reference to the OP, it would seem unusual (based on observation of times spent on loos on such trips) for so many people from the same coach to need a poo simultaneously.

Cant believe I’ve responded to this. I normally avoid poo threads (which I realise this isn’t, really) like the plague.

And in Korea.

But culture shock usually means surprise at behaviour that is commonplace in a different country. People openly weeping and laying flowers for a well known person is extremely unusual for England. Especially as it involved huge numbers of people.

Again, (though I’m not the poster) the toilet in my house isn’t public and a visiting tradesman using it doesn’t make it so. He’s welcome to poo in it if he needs to.

OK I'd always try to go at home - just find it more comfortable - but why on earth should people do when they're out and about and they have to go.

Your comment about 'people to actually choose' to go is ludicrous. When you really have to go, you have to go.

Do you not eat solids?

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.

Toilet in bus station in Madras. No screens at all, it was just a channel with everyone squatting over it in a line. I had my period too, and a heavy rucksack to balance on my back (wasn't going to put that on the floor). Nice.

I'm not sure it was a culture shock as such, but while we're talking about toilets...

This was after an overnight bus journey where we passed through several villages. In every village the bus would sound its horn loud and long. I bet the villagers loved the night time buses! I certainly didn't get much sleep on that bus.

Many people can control their bowels and go when it is convenient. I think if I was going on a trip in China I'd have known the loos were a bit dodgy and either go before leaving or returning not when you're all sat together in an open toilet facility.
The poster did say barring illnesses so I don't think what she said was that outrageous.

In a youth hostel in Berlin once, I went to have a shower, but there was only one, unisex bathroom, and the shower cubicles were separated by CLEAR GLASS walls!! Luckily it was empty, but I couldn't bring myself to do it in case someone walked in while I was showering, so I went and used the disabled shower.

In India, we were dropped off at a restaurant by our cabbie who said he'd come back for us, indicating where he would wait.

Afterwards, we went there as instructed but waited for quite a while, then got fed up and stepped into another cab.

After a few minutes in this cab, we hear some mad beeping, a right old racket, with our original cab driver forcing us to stop. A heated discussion followed before we had to step out of the cab into the 'original' cab from where our journey continued.

Unbelievable but a very memorable cab ride!!

This is just reminding me why I have avoided traveling for so long.

Sorry to lower the tone but thinking on that Andrex and with a statistic that X % of ppl are afraid to poo 💩 in a public loo... I don't know what it is, on Friday ls in our office everyone seems to have chronic 💩 and forgets to ACTUALLY FLUSH

Oh Yes!! And most of the Greek Islands still do that!! Quite a culture shock though when you first come across it!!

Just last week in France, in a bar/restaurant a waiter dropped a tray of glasses and they all smashed. I instinctively cheered. Nobody else did, and they all looked at me like I was a psycho.

Also in France a few years ago. Having a very posh 328 course meal where they serve amuse bouche and palate cleansers between each course. The waiter put a plate down with something that looked suspiciously like a walnut whip but a bit paler. I picked it up and went to take a bite before DH hissed “Put it down! It’s the butter!”

Not me but Aussie BIL was working in China during their period of industrialization. He said the local eating place owner would translate the menu of the day as either "woof woof, miaow, hissssss, oink oink, quack quack or squeak squeak eek".

But tbf most if not all have bidets which is a far better way of cleaning one's bum. I always feel sorry for cleaners who must be faced with bins full of shitty loo roll after the brits have been.

We lived in thailand for a year and put the kids in international school there. Son comes home one day and said that there was a giant snake in the boys loos that day!

Another one, was working kuwait and an elderly gentleman colleague, in full arab clothes insisted to give me a lift to my apartment. Realised when driving we couldnt communicate as he didnt speak english and i didnt speak arabic he drove like a lunatic in a small dusty car chain smoking marlborough reds, which he offered to me, then there was us trying to work out where I was going, drivinf around at 100 miles per hour. It was so difficult to explain I just decided to direct him to the nearest hotel that I knew to my apartment, which was the most expensive one, I think a four seasons or similar, then he pulls up in the valet area in this dusty old car, the concierge open the door and I get out of the passenger seat, marlborough red still lit, and stumble into the hotel to get them to book me a taxi to my apartment. I am sure he thought the company was putting me up there as he was really shocked thats where i said to drop me off l, but it was the only place I could think of 😂