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!

A nice one. When I went swimming in a little rural swimming pool in Iceland I discovered lovely warm effervescent water. With a layer of algae covering the floor and sides of the pool. It was heaven to swim in and obviously no chlorine. The only downside (though it didn’t bother me) was the mandatory pre swim naked shower in a single sex communal shower room. There were diagrams showing which parts to give a thorough washing.

@TwinklyRoseTurtle if your poo smells that bad that it lingers for the next person there's something wrong with your diet.

To be fair, as a very self conscious teen (who happened to also have a severe eating disorder)I used to not eat before festivals as the thought of going for a poo at one terrified me.

But then I grew up.

I was on a long 8 day hike in Swedish lapland, mistly wild camping, filthy and stinking by day 7 so when we got to a camping ground that had a mountain hut and showers I paid the extortionate fee to use them... only to realise they were communal. First by walking into the men's and seeing a dozen naked dudes, so double embarrassment.

I'm so English and so not used to communal nudity but I REALLY wanted to be clean so I just did it, with my front to the wall as mych as possible. Tried to get through making no eye contact but couldn't get the shower to work beyond a dribble so while I was splashing my mosquito muddy naked self with that drizzle a helpful (and naked) Swedish woman touched my shoulder and told me how to use the faucet.

I think their attitude is great to nudity I just am so the other way was mortifying 😅 Never felt cleaner and fresher walking the mountain path to our tent though.

I was having a salt sauna in a spa in the Baltics many years ago when a bunch of elderly Russian ladies walked in . They just kind of handed me a big pot of salt and asked me if I’d mind scrubbing them down .
So there I was scrubbing these ladies down with salt, everyone naked . It was so very un British 🤣

Three come to mind -

Being on the outskirts of Philadelphia staying in a motel. Nothing around on our side, but there was a lovely looking coffee shop opposite together with a few shops in a strip. Only problem was we would have to drive a mile to the crossroad, then turn back down to the cafe, then down two miles to the other crossroad, then back up to motel. It would have taken three minutes to cross the road if there was a way to! Not possible though. So many places like that in the US, and so many cars!

In Morocco, I think it was Tangier. Went to the souk as you do, and saw a butcher shop with unrefrigerated meat on display covered with blood, flies and god knows what. No bother to the locals, they bought it. I felt very sick having seen that. I suppose that was twenty years ago now or more, and maybe food hygiene has moved on.

In China on the ring road in Beijing. The roads were about 7 lanes on each side, but unlike the US there were pedestrian bridges to get from one side to the other. In one shop they followed us around and stared and stared at us, it was a bit weird, and when I came to pay they used an abacus to calculate it. There were lots of bikes with boxes like orange boxes strapped to the back in which the little kids stood up to be taken from place to place, that was so cute but so dangerous (to me).

I’m not unwell. But I have, like others here, a long term condition that means I have periods of time when I am needing to poo multiple times a day, and god forbid I also get diarrhoea and vomiting at least once every couple of months .
14 years of it, since perimenopause. I’m on my 3rd lot of investigations now and still no cause identified.

i would like very much to avoid the embarrassment of irregular pooing …I used to have bowels you could set an early morning clock by.

but life isn’t always neat, tidy and unembarrassing. And sometimes as we get older we develop conditions that are inconvenient and embarrassing.

I’ve already had a go at folks on another post yesterday accusing people of “faffing” if they take a long time in loos. “What are they doing” . The lack of awareness of gastro, gynae and urinary conditions that afflict millions is appalling on MN from the uneducated “poo in your own home” brigade. Or it seems some people don’t even want to engage their brains to think why it might take some women a long time in a loo.

women fought hard to get female public toilets at all. The first one in London Oxford Circus only opened in 1875 . Up until then, and for a long time after, women were prevented from going out for long periods as there was no where to pee, let alone poo.

Do you want to consign a large proportion of women back to that? What was known as the toilet leash. Just becuase you think it rude to poo? Really?

A few years ago on a self catering holiday in Turkey DH and I optimistically walked to a "Supermarket" that also did delivery, hoping to stock up for the week.

Got there and it was not much bigger than a living room, I asked about a type of cheese they had and the women responded by digging a portion out (it was like feta) with her bare hand and shoving it my mouth - it was nice to be fair. The "delivery" was the husband of the couple running us back you our accommodation in his 20 year old panda 😂

When my late OH and I regularly went to Morrisons in the next town I always suddenly needed to poo, fascinated OH, Do you save it up all week??

On a bus tour in India we would often have 'bush stops' in the middle of nowhere, 'Ladies to that side of the road, Gentlemen to the other side of the road', literally behind the bushes. At my ripe old ago my knees wouldn't cope with that or squatting loos, standing up from the regular one here at home is often a struggle!

So sorry that sounds awful. Maybe it would be an idea to carry some kind of collapsible potty in your bag for such eventualties? Or has your consultant suggested a stoma? As it's effecting your quality of life so extremely it may be worth considering .

She should have gone on the street or bus instead? What a ridiculous comment.

Are they much shittier when 'brits' ie Britons, have used them than the myriad of other nationalities have used them? Why can we abbreviate Briton but nor other nationalities who are allowed to be special cases?

I think some people do not understand that with certain conditions, you don't get to choose when to go to the loo. I have IBS(D) and when I need to go, I HAVE to go or have an accident. Very annoying but that's how it is!

I'm UK born and bred and I thought exactly the same!

China again…team building foot massage.

honestly foot massage is seen as a “treat” and as way of celebration for finishing a long project me and my older colleague got dragged along to an all team foot massage

have to say it was highly professional, beautifully hosted by the venue, and bloody hell the guys doing it were skilled with knives 😱. It is taken very seriously and involves a lot of skill messing around with those Chinese pressure points.

But it was very unbritish to get our feet out and up to above our knees in front of senior directors and colleagues …and when the masseuse decided anyone needed some pedicure type stuff out came the knife man for his case of what looked like torture instrument. There’s nothing quite like sipping green tea and chatting, while your colleagues have bunions and dead skin removed 🤢

have to say though, half way through my massage, the masseur asked if I had a painful knee..I had probably winced as I did have long term knee sprain. A huddle of interpretation resulted in some weird poultice being applied for 20 mins. And seriously I walked out cured, never had pain again. God knows what is was!

my other embarrassing moment was also travel for work. In Madrid, years and years ago. Madrid is a hot spot for seafood. Back then it had some of best seafood restaurants in world, and they’re big on shellfish. I was trying some baby squid in ink…didn’t realise the tiny cuttlebone hadn’t been removed, well, the whole dish was black with the ink so didn’t see it, and proceeded to crunch on it..resulting in a mouthful of powdery, sharp bone….my Spanish colleagues were a combination of looking at me in horror or too embarrassed at my ignorance to look. I had to go to loos to spit it all out and squid ink isn’t easy to remove from a loo 🤣🤣. I always checked for bones, shells , and any other non edible stuff when I was travelling thereafter.

Not embarrassing really but a huge culture shock -Living in Brazil in the 70s aged 8. Seeing a boy with no eyes, having our camper van robbed, seeing Candoble sacrifices on the beach, the round shrines in Monte Santo, the favelas, being held at gun point in Argentina because my dad did a u turn in front of a military base. Being told to be careful what we said as our apartment was probably bugged. Lots more!

Realising not that long ago as an adult how lucky we were as at that time there were a lot of people disappearing.

It means that India seemed tame 🤣 it was an incredible experience.

Ok we will just shit ourselves instead

Well people usually aren't waiting to go in after me. But in any event, my health is more important than a possible short lived smell.

Nobody died of having to smell a bit of poo.

Getting back to the thread, not really a culture shock as such but having my host family laugh at me on the school German exchange when I asked for vinegar with chips instead of mayo. (TBF they were right - I think vinegar on chips is disgusting now!)

I think it’s a bit sad actually that some people have been toilet shamed into thinking there is something unseemly about evacuating anything normal from your body, in any toilet. It doesn’t make anyone politer, more attractive or more “ladylike “ if they avoid this. It seems like an affectation , if anything. Also, I agree that it might often be a sign of a poor diet.

The Aussies, the Kiwis, the Dutch, the Danes…

Tell me, do you vote Reform, perchance?

Or find a bush, and then the dog owners will be complaining that their dogs have rolled in human excrement (true story - someone posted exactly this complaint in a local Facebook group - well actually she "broadcast" it as she switched off commenting - possibly very sensibly ;) ).

Get some therapy

On holiday in Thailand a man on a moped with a toddler standing in front of him, his wife behind holding a small baby and a dog perched on the back. The only rider with a crash helmet was the man 🙀

Remind me never to go to China. That public pooing story is horrific. Mind you, my sister used to work in China and she’s told me enough horror stories to last a lifetime.

On a packed dolmush (public mini bus) absolutely rammed. A man somehow managed to board with a crate of live chickens 🐓

I’ve stayed masses of times in both Greece and Cyprus, and I don’t think I’ve even once seen a bidet in any hotel we’ve stayed in.