Biggest cultural shock you have come across?

[hibbledobble]

What have you encountered while travelling that was your biggest cultural shock?

I'll go first: in Poland I saw families/extended families living 10+ in a 2 bedroom home. The concept of having a bedroom or even a bed to oneself is seemingly unheard of. Everyone sleeps in different beds each night, and beds are often shared. Having visitors in this set up is no problem either: everyone just rearranges. Water also came from Wells, lots of homes had no bathrooms. Ovens were these metal beasts that were plugged into the mains.

Japan; uber-polite, almost no crime, no litter, everything immaculate, Buddha statues in forests and up mountains. Felt so safe even in crowds in the middle of Tokyo at night. Not saying it's perfect, but it's a gorgeous country.
More positive examples from people?

Dubai's got no mains gas and no mains sewage. The septic tanks get emptied by trucks into the desert. The line of tankers waiting to unload is known as 'the pool queue'

Oh ffs. The poo queue

That people really eat deep-fried Mars Bars.

(OK, not the biggest, but it was still shocking to me - I always thought it was a joke)

The way construction workers are treated in Dubai. I used to live there and once drove past an area full of those metal shipping containers and there were loads of workers hanging around, realized they lived in them. Can't imagine how awful it was for them in that heat.

That was just the tip of the iceberg, lots of things shocked me in Dubai hence I didn't live there very long!

Ha ha - cross posting on Japan - yes, the toilets! Forgot them! When did you go, though, I didn't have that with coffee?

It was 25 years ago but arriving in Japan, which at the time to me was the epitome of exotic , to discover they drive on the same side of the road as us. I was so shocked that I told everyone I met for about 5 years afterwards.

Going to Oxford, I had been led to believe it was all modern and anything-goes and nobody really paraded around in penguin suits and had servants and snorted coke with £100 notes etc and had riotous bullingdon-type parties. It was all true! Not everyone was like that of course but it was very normal. And the gown-wearing and formality of everything. I was from a state school oop north and didn't have a clue.

Also central America, the attitudes to safety. Everyone drove around in clapped-out cars with no seatbelts, wobbling over
half-collapsed bridges, kids balanced on motorbike handlebars, etc. Children thrown out to play in bare feet in the forest surrounded by snakes and tarantulas. One place I stayed had a massive hole in the floor upstairs and as there was a lack of space there was a bed balanced over it! By contrast I'm a totally risk-averse and nervous type so was constantly horrified :o

Every road was lined with crosses where people had died in accidents but no one seemed to make a connection between this and not wearing seatbelts or driving like loons. Instead any death was just God's will so nothing you could do about it.

Japan cross posting!

the amount of times I saw a 100 baht note slip hands

Tell me about it

LaLegue's post also reminds me of the dead bodies being carried through the streets in Egypt - uncovered. I'd always thought they draped the stretcher/bier thing with some sort of cloth, but it's certainly not always the case

standing on toilet seats is an Asia-wide problem.

The number of homeless people sleeping in the streets in Vancouver - they were everywhere. Loads more than in, say, London. I don't know why but I just didn't expect it at all.

Talking of toilets, the first time I used the loos at Glastonbury (1980s) and looked down to see a huge open cesspit underneath the block of cubicles was quite the culture shock.

Lack of electric kettles in the US.

I was, and still am

How do they survive!

We moved to Sardinia. The first time I had to pay the electricity bill I popped into the post office across the road from our flat, and being British, I tried to queue up. An hour and a half later, in something akin to a rugby scrum one of the staff came over, took my arm and dragged me to the front.
I watched the place for days till I figured out when it was quiet and I could just walk in and straight to the counter.

Naples. Our landlord told us locals knew which red lights they needed to stop at and which they could drive straight through. He wasn't kidding.

Poverty in Bangkok and Thailand being so bad that beautiful young women are so desperate to get out that hooking up with any Western man - including fat/disgusting/abusive/ violent/unemployed men - is seen as an ultimate goal to be striven for.

A man on the dole with a council flat is preferable to living in a single room with your entire family.

Seeing tiny 5 years old in Germany travelling across the City to get themselves to and from school. Seeing nursery kids in Germany out on a trip with staff in a park. No headcounts, children were just expected to follow the staff. Staff would have been unaware if a kid had run off.

Going to Iceland and coming across a play park with a tree house and loots of kids toys inside it for any child to play with. Crime rate was so low that the toys were not stolen.

I went travelling in Cambodia and saw child prostitution several times.

In a hotel bar, I got chatting to an American guy (married, two kids) who went on business to Cambodia regularly and had a "girlfriend" there. She can only have been 12 at absolute maximum. Vile.

Within UK - overt racism (not towards me) after moving away from London.

Public toilets in France.

Male friends holding hands, draping arms around each other etc - India.

Also in India - not my culture shock but I've met quite a few westerners travelling there who seem to have had a very picturesque image of India, imagining it populated with caring, sharing spiritual people (they always do some kind of retreat whilst there), living in (picturesque) poverty but deeply enlightened, etc etc... they are a bit flummoxed when they realise it's full of normal people, the good, the bad and the ugly... I swear it's like a version of Paris syndrome.

@wizzywig I live in Denmark. The concept of being pc doesnt exist here. If I had a pound for everytime I have explained why you shouldnt call someone a negro I would be rich. My socialwork teacher referred to mongols at one point and we frequently talk about the handicapped as a group in class. Some are horrible racists, others just call a spade a spade because in their egalitarian eyes a spade is just as useful and valid as a fork, trowel or lawnmower, and to call it something else would be ludicrous.

Lack of electric kettles in the US

Very many private homes have them now - they just don't seem to favour putting them in hotel rooms (and boiling water for tea in a coffee maker is a definite no-no )

Another one from the USA: before they renovated them, the loos at Venice Beach in LA were all in one big room ... no cubicles or screens of any type, just several toilet pans in one big space. Nobody believes me when I tell them, and after the huge drinks served over there I had no choice but to use them ...

Oh yes just thought, total lack of kettles in Italy- they literally just don't use them/dont see the point

and a latte (milk with a shot of coffee) is the most pathetic drink they've ever heard of, usually for kids only. got some very funny looks

there stopping at services very different too. Off the coach- loo- neck an espresso and back on the coach in minutes. I ordered a Cafe Latte and had to neck it in one to avoid being driven off without

Strikhedonia — How cold English houses are — If anything they're too bloody warm these days! Nobody puts on a jumper any more, the first instinct at the slightest hint of cold is to reach for the thermostat.

I've had plenty of reverse cultural shock: experiencing things better abroad than at home. My first trip to the States, where waiters and waitresses were almost too cheerful. Stockholm, circa 2003, where I saw young children ride the metro unaccompanied: that's how safe it is (or at least was). Many cities in Europe, where public transport works on a trust basis, rather than needing a ticket to open the gates (and yet fares are much lower). New York, where the subway runs all night. France, where the motorways are smooth and deserted. Germany, which has never seen litter.

lalegue that is shocking

The level of racial segregation in south africa shocked me - i didnt see one mixed race couple, family or even friendship group the whole time i was there. Also the inequality shocked me - shanty towns near prosperous houses. I also didbt realize at the time you could pay to shoot big game eg rhino, big cats, and the popularity of taxidermy

Yy to shocking toilets in china!

People carrying guns so casually in central america

Poverty in the Dominican Republic. It was awful. There we were getting bussed to our fancy all inclusive resort, driving past tin shacks and a disabled man literally dragging himself along.

This was twenty years ago so I'd like to think things are different now.