OT: Visiting The Loo & Other Fine Tales

what a fun story :-)

The comment of David Niven, the year the Oscars got streaked, comes to mind (he was the one onstage at the time of the event). Something to do with these lads "exposing their shortcomings....."

LOL

--pig

I have a couple of stories both happened when taking holidays in then Yugoslavia.

First was we went on a trip to a lunch in the mountains and it had been raining heavily.. One of our group went into the ladies and has she came out she said to me that the floor was awash with water. Too be careful when I lowered my trousers. So I stood there and rolled the legs up before I went in. A German lady behind me looked at me amazed but proceeded to do the same. I came out she went in and whilst I was washing my hands she came out and hugged saying danker (SP). I had saved her trousers from getting wet.

The second one was when we went on a trip to Trieste. We had coffee in an outdoor cafe. I asked if there was a toilet and I was told in the back. I went inside and opened a door to see a man washing his hands. I did a hasty retreat and went further down the passage to find myself in the store room. I turned back and deduced that there was only one toilet. I closed the door and was faced with a hole in the floor and two footprint impressions to stand on. Not sure which way to stand facing the wall or back to the wall I chose the later. It was a bit awkward holding skirts up and pants down. I did notice a mallet type thing stood against the wall for if anyone had missed the hole.

I went back to DH with a huge smile on my face. He wanted to know what I was grinning at. I told him to wait for it. I was again followed with a large lady loaded up to the gunwales with handbag, camera and several shopping bags. She came out quickly because there was nowhere to put her bags so she could use the toilet. She was red of face and was having to unload her bags onto her companion to keep while she tried again.

Dh went in later and came and said I see what you were grinning at.

Shirley

In message , Tia Mary writes

Shirley Shone wrote:

OK -- I have to add to the "hole in the floor" loo tales. When DH and I were in Japan on holiday about 10 years ago, I had the "opportunity" to learn to use this type of facility -- what I now call a "drop & squat" as in drop your drawers & squat over the hole. We were on the little island that the whole world is familiar with -- the one with the huge red gate standing in the ocean and the lovely scenery in the background. I needed to use the facilities and asked our tour guide where it was. She warned me that it was a "traditional" style toilet and said I might want to wait and use the "western" style toilet back on the mainland. I *really* couldn't wait and told her I was used to the American style "camping" toilet -- a big bush -- so she showed me where to go. Fortunately, I had on shorts that day so didn't have to worry about dealing with skirts, etc. Japanese being Japanese, everything was as clean as could be expected and there was TP available. Regardless, it was still a concrete floored (apparently this was an upgrade as they were usually either dirt floored or sand covered) with a hole in the floor with the requisite depressions for your feet. So -- Japanese women are very small and have very small feet -- mine were a sz 8 at the time and several sizes larger than the depressions in the concrete. I'm squatting there -- face out -- in a two hole facility with no separating walls, trying my best to keep my clothing from off the floor AND keep my balance because those smaller depressions in the floor are the right distance apart BUT not made for my foot size!! I tried to squat over the hole with my feet closer together than the foot impressions but this only resulted in not having the, shall we say,

*necessary* areas exposed to do what needs to be done. Then I tried to squat with my feet further apart than the foot impressions. That didn't work because to get my legs *that* far apart, I would have to take my shorts and undies completely off. Now I wouldn't have minded but then I have needed to hold the clothing in my hands and I NEEDED my hands to take care of other business! So there I squatted, trying to keep my balance with one foot a bit to the front and the other a bit to the back of those too small foot depressions!! What REALLY astonished me was to see the elderly women coming out of the loo ahead of me. Each and every one of them had on a dress and HOSE! Imagine trying to negotiate a hole in the floor with a dress on and HOSE! One can only hope that they were stocking worn with a garter belt and NOT pantyhose -- LOLOL! I shall save my story of having to use the Japanese toilet on the Shinkansen (high speed) train for another day. That one still makes me smile -- LOLOL! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I'm loving these stories. Not only are they unique and sometimes funny, they can serve a purpose for those of us who haven't yet been faced with some of these issues. It's nice to have a inkling of what's out there and how to handle it when traveling. So keep them coming and add any travel tips for dressing, balancing, cleaning....whatever. We are broadening our knowledge base! I know I was pretty naive when we went to Russia years ago. From the lady standing in the bathroom handing out paper to not knowing how to flush the facilites....it's nice to be prepared what to do.

"Not knowing how to flush the facilities"... whilst in Warsaw last September I actually took several photos of Polish WC's cos they all flush in different ways - either there's a little lever to lift, or a knob to turn, or a tap to twist... they are all going on a scrapbook page entitled "Flushed with Success..."

Suzie B

You could probably get it published as a book or at least a travel booklet! If it weren't for the privacy issue.....I think a "Candid Camera" for those strange flushers would be pretty funny!

Tia Mary wrote: There was a bright red sports

Not the 'done thing' here, either!

I do remember a hilarious scene once when stuck in a traffic jam on a busy motorway (must have been a crash ahead, or roadworks). There was a coach full of men stopped in the inside carriageway, and suddenly they all poured out and positioned themselves, back to road, at intervals up and along the steepish verge - at least 30 of them. I did hope that the coach wasn't required to continue its journey before they were ready!

Also wonder why some ladies are incapable of locking doors, and give such a bad tempered response when you walk in on them.

Seldom have a problem finding out how to flush, but I really hate those high-tech ones that flush themselves automatically as soon as you stand up, especially when combined with the self-cleaning seat! (The one that goes all squiggly and revolves through a cleaning device :-p) Roberta in D

"KJ" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:B%8Oh.11502$_c5.4344@attbi_s22...

I have yet to encounter a self-cleaning seat! Yikes- that would prolly scare me half to death when the seat started moving! One strange one that I encountered in a roadside rest area is an automatic handwasher. You reach your hands into the cave shaped thing, the water comes on then off, then soap squirts on your hands, then more water for a very quick rinse, then the dryer comes on. I had to run thru it three times to get properly lathered up and completely rinsed. I did NOT like that at all.

Leslie & The Furbabies in MO.

Newsbeitragnews:B%8Oh.11502$_c5.4344@attbi_s22...

My story is about my Oma (grandmother) when she migrated to the US from Germany in the 1910's. She couldn't speak english and when she got off the boat in New York she needed to use the facilities. In panic, she walked into a room which was the men's room, hollared at them to leave and proceeded to do what she had to do along with my auntie. She said she then marched out of the restroom only to find a long line of men who had politely waited until she finished. What a great first impression of her new country! LOL

Roberta Zollner wrote:

The ones I have used had a plastic wrapper around the seat -- the seat being U shaped and NOT connected by hinges to the rest of the toilet. There were squarish boxes at either end of the U where the fresh and used plastic wrapper was contained. Once you stood up from the toilet seat, the toilet automatically flushed itself (it had that light sensor thingie) and then the plastic wrapper slid around the seat and the part you had just used was deposited inside a squarish container on one side leaving a fresh cover for the next person. Problem is, I really don't like sitting on plastic, especially when using the loo! I much prefer using the paper seat covers. One time on MythBusters, they debunked the whole "dirty toilet seat" myth. It seems that, as long as someone doesn't actually do their "business" on the seat itself, the part of our bare bottoms that actually sits on the seat aren't all that germ infested. The problem is when people don't wash their hands after using the facilities. Turns out that the dirtiest part of a bathroom is the knob or handle of the door! I'm still waiting to use one of those new Japanese toilets. As soon as you have finished doing whatever, you have an assortment of buttons to push. One button operates a traditional bidet, another button send a gentle spray of warm water on your "front" area, another button sprays warm water on your "nether" regions, another button sends a gentle surge of warm air on your undersides (front & back) and a last button will engulf the offending areas in a lovely scented mist -- all hypoallergenic, of course!!!!!!!!! OY can you believe THAT! this whole thing eliminates the need for using toilet paper but I think I would still like to wash my hands after :-). CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

I don't like those wash-stations either, but at least if you've used one once you know how it works - saves the embarrassment of pulling your hands out half way through and looking for the hand dryer! They seem to have diagrams as instructions, but I'd much rather have words.

The only time I've met a self cleaning seat was, surprisingly enough, in France. In a small, free public loo (just one room) off the main street of a very affluent village in a wine growing region. It was obviously their pride and joy.

I used to take my French students to Europe every couple of years. We lived in a small town, and most of my students hadn't ever been even 100 miles from home. I spent over a year prior to each trip preparing the students for budgeting their money, how to pack, etc. One of the things I used to do was to teach the girls (I only discussed it briefly with the boys) -- well before departure date -- how to use a Turkish toilet (the hole in the ground, two footprints -- if it's fancy -- type). In all honesty, while it takes a bit of practice to get used to them, I think they're probably more sanitary in many places than our Western toilets, since no one actually sits down.

BTW, my students were real troupers. They never complained about anything, since we spent so much time before the trip talking about different cultures and how they weren't going to find Hometown, USA, in France or Italy or wherever we were going.

I'm chuckling at all these stories. DH & I travelled to Hungary the year after the Berlin Wall came down. My sister is a travel agent & had been told that if you had to use public bathrooms, they probably wouldn't have toilet paper in them. So . . . I packed one suitcase full of toilet paper! My husband howled that I was carting TP to Europe with me. I only needed my stash of TP once, but I was glad to have it. However, when we used the public restrooms, they all had attendants that you paid ( 2 forints?) to (about $0.02) and then they gave you ONE square of TP, sometimes they might give you 2 squares, but that was rare. I square is just not enough!!

There was a TV prog a while ago on visiting US teenagers to Britain. There was one girl visiting with parents who obviously hadn't wanted to come and was spoiling everyone elses holiday. They were staying in hotels, but she had brought masses of food with her and obviously thought we starved here (wish we did, then I wouldn't have had the Bailey's Cheesecake for Lunch and I'd be thin!). She had bought packets and packets of dried pasta - I'm still wondering how she intended to cook it or whether she intended to crunch it raw! Wonder if she took it home with her.

Suzie,

Wayne still laughs about the first thing you took pictures of in Las Cruces was fire hydrants & school busses. Now, you're taking pictures of "potties!"

Sally Swindells wrote:

I hope someone -- a friend hopefully -- smacked some sense into that spoiled child! One of THE first things I taught DD and I tell anyone else who asks me about traveling somewhere new is just that -- it's NEW! If you want someplace to be like home then, by god, STAY home! I might not like to do without ice in my cold drinks but I don't kvetch about it to the locals in the area. If one of the local people ASKS me what I miss or would prefer to have different, the first thing I talk about is the whole ice thing. One of the absolute best things about travel to a new place is the opportunity to eat different food. I mean, if you want a holiday to be like home then stay home -- obviously that girls' parents should not have made her go on the trip. If they were going to force her to travel, then they shouldn't have allowed her to take her own food along

-- how silly is that?? It's one thing to bring a private stash of a favourite "comfort" food -- mine would be candy bars with nuts & caramel (like a Baby Ruth) not something all that easy to find in Europe, and maybe a nice bag of Cheetos. It's a whole different story to bring loads of your own food! I try to eat new stuff all the time -- but I do draw the line at tripe and other unmentionable delicacies :-). One of my main travel pet peeves are the people who pout and complain, loud and long, that XYZ just isn't like home! And it doesn't matter which country the people are from either. My response is to say of course it's not like home or you wouldn't have spent the money to come in the first place. I will admit that I know my limits. I'm NOT going to go to a country where the standard of personal hygiene is to bathe every few months. Nor will I go to any of the countries on the "unacceptable" list kept by all of the Blood Service agencies stateside. These are countries where the level of communicable diseases are so high that if you have been there within about the last six months, they will not accept your blood! Sorry but that's a "no brainer" for me. Fortunately, I don't think there are any European countries on the list anymore. The UK used to be one of the "at risk" countries due to mad cow disease but I don't think that's an issue any longer. Oh well, let's hope that young girl learned a few things since her trip abroad. If not, I would gladly "educate" her a bit :-)))! CiaoMeow >^;;^<

PAX, Tia Mary >^;;^< (RCTQ Queen of Kitties) Angels can't show their wings on earth but nothing was ever said about their whiskers! Visit my Photo albums at

While in Italy many years ago, I visited one of the "hole in the floor" restrooms in an upstairs of a restaurant (or was it a bar?). It had a bucket of water sitting next to it...for flushing!