Interesting things observed in other countries?

[Anonymous]

The range of toilets in France, from squat toilets (literally, holes in the floor with footprints to either side) to fabulous modern contraptions with air, automatic seat covers, etc. Several of my trip photos are of toilets.

[Anonymous]

In Egypt several years ago:
Men armed with machine guns at tourist sites....tourist police to protect foreign tourists from inside terrorism.

In China:
Toddlers with open drawers so that they could pee/poop as part of potty training. On tour of Imperial Palace, saw a man with 2 yr old on his shoulders where kids' butt was totally open at seat showing his crack. Was told that diapers were only for babies who couldn't walk, once kids can walk in open crotch pants. If /when have to go, they just squat on street/anywhere & do it.

That would avoid a lot of Pull=Ups!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In India, burning bodies and sending them into the Ganga river, where downstream the bathe, wash clothes and get drinking water.

Planned Parenthood does that in DC and MD. What? Too graphic?

Are you trying to make the jump between people not having clean drinking water and drinking water from dead bodies to legal abortion? I don't get this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The range of toilets in France, from squat toilets (literally, holes in the floor with footprints to either side) to fabulous modern contraptions with air, automatic seat covers, etc. Several of my trip photos are of toilets.

Can you post some travel photos? This Would be awesome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eggs and butter left out of the fridge. I think the butter might have been in one of those submersible bells but no one ever refrigerated eggs (and this was noertern Europe not a third world country).

You don't need to refrigerate eggs in the short term. My mother didn't. I don't. I only refrigerate butter in the summer when it's going to melt, otherwise.

I don't either. Americans put everything in the fridge because its all over pasteurized and processed.

[Anonymous]

Lots of dogs without owner in Mexico City running in the neighborhoods. Scary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wild donkeys chilling out on the beach in the Virgin Islands.

Well, you know it was their place way before the pesky humans got there.

No, donkeys aren't a native species. Neither are horses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard no one uses umbrellas in Seattle. (I know, not another country)

People in the Bay Area don't speed even when there's no traffic.

I had never really seen stray animals roaming around until I went to Mexico.

Not true! I grew up in the Bay Area and live there now.

As long as we're on domestic weird things...at BART (the local rapid transit system) people stand in line where the doors will open, rather than just crowd around the door. Two lines, when people get off, you enter the car in a line. So civilized.

WTF BART line are YOU taking? Because I live in SF too and never see that, and definitely don't see it on Muni ever.

Huh, I use the Union City and Montgomery stations most...though I don't travel during peak hours, generally.

(BTW, want to have a former DCUMs meetup?)

[Anonymous]

Although I loved Greece, I could not help but feel as a "loud tourist" there. Every guard and museum worker had their own set of rules and on more than one occasion were called disrespectful to their culture. It seemed as those made-up rules helped them feel important and provided an occasion to rudely lecture us. For example, my DH did a headstand for the picture with Acropolis on the background (we make one of those pics in every country we go). We were immediately approached by an Acropolis worker who demanded to delete the "disrespectful" picture. Similar happened several times (I honestly don't remember what we did) and at one point an American family who observed us getting in trouble approached and politely asked the worker to review the rules as they were afraid to be disrespectful too Other than that, Greeks were very nice and tolerant towards tourists.

[Anonymous]

When you say "thank you" to an American, then they reply with "aha" - instead of "you're welcome".
This was very strange to me when I first moved here from Europe. And I still don't have a reason for WHY they do it.

[Anonymous]

Waving at people in Italy seemed like they thought we were flipping them the bird?
As I was passing people they would look at me, so I would just kindly wave and say hi, they would give me the most perplexed looks.
My friend and I decided it must be like giving them the finger
Anyone care to explain? Otherwise Italians were so insanely friendly to us, everywhere we went they would ask if we were American, then give us shots of lemoncello or some other free token

[Anonymous]

Indonesia- people blowing their noses by closing one nostril and shooting out snot without a tissue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Indonesia- people blowing their noses by closing one nostril and shooting out snot without a tissue.

I've seen this in the US. But they are usually immigrants so maybe they do this back home and bring this custom with them.

[Anonymous]

An elephant strolling down the beach in Thailand.

Dog meat in the market outside of Hanoi.

[Anonymous]

Moorea, walking along the road, people would stop and give you rides, every fruit tree was a family tree(ie do not pick), the dogs protecting thehouses, and anytime someone spoke to me English was third on the list (they were really happy to know I was not French and wanted to talk about football)