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Slow Traveler
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Hi

When you have travelled around the world I'm sure that you have come across some toilets that you found a bit....eh...nasty. This is the chance to share your best and worse toilet stories with all of us. I can start Big Grin

Best experience: I was in the bar at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai (the one in the top wing). This hotel is over the top and it claims to be the only(?) 7 star hotel in the world. Well, the toilet was spotless. Once I had been to the toilet a guy went into make sure that it was as spotless as it was before I went in there...and when I washed my hands a guy was ready to hand me a real towel so that I could wipe my hands :-)

Worse: well, In Beijing we got in touch with a couple of locals and we walked into some narrow streets. We went to a restaurant and I had to go to the loo but there was not a toilet in the place. So this one guy took my out of the restaurant and into the street and all of a sudden he points into a narrow and dark hallway...there was just one light bulb hanging from the ceiling in there. When I walked in there it looked like they had just used a sledgehammer to make a hole in the floor.

I was also on the toilet on a bus in Thailand once. First of all it was tiny so I couldn't stand up straigth (I'm only 5' 10")...and when the bus started moving there was lots of "water" on the floor that was sloshing around.

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures
 
Posts: 887 | Location: Stavanger, Norway | Registered: 11 September 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

Slow Traveler
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My worst are tied between the filthiest "turks" ever at Lago Maggiore and the restrooms on an Alitalia flight by the sixth hour in the air.

Best- the very elegant hotel that allowed us to us the facilities after freezing our butts off at the Milan-Inter derby Feb 2005...
 
Posts: 605 | Location: Rehoboth, MA USA | Registered: 30 August 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

Slow Traveler
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Worst: Not being able to find one
 
Posts: 1401 | Location: Dallas, TX | Registered: 11 February 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post
Slow Traveler
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Worst - a toilet vaguely associated with a 'restaurant' in a village in Afghanistan.

Best - 5 star hotel in Dubai, tied with hotel in Sydney with wonderful view from the loo
 
Posts: 306 | Location: Afghanistan (home Andalucia, Spain) | Registered: 27 January 2005Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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OK, here is a video of the most technologically impressive toilet we've encountered. This one was at the Fondation Maeght in St. Paul de Vence, but there were similar ones in the Nice airport and in restaurants along the Cote d'Azur.
 
Posts: 3501 | Location: Bedford, MA | Registered: 01 August 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

Slow Traveler
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Hi

This looks like a pretty nice toilet. But I think I would have been a bit freaked out by watching people outside Blushing

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

 
Posts: 887 | Location: Stavanger, Norway | Registered: 11 September 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Hi

Talking about high-tech toilets. It was a bit weird coming to Japan. Our hotel room in Tokyo had a pretty advanced toliet...I have to admit that I tried the "hose me down" button and poor Nikki got a shock when she heard my scream from the bathroom Blushing They even had these toilets at places like KFC...we went to one KFC and the toilet was so clean...the toilet paper was folded just like in a hotel Smile

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

 
Posts: 887 | Location: Stavanger, Norway | Registered: 11 September 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Haha.Hahahahaha

This thread is a riot. I must admit that when I was in Switzerland I was most impressed with their bathrooms - even in the airport - everywhere we went they were c-l-e-a-n.

Roz, that is by far the most amazing toilet I've ever seen. Definitely over the top.

Gard, I love the glass house toilet. And also the Tokyo hose-me-down model - does it really do that???

I think these toilet "designers" have a little too much time on their hands.

Terry
 
Posts: 3107 | Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA | Registered: 25 November 2005Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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The worst is every toilet encountered at a gas station with no seperate ladies room. Eek

I think the worst in Europe was in Paris. I was sent out the front door of restaurant and told to walk down the alley to find the toilet. I came upon a small door and inside there was nothing more than a hole in the floor and some toilet paper handing on a hook. Classy...
 
Posts: 2822 | Location: Los Angeles | Registered: 03 May 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post
WT

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Worst ..Baku,Azerbijain when it was still part of the USSR in 1988.Eeeeew,thank for bringing up that memory.

I can't think of one best as I have been to lots of luxury bathrooms.( MUCH nicer way to go ) Wink
 
Posts: 1159 | Location: from SF,living in Europe on RTW trip | Registered: 31 January 2006Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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For me, the worst yet was the Star Ferry toilets at the dock where you board the ferry in Hong Kong. First indication was the smell. There are regular doors and stalls like most restrooms but when you open the door to go inside, you see this trough in the ground that runs from one end to the other and nothing moves!! This was back in 1985 so perhaps improvements have been made since then.

A very nice restroom I found on my most recent trip while in Saluzzo was at Le Quattro Stagioni (perhaps not the best but I was impressed as it was a restaurant and not a 5 star hotel). There is a beautiful mural painted at the entrance, 2 very clean rooms with toilets inside and even hand towels to dry your hands.

Oh, and one of the new regional trains in Piemonte has a similar toilet where the toilet seat spins but it is covered in plastic and all this water squirts out as it spins so the seat is soaking wet when it is finished. Still wouldn't sit on that seat!

Here is a picture of the restroom in Saluzzo...

Le Quattro Stagioni bathroom
 
Posts: 1194 | Location: Oahu, Hawaii | Registered: 30 June 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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There's an excellent one at Il Fauno Bar (see picture below) on Via Corso Italia in Sorrento. When you go inside, it's to the left, then down the stairs.

Another all time favorite is upstairs at L'Avena Cafe in Venice on St Marco square. It's all plush green velvet chairs upstairs (we go up there to sit down quietly for a few minutes). It's a quiet area to text message, have a sip of water, change your film in your camera or review those digital camera shots, and you can watch the activity at the bar below and listen to the music. There is a great chandelier to gaze down on. There is also a public phone if memory serves correct.

Il Fauno Bar, Sorrento in the main square
 
Posts: 2714 | Location: Australia | Registered: 27 February 2006Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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When Smith College in Massachusetts designed a new art museum, it also made its restrooms into "functional art". You can read about them here. Make sure you also click on the link from that page to see the pictures.

It's pretty funny when you go there because you will always see women going into the men's room and vice versa because everyone is so curious about what the "other" room looks like.
 
Posts: 3501 | Location: Bedford, MA | Registered: 01 August 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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I can remember years ago I was pregnant with my daughter (now 23 Eek)We were in Amsterdam and I was desperate! The fact that it was a shared space didn't bother me as much as the fact I had to waddle down this narrow walkway to get to the 'seat section'. Along that wall was the trough where the men did their 'stand-up business'. I was HUGE- and was bumping men in the butt the whole way down.
April FoolScuss Me! April Fool

The nicest is the men's (no there is not a pattern here! Uh-uh No!) that has crushed ice in the bottom...I understand it prevents splatters.
Sorry No pictures to share!

Sandi

The Backside of Rome
 
Posts: 1520 | Location: Alabama | Registered: 12 March 2006Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

Moderator and Gathering Hero
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quote:
Originally posted by Roz:
When Smith College in Massachusetts designed a new art museum, it also made its restrooms into "functional art". You can read about them here. Make sure you also click on the link from that page to see the pictures.


Pretty incredible looking restrooms, Roz. Loved the toilet bowl, too, but it looks like it may tickle me if I sat on it!!

Terry
 
Posts: 3107 | Location: Philadelphia, PA, USA | Registered: 25 November 2005Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Okay, I think many of you will enjoy this account of one type of generic experience, found on a website by a friend yesterday. It's one reader's reply to a blog article re a story about what our moms may try to teach us femmes about how to survive visits to public toilets. The long (and hilarious) blog comment was quoted without attribution. Might try to identify it later.

=== The blog comment my friend read and sent ===
(The topic was "Rest room?")

Posted: July 15 2006,18:48

Another gem from my cousin:

My mother was a fanatic about public restrooms. When I was a little
girl, she'd take me into the stall, show me how to wad up toilet
paper and wipe the seat. Then she'd carefully lay strips of toilet
paper to cover the seat. Finally, she'd instruct, "Never, NEVER sit
on a public toilet seat. Then she'd demonstrate "The Stance," which
consisted of balancing over the toilet in a sitting position without
actually letting any of your flesh make contact with the toilet seat.
That was a long time ago. Now, in my "mature" years, "The Stance" is
excruciatingly difficult to maintain.

When you have to visit a public bathroom, you usually find a line of
women, so you smile politely and take your place. Once it's your
turn, you check for feet under the stall doors. Every stall is
occupied. Finally, a door opens and you dash in, nearly knocking down
the woman leaving the stall. You get in to find the door won't latch.
It doesn't matter.

The dispenser for the modern "seat covers" (invented by someone's
Mom, no doubt) is handy, but empty. You would hang your purse on the
door hook, if there were one, but there isn't - so you carefully but
quickly drape it around your neck, (Mom would turn over in her grave
if you put it on the FLOOR!), yank down your pants, and assume "The
Stance."

In this position your aging, toneless thigh muscles begin to shake.
You'd love to sit down, but you certainly hadn't taken time to wipe
the seat or lay toilet paper on it, so you hold "The Stance."

To take your mind off your trembling thighs, you reach for what you
discover to be the empty toilet paper dispenser. In your mind, you
can hear your mother's voice saying, "Honey, if you had tried to
clean the seat, you would have KNOWN there was no toilet paper!" Your
thighs shake more.

You remember the tiny tissue that you blew your nose on yesterday -
the one that's still in your purse. That would have to do. You
crumple it in the puffiest way possible. It is still smaller than
your thumbnail.

Someone pushes open your stall door because the latch doesn't work.
The door hits your purse, which is hanging around your neck in front
of your chest, and you and your purse topple backward against the
tank of the toilet. "Occupied!" you scream, as you reach for the
door, dropping your precious, tiny, crumpled tissue in a puddle on
the floor, lose your footing altogether, and slide down directly onto
the TOILET SEAT. It is wet of course.

You bolt up, knowing all too well that it's too late. Your bare
bottom has made contact with every imaginable germ and life form on
the uncovered seat because YOU never laid down toilet paper - not
that there was any, even if you had taken time to try.

You know that your mother would be utterly appalled if she knew,
because, you're certain, her bare bottom never touched a public
toilet seat because, frankly, dear, "You just don't KNOW what kind of
diseases you could get."

By this time, the automatic sensor on the back of the toilet is so
confused that it flushes, propelling a stream of water like a
firehose that somehow sucks everything down with such force that you
grab onto the toilet paper dispenser for fear of being dragged in to
o. At that point, you give up.

You're soaked by the spewing water and the wet toilet seat. You're
exhausted. You try to wipe with a gum wrapper you found in your
pocket and then slink out inconspicuously to the sinks. You can't
figure out how to operate the faucets with the automatic sensors, so
you wipe your hands with spit and a dry paper towel and walk past the
line of women, still waiting. You are no longer able to smile
politely at them.

A kind soul at the very end of the line points out a piece of toilet
paper trailing from your shoe. ( Where was that when you NEEDED it??)
You yank the paper from your shoe, plunk it the woman's hand and tell
her warmly, "Here, you just might need this."

As you exit, you spot your hubby, who has long since entered, used
and left the men's restroom. Annoyed, he asks, "What took you so
long, and why is your purse hanging around your neck?"

. . This is dedicated to women everywhere who deal with a public
restroom (rest??? you've got to be kidding!!). It finally explains to
the men what really does take us so long. It also answers their other
commonly asked question about why women go to the restroom in pairs.
It's so the other gal can hold the door, hang onto your purse and
hand you Kleenex under the door.

=== End of blog comment ===

- requoted by Andrys


My main website - Italy, Peru, Turkey
My photo blog - updated regularly
 
Posts: 376 | Location: Berkeley, California | Registered: 27 March 2006Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Andrys - oh what a hoot! I woke up all three cats, I was laughing so loudly and they are glaring at me now.
 
Posts: 2714 | Location: Australia | Registered: 27 February 2006Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Andrys, that was hilarious!
 
Posts: 668 | Location: California | Registered: 19 September 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Well, some toilets are better than others. But what about the oddest thing ever done in a restroom?

1972; hitchhiking through Germany; six or seven guys all stuck, late on a rainy night, at a rest stop on the Autobahn. We camped out in the ladies' and were awoken at some ungodly hour to attempt continuing our respective journeys by a feminine shriek.


Thanks!
Bucky "Trying To Slow Down" Edgett
 
Posts: 750 | Location: Maryland | Registered: 24 April 2006Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Andrys, that was SO FUNNY!!! I almost peed my pants laughing so hard when reading it! Thanks for sharing.
 
Posts: 1194 | Location: Oahu, Hawaii | Registered: 30 June 2004Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Hi

Funny post Andrys. But what is the chance of actually catching anything by sitting down on a public toilet? From what I have heard the chance is pretty slim.

Anyway, my wife has a similar "problem" so she is also a bit sceptical when it comes to going into public toilet. But now she has bought a device so she can pee standing up Thumbs Up

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures
 
Posts: 887 | Location: Stavanger, Norway | Registered: 11 September 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Andrys, this will be cut and pasted in an email with full credit to you and sent to my MOTHER who will truly appreciate it. It is just great.

Di
 
Posts: 3623 | Location: Acqui Terme, Piedmont, Italy | Registered: 30 July 2005Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post

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Hi

Have you guys heard about the urinals at Schiphol airport? It looks like there is a fly in the urinal and the idea is that most men will aim for it and hence less spilling Happy

Regards
Gard
http://gardkarlsen.com - trip reports and pictures

 
Posts: 887 | Location: Stavanger, Norway | Registered: 11 September 2003Edit or Delete MessageReport This Post