Do you squat or sit? Bizarre toilet etiquette signs ‘aimed at Asian tourists’

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Do you squat or sit? Bizarre toilet etiquette signs ‘aimed at Asian tourists’

Ollie McAteer for Metro.co.uk

The bizarre signs can be found on trains in the Swiss Alps and are aimed at Asian tourists who, well, have a tendency to squat over the bowl apparently.

Other signs warn visitors from Southeast Asia and the Middle East not to throw their used toilet paper in the bin.

Roger Joss, director of marketing for the railway told 20 Minuten newspaper: ‘It happens that guests mount on the toilet seats to do their business – and sometimes they don’t know where to put the paper.’

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/07/03/do-you-squat-or-sit-on-the-loo-bizarre-toilet-etiquette-signs-aimed-at-asian-tourists-5279161/

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Sit, don't squat: Toilet training posters aimed at visitors from Asia and Middle East put up on trains

Deservedly or not, Chinese tourists have a reputation for being rude, boorish and dirty.

And now Switzerland, which is famous for taking pride in being scrupulously clean, is doing its best to teach new visitors a lesson in Western toilet etiquette.

A series of signs - apparently aimed at visitors from Southeast Asia and the Middle East - has appeared on trains in the popular tourist destination of Mount Rigi in the Swiss Alps.

They explain how one should sit on a loo seat, rather than squat; and throw toilet paper into the lavatory, rather than into the bin.

Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sit-dont-squat-toilet-training-5998987

[Seastallion]

I think if one is used to putting used paper in the bin (especially with warnings of clogging the pipes), the above sign could very well be interpreted as instructing one to place it in the cistern.

[espinoza]

I think it`s time to teach some people what cleanness is. Collecting used toilet paper, full of shit, in a dust bin is asking for diseases. It`s just disgusting unhygienic.

[green job]

Well my mate had a few Chinese staying at his hotel in Frankfurt ( Germany ) And they shxt in the shower.

[gerry123]

toilet etiquette los ????????????

[DDbkh]

When a well known golf club in HK refurbished the changing rooms, they had to replace the toilet seats which had spike marks from members squatting while wearing their golf shoes!

[Lissos]

Well the most vile toilets I've ever encountered in the world, were undoubtedly in China. India has some horrors at dhaba stops occasionally,but Chinese ones can be truly horrendous outside of the eastern side of China. Once there is a block, people just keep using it and a mound develops. Pity the poor son of a ming who comes to deal with it. Just bringing up the memory of some of these is a visceral nausea, they were that vile.

[Kerryd]

We had much cruder pictures in the bathrooms in Kandahar, something like this:

It was an issue on at least one airline as well (pic on the door of the lavatory)

We had issues in many of the toilets/porta-potties with broken seats and crap on the seats (which of course the offender never, ever tried to clean up himself). The cleaners (mostly Indians) would complain to us (Westerners) about it and we'd point out that it wasn't the Westerners causing the problem and maybe they should talk to their own people first. (Oddly enough, when the "landlords" rearranged the accommodations so that all the "westerners" were in one area, the bathroom problems (in our area) disappeared instantly ! Talking to the cleaners about the other buildings though and it sounded like a horror story on a daily basis.)

It was so bad that every time you went into a stall or porta-pottie, you had to do a 5 point check first:

1) Is there crap on the seat ? (Move to different toilet/porta-pottie.)

2) Is the toilet plugged/overflowing ? (Move to different toilet/porta-pottie.)

3) Are there footprints on the seat ? (Check for broken seat, wipe seat clean.)

4) Is there toilet paper ? (Unbelievable how many full rolls of TP you'd see thrown into the bowls regularly.)

5) Is the floor sopping wet (with presumed water) ? (Either move to a new unit or roll up the pant legs and keep telling yourself it's just water, it's just water, it's just water.)

Even now, I walk into my own bathroom in the house and I stop, look at the toilet, assess the situation and then go about my business as it's passed the 5 point check (unless I've had a guest over who enjoys the bum gun a little too much and makes the whole area look like someone took a fire hose to it) !

[Seastallion]

Well the most vile toilets I've ever encountered in the world, were undoubtedly in China. India has some horrors at dhaba stops occasionally,but Chinese ones can be truly horrendous outside of the eastern side of China. Once there is a block, people just keep using it and a mound develops. Pity the poor son of a ming who comes to deal with it. Just bringing up the memory of some of these is a visceral nausea, they were that vile.

I can handle blood, gore and guts, but I suffer from faeces intolerance....just reading your post makes me almost retch. I would like to visit China, but it seems I will be unable to.

[impulse]

One of our safety posters shows the body of a person (in autopsy) who was squatting on a ceramic bowl when the bowl broke and the jagged ceramic cut to the bone. The victim bled out, probably in a minute or less. A rather sobering photo...

It's not just etiquette or hygiene. It's life and death.

Edited July 4, 2015 by impulse

[Lissos]

We had much cruder pictures in the bathrooms in Kandahar......

Now that you mention that region, I can think of a particularly vile one in a cheapy hotel in Kabul that was grim (including the two rocks that conservative types use for peeing, so that they don't have to touch their 'pee pee' and risk getting excited). It would never reach the level of horror of that concrete structure around a 'pit' used by Chinese border guards at a checkpoint in North West China that was several years worth of ammonia and everything else you can imagine. For that one you had to hold your breath and gamble you could last.

I would like to visit China, but it seems I will be unable to.

At first I was going to try and lessen the impact so that you can visit, but there is something else that has to be mentioned. Apart from ones already mentioned, in many guesthouses the toilets consist not of individual stalls but barely hip level partitions in a big room situated 'above' one long trench of meekly flowing water. One, the partitions don't have doors (so yes, anyone who walks past....well) and that trench of flowing water below means that unless you're at the 'top' end, you never ever (ever) look down. Ever!!!! Ever!!!!

I could handle open shower rooms with no cubicles as my school showers were like that (even if being non Chinese, the Chinese stared constantly out of curiosity) but toilets that have no privacy at all? Well that's positively Roman, that one.

[Canuck50]

The mixing of "toilet cultures" certainly can be a big problem. The engineering firm I worked for in Canada hired a group of engineers from Iran and they could/would not adapt to western toilets. Often they would be seen entering a toilet stall and seemingly disappear as the mounted the seat to squat. On too many occasions the next person to enter would find a horrendous mess on the seat and surrounding floor from the sh?t spray which they would not clean up after themselves. One of the more private bathrooms had a toilet stall, urinal, and sink. The VP of the company entered one day to find someone had laid a log in the urinal...I guess it was easier to squat there than trying to balance on the seat!

Another common problem is that they would not accept using paper so instead they would back up to the sink and use handfuls of tap water to splash on their backside to clean up. The next person to enter would find a terrible mess at the sink, as though a large turkey had a bath there....water and mess everywhere. Not too appealing for the next person to wash their hands I must say. I think it would help if western cultures adapted to the bum gun which would help greatly but I'm not sure what could be done for the seat squatting!!!

[RickBradford]

I remember getting to Saigon in the early 1990s and wandering round the downtown streets in early afternoon admiring the French architecture, when an old woman in a conical hat and house pyjamas suddenly whipped down her daks and took a dump in the gutter, seemingly oblivious to the passers-by.

About a year after that, the Health Department announced a plan to outlaw urinating in the street, to which the police chief replied to the effect that half the city's population would be under arrest within 24 hours, whereupon the scheme was quietly dropped.

[hextac]

We had an incident at an expensive international school I worked. One of the Thai teachers knocked herself out after squatting and falling on the "western" toilets. Strange.

[rosst]

I think it`s time to teach some people what cleanness is. Collecting used toilet paper, full of shit, in a dust bin is asking for diseases. It`s just disgusting unhygienic.

Yes but unless you do, the whole building may suffer blockage and if widespread, the sewerage works cannot cope.

Correst, it is not the best possible solution but it is the only one they can afford.

[rosst]

I remember getting to Saigon in the early 1990s and wandering round the downtown streets in early afternoon admiring the French architecture, when an old woman in a conical hat and house pyjamas suddenly whipped down her daks and took a dump in the gutter, seemingly oblivious to the passers-by.

About a year after that, the Health Department announced a plan to outlaw urinating in the street, to which the police chief replied to the effect that half the city's population would be under arrest within 24 hours, whereupon the scheme was quietly dropped.

My first visit to India 74 we stopped at Bombay airport early in the AM and during the taxi ride to the city, I observed people side by side evacuating their bowels into the gutter and a street sweeper pushing it along creating a multicoloured stripe about a meter wide. I recoiled in Culture shock but have managed to get over it.

[ResandePohm]

Well my mate had a few Chinese staying at his hotel in Frankfurt ( Germany ) And they shxt in the shower.

Also known to shxt in the bath and leaving the bathwater to hide it or using the hotel rooms waste paper bin.

[faranghh]

I think it`s time to teach some people what cleanness is. Collecting used toilet paper, full of shit, in a dust bin is asking for diseases. It`s just disgusting unhygienic.

Yes but unless you do, the whole building may suffer blockage and if widespread, the sewerage works cannot cope.

Correst, it is not the best possible solution but it is the only one they can afford.

Firstly i think that normally you would wash your soiled parts with the water or hose then only use the paper to dry your backside not clean it, thus we have a bin full of relatively clean but wet paper.

[ezzra]

Mind you, scientist has proclaimed that squatting wile doing the business is the best position

to vacate your bowls, it allow un restricted and free flow of the material compare to the European

crapper we use now.....

[RickBradford]

it allow un restricted and free flow of the material compare to the European crapper we use now.....

Yup, ole' Thomas must take his share of the blame ....

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Crapper

[Lissos]

Yes but unless you do, the whole building may suffer blockage and if widespread, the sewerage works cannot cope.

Greece still hasn't got that sorted (along with many other things). Back in the early 90s on a family holiday I remember that all paper had to go in a bucket nearby. It was a strange novelty then but it is 2015 now and that still has to be done in most of Greece. Greece managed to upgrade public water to EU standards to the point that tap water is safe to drink virtually everywhere but I guess it was deemed way too expensive to replace unimaginable numbers of pipes and the wider system. Whatever the case I agree it is disgusting. Most people have the common sense to at least fold over the paper, but some Bus station buckets are a horror story (along with the high number of men who seemingly never washed their hands on the way out) where it is a very visual experience to enter a toilet stall.

[perdido]

One of our safety posters shows the body of a person (in autopsy) who was squatting on a ceramic bowl when the bowl broke and the jagged ceramic cut to the bone. The victim bled out, probably in a minute or less. A rather sobering photo...

It's not just etiquette or hygiene. It's life and death.

...if you didn't laugh.....

[Your Thainess]

This is an epic thread already. 555

I've never seen toilets worse than in India and China. If you look closely at the tabloid media in both countries, you will notice that each constantly bashes the other for being uncouth. In China, you'll often see (supposed) exposés on the dumping of bodies into the Ganges and in India, reports on Chinese 'street etiquette'.

[The Deerhunter]

We had much cruder pictures in the bathrooms in Kandahar, something like this:

It was an issue on at least one airline as well (pic on the door of the lavatory)

We had issues in many of the toilets/porta-potties with broken seats and crap on the seats (which of course the offender never, ever tried to clean up himself). The cleaners (mostly Indians) would complain to us (Westerners) about it and we'd point out that it wasn't the Westerners causing the problem and maybe they should talk to their own people first. (Oddly enough, when the "landlords" rearranged the accommodations so that all the "westerners" were in one area, the bathroom problems (in our area) disappeared instantly ! Talking to the cleaners about the other buildings though and it sounded like a horror story on a daily basis.)

It was so bad that every time you went into a stall or porta-pottie, you had to do a 5 point check first:

1) Is there crap on the seat ? (Move to different toilet/porta-pottie.)

2) Is the toilet plugged/overflowing ? (Move to different toilet/porta-pottie.)

3) Are there footprints on the seat ? (Check for broken seat, wipe seat clean.)

4) Is there toilet paper ? (Unbelievable how many full rolls of TP you'd see thrown into the bowls regularly.)

5) Is the floor sopping wet (with presumed water) ? (Either move to a new unit or roll up the pant legs and keep telling yourself it's just water, it's just water, it's just water.)

Even now, I walk into my own bathroom in the house and I stop, look at the toilet, assess the situation and then go about my business as it's passed the 5 point check (unless I've had a guest over who enjoys the bum gun a little too much and makes the whole area look like someone took a fire hose to it) !

We have seen all of the above in Thailand many times. I have two extra checks. Number 1a. Is there any vestige of seat left? 4a. Is there any hook or even a nail to hang my trousers on? Night clubs & pubs can be interesting. After the 7 part check list I wipe & sit if possible or leave. The absolute worst I have ever seen was at a semi disused airport in Dalnerechensk, Siberia where the floors had mostly all rotted away and the drains were now non-functional. There were no signs, or doors, or internal walls or toilets or water supply. But mud nearly ankle deep and among everything else you needed to step over or around, were a lot of used condoms & foil wrappers. A LOT! Not the most romantic place for any sort of tryst, gay or straight. Also one trip on Emirates about 10 years ago. A toilet visit during the night after all the Arabs had been "washing themselves" over the plane toilet handbasins. The floors in every one, were an inch deep in water and other material. The handbasins were filthy with you know what.

Edited July 4, 2015 by The Deerhunter

[chainarong]

In Muslim religion you can only squat hence those dunny squats you sometimes see at service stations and older buildings ,with the Indon boys on mine sites we had kangaroo signs, no hopping on seats, this habit broke up a marriage as when the family arrived they kept messing over the seat, the Irish guy didn't even know he had married into a Muslim family till I told him at the airport, they also don't wipe their arse with paper they use that spray hose or bottled water , as for the paper in the bin, just another silent insult to the westerner.

[Time Traveller]

I remember getting to Saigon in the early 1990s and wandering round the downtown streets in early afternoon admiring the French architecture, when an old woman in a conical hat and house pyjamas suddenly whipped down her daks and took a dump in the gutter, seemingly oblivious to the passers-by.

About a year after that, the Health Department announced a plan to outlaw urinating in the street, to which the police chief replied to the effect that half the city's population would be under arrest within 24 hours, whereupon the scheme was quietly dropped.

Maybe Saigon is a little more advanced than here. It's the 21st century and that kind of behavior still happens in bangkok.

[Seastallion]

I remember getting to Saigon in the early 1990s and wandering round the downtown streets in early afternoon admiring the French architecture, when an old woman in a conical hat and house pyjamas suddenly whipped down her daks and took a dump in the gutter, seemingly oblivious to the passers-by.

About a year after that, the Health Department announced a plan to outlaw urinating in the street, to which the police chief replied to the effect that half the city's population would be under arrest within 24 hours, whereupon the scheme was quietly dropped.

Really??? Really, really?? I guess I'm just naive....how did she clean herself?

And if she didn't...it confirms my first thought that she was mentally ill.

[Shaunduhpostman]

A Thai co-worker of mine, who had worked for many years in the hotel industry, claimed that Indians are barred from many hotels in Thailand because as he put it, "They shit on the bed! They shit everywhere all over the room!" Myself and the couple of farangs soiled ourselves laughing, the guy's outrage and the apparent ludicrousness of his pronouncement was just classic.

We teased him about what he'd said for a few days when we had a Nepalese delegation over which the Thai guy was given responsibility to manage get accomodations for etc. He was livid that he got charged with handling them and their accomodations. And sure enough, there was an issue with the hotel they booked. The hotel not realizing the group booked for a week were khon Kaek and no they could not stay at the hotel despite reservations, no way. The Thai guy spent the afternoon driving them around to places in Bangkok that might accept them and finally they got a place.

At the end of the day, he comes back into the office peeved, "I don't blame the hotels! They will shit on the bed and ruin it! If it is my hotel they cannot stay too!" We thought it was the most hilarious ridiculous example of the typical Thai prejudice against Kaek. Everyday he came back from shuttling them around, we'd tease him, "Did the Kaek shit in the car! How about the restaurant did they just shit at the table! Did they shit at the conference during the key note speech?" He insisted, "You never worked at a hotel! You don't know! Its true! Maybe they will shit in the car or during the presentation! Maybe tomorrow!"

On a lark I googled it and I was goddamned if it wasn't that pretty quickly I found a whole web page at the Indian Government Health Ministry or some public health ngo dedicated to a public outreach and training program to teach rural Indians to stop shitting everywhere all over the floor in their own houses. Apparently and not surprisingly there are serious health consequences from this practice and the government was looking to significantly reduce a number of serious diseases that arise from shitting any old place you like. Amazing.

I did say to my co-worker, that maybe he had a point, showed him the site and he was all about "I told you so!" But that the people he was charged with looking after were urban professionals and not likely to be in the habit of shitting everywhere. He didn't care of course. Still a good chance they'll do it anyway in his mind. Though, I suppose it would be tough for a desk clerk to be able to work that out as well. Too bad. Hope the Indian country bumpkins stop shitting everywhere in their houses because they will be having problems booking rooms in Thailand. I remember a year ago, the White temple up in Chiang Rai was banning Chinese for crapping all over the place. New market in Thai Tourism: Poo friendly!

[Emster23]

The squats used to be the norm here in SE Asia, porcelain jobs with foot pads and all. Yes, it is the way you evolved to take a dump. GF back in 70's lived in semi communal house where they added a box in front of crapper so could get that angle. Toilet paper reminds me of part of Satanic Verses where one of the characters says some thing like "They wipe their <deleted> with paper! So unclean. Paper!".

My mother took me to Europe back in 69, stopped at inn somewhere between London and Paris. Facilities were a hole in concrete floor.

I love cultural jingoism.