Cat Mom

Scene: a nightclub years ago. The toilet paper dispenser in the stall was positioned almost at the top of the stall. It was so high you had to unroll the paper a ways (to be reachable), then sit down.

A friend was convinced this was so that if your stall was out of TP, you could reach over and pull some off a neighboring one!

nameless

I have two bathroom experiences to relate; actually one of them is a lack of bathroom experience. First one: Sweden. No toilet paper in bathroom. Needed something to wipe with and had no tissues, so I used some Swedish currency. It was the only paper I had. (And no, I didn't then try to spend it. I flushed it). Second story is worse:
on a college trip to Virgin Gorda in the BVI, I had an emergency. This was 20 years ago and there were no bathrooms anywhere. We were on a deserted beach. So I told the others I felt the need to take a walk by myself because I needed some time alone. Walked down the beach, looked around, saw no one, so did my thing and pulled a front off a palm tree to wipe. When I had done my duty, so to speak---pulled up my bathing suit bottom and notice one of the guys from our group a few feet away, trying to act like he hadn't seen what I had just done. Apparently, he had a crush on me and had followed me when I took my walk. I don't think he had a crush on my anymore after witnessing that episode.

T.M.

This has to be one of the best threads I've seen on here in ages. It sure beats the constand "road to Hanna" and "where can I stay in NYC" questions I see on here every day.

I don't have a horror story but I think that in the U.K. they actually give an award to the tourist spot with the cleanest loo.

If memory serves, Stirling Castle in Scotland tends to win it a lot.

How would you like to be the judge for that contest?

T.M.

I was right! There IS a Cleanest Loo of the Year award!

http://freespace.virgin.net/martin.higham/

Jim

You're all pathetic. You're worse than kindergarteners. Go home and change your stained underpants.

Johnnie

I found out-houses in CA that were cleaner than some of the rest stop spots in the US. If you are a Mom or Dad traveling with kids you will understand. There is no excuse for a dirty bathroom. As an employee of a health related org. I report problems to the local health depts. and you can do the same.

Owen O'Neill

Worst bathroom: CBGB's - the legendary music club on the Bowery in NYC. I was there in the winter of 1975 just a year or two after they opened and it was the skeeviest men's room I'd ever been in (I've been to real dive bars in my day so this is a significant statement). In the 25 or so years since then it has apparently gotten even worse and is now a legendary feature of the club - usually mentioned when the club is described in the media. Coolest and nicest bathroom I've seen was in the lobby of the International House Hotel in New Orleans. It was so cozy and plush and cool (with cool lighting and great music playing) that I almost wanted to just hang out there for awhile!

Scaredof

I'll speak for my sons here.
We were at the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando, Florida when the boys (14 & 12 yeas old) used the bathroom by the pool.
One was in stall, the other washing his hands. When my son who was at sink looked into the mirror, he saw the reflection of the biggest spider he had ever seen (tarantula sized) on the wall.
We have NEVER seen them come a runnin' so fast!!! They were scared to death.
(We don't have large body spiders in the Northeast.)
This was a scene they will never forget, and a story that gets told often.
Headed to Arizona for our next vacation....

sad

I was in a bathroom at a mall, and the woman in the stall next to me had brought her seven or eight-year old son in with her. He crawled under the divider and was watching me go to the bathroom -- I said "Sorry, you can't come over here." He stayed put. I said, "Excuse me, your son is in my stall . . . " No response. "Will you please ask your son to leave my stall?" Nothing. "EXCUSE ME!" Well, his Mom obviously wasn't going to do anything. And this kid was way too old to be in the ladies room anyway, in my opinion --and definitely old enough to know what he was doing. So, I put one hand on his head to push him back under the divider -- he started screaming! I just lost it -- I yelled "GET BACK OVER THERE!" and then the Mom started banging on the divider and screaming "LET GO OF HIM!" Well everyone in that bathroom starting saying "What the -- " and I wasn't about to be dragged to jail for child abuse, so I yelled "GET OUT OF MY STALL! THERE'S SOMEONE IN MY STALL! YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELF!" and I banged on the divider a few times for good measure. Then I wiped, zipped up, and came barging out of the stall. I stood outside the Mom/mini-perv stall and said "That boy is WAY too old to be in a women's restroom! What are you doing?" There's a small crowd waiting outside the stall to see what's going to happen. The Mom won't come out, but she yells "GET AWAY FROM US!" so I shrugged my shoulders, washed my hands, and walked out.

I love

This is really cracking me up. I think the Travel Channel should stop doing the "Best of" shows and start doing "Worst of." Pretty entertaining, although they'd probably get sued for libel.

I feel very lucky that I don't have a horror story (aside from grunge and grime) to add to this post!

Oliver

Not in the US, but in Switzerland...you know beautiful mountains, neat, clean little villages, everything seemed to be so clean and far apart from the ugliness of big towns. Entered a bathroom at the service station, again neat looking from the outside, BUT the sink in the front room was filled up to the rim with SHIT. I couldn`t believe my eyes. I know it has nothing to do with the country but it was certainly an experience.

Oliver

John G

When I climbed Mt. Everest in Nepal (I only went as fall as base camp) I had to dig a hole to use as a toilet (you must dig a hole and burry your waste). The wind was so strong you got a "shower," and I saw some people teeter over into their hole. Not fun.

nichole

The thread is a bit perverse but this Excrement Extravaganza has caused several of my colleagues to collapse into fits of laughter after I have had them scroll through it. Haven't had such an entertaining read here in quite a while.

UGHH!

A guy I used to work with said that once, when he was in the toilets at work, he heard one of the 'stalls' flush & a young guy came out EATING A SANDWICH !

r-travels

Worse bathroom: HAS to have been what was once a HORNES restaurant/ giftshop / gas station at intersection of US Rt 17 & 301 in (i think) Front Royal, VA. Now under a different name, but stopped in last spring just to see if it still was the winner for world's filthiest. Well, it's doing better now, no longer the filthiest, but could easily reclaim the title if they wanted to.

xxx

Years ago in Japan, in a major department store I needed to use the restroom. The mens room entrance was about 25 yards from the womens entrance. Both led to the same restroom, a long bathroom with stalls for privacy.

air freshner

Oh my goodness! After reading all the posts on this subject I got kicked off line. When I got back I finally noticed the name and address of the person who started this thread. Too funny! Such amusing subject matter!
In Hong Kong, on vacation, a ladies room that I used had no toilets but a trough recessed into the floor that ran under all the stalls. So the waste from the first stall was in the same trough as the waste from the tenth stall. It had water in it and a slight trickle of movement. It didn't flush the waste out but I assumed that at some point in the day someone would turn up the water pressure to flush the waste since there wasn't much waste in the trough. I guessed that one was supposed to straddle the trough or squat over it or both. Having used this restroom earlier in the day, I went in with my very ladylike sister (who had never even squatted in the woods to pee)later when she had to go. I waited for her reaction when she saw the trough. She opened the door to the stall, looked down at that trough then turned and looked at me with an expression that was like "Ewwwww! What the heck is this???!!!" I just smiled, shrugged my shoulders and said "Oh well, any port in a storm" I snickered and giggled the whole time she was in there, thinking of the expression on her face. When we left the restroom she told me that while she was going potty she looked down into the trough and she could see the reflection of the lady in the neighboring stall who was squatting over the trough. That made me really laugh since she had such a look of disdain on her face for the whole experience. For the last ten years, everytime I bring it up she gives me a dirty look. But I just laugh.

FWhiteside

I too have had the 'pleasure' of using the "Mens" (?) room in Tokyo Railway Station to find a lady cleaner gradually working her way along the urinals towards me. Also, in Goa, we went to a 'Spice Plantation' & after visiting the mens room there I saw that the urinal emptied into a wooden trough which poked a few feet out of the wall before pouring its contents onto the grass outside. On this holiday we also heard the story of the Porcine Waste Disposal System IE a pig ! Went on a cruise too where the toilet in our tiny bathroom disgorged its contents onto the floor rather than flushing. AARRGG !

top

top top top!

Larry

I have to agree with Margaritaville Dan about China. I have traveled there 5 times this past year and I was told before I left to take my own toilet paper because many of the factories I would visit did not supply TP and all they had in the bathrooms were "squatters".
But my most unusual experience over there happened in a restaurant when I visited the mens room to get rid of some coffee. While I was standing at the urinal, one of the male attendants in the wash room came behind me and started to message my back and shoulders! This made me a little nervous, but nothing else happened. After several more trips during the evening ,with a message each time, I finally told one of my hosts that if I didn't return from the mens room in 15 minutes to come in and get me because it was starting to feel pretty good!!!