Years ago, I remember reading somewhere that the official position of the Gideons is (or was) that no Gideon Bible had ever been stolen, although some had been “borrowed”.
I’m trying to think of what formal category the “hotels” were in. Whatever they were, they were cheap!
Or Brazilian “love hotels”, where the partitions between rooms apparently don’t reach up to the ceiling! :eek:
Telephone next to the throne? Had one once at fancy-shmancy NYC hotel. Never used it in situ, though.
That’s so the bride can call her Mother in private. “He wants me to. . . You did? With Dad? Oooh! Yuck!”
I guess I’ve got to make a donation to the Gideon society. 
The western ( European ) style hotels in Luanda have condoms in the bathroom. It is a recent effort to combat the spread of AIDS and “stimulate” the local economy. :eek:
They also have a 1.2m x 1.2m elevators that will usually stop on or near the floor you requested, a bathtub built for someone the size of a five year old, and a bidet. The lobby doors are always open so that the jumbo size mosquito’s can get in and test the effectiveness of the bug spray and malarial prophylactics that visitors have chosen.
Oh, and they have bibles that can be used to combat any other insects that may choose to share your accommodations.
Costa Rica: hot water for the shower was heated in an electric showerhead, which was plugged into an outlet in the bathroom.
I don’t know what these are called, but I think they were invented in Brazil?
They seem to be common across Latin America, and I’ve also encountered them in Poland.
They don’t. At a university I attended, the Gideons stopped short of putting Bibles in student residence rooms, but they did have a table set up where you could help yourself to one at no charge. It was staffed by a Gideon, who would help you select the one you wanted: King James, Revised Standard, or whatever; and as I recall, they had a few in different languages also. And if you didn’t want one at all, he would simply tell you to have a nice day. As far as I could tell, in addition to there being no charge for a Bible, no donation was expected either (although I’m sure they would have accepted one).
I saw one at a B&B in Ireland. It also had a pump to increase the water pressure. It was heavenly, you could pressure-wash your face if you trned up the dial enough; but they don’t seem to sell them in the US.
I’m a bit puzzled. I’m sure there are electrically pumped and heated showers in the USA, so what distinction is being made here?
Much of the UK seems to have dramatically lower water pressure in the shower than in much of the US. That’s the main reason. The way British bathtub and/or shower enclosures are constructed make it easy to add a pump.
Ah, another thing I noticed in Germany … by the sound of the American Tourist in full bellow mode at the front desk when we checked in, you would have thought the lack of central air conditioning was life threatening … I am the first one to cranky my bedroom down to hang a half cow to dry age temperatures, but even I was comfortable with the windows open and the fan on. :rolleyes:
I don’t know about the UK, but here in Ireland water pressure does not seem to be the issue. We all have water tanks in the roof, so water pressure is not dependent on mains supply but on gravity feed.
Many Irish people choose pumped/heated showers as a matter of course, as it makes it easier to vary pressure and heat of the water. Many people prefer showers to baths, and have a stand-alone powered shower only.
A powered unit is more common if the shower is a stand-alone unit not stand-in-the-bath. That means electronic heater/pumps are less common in hotels, although frequent in B+Bs.
Just to make sure that we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet, here’s someone’s blog page with a picture of a typical “Brazilian” electric showerhead.
I haven’t seen many dual button toilets in my travels.
Korea: A bathroom with sink, toilet, tub, and shower head. No shower curtain or glass doors. There was a drain both in the tub in the expected place and a drain in the room itself to catch the overspray. Wet room is a good name for it. Oh, and tiled, ceiling to floor. American hotel/motel bathrooms seem to always have a sign that says to put the shower curtain inside the tub before showering. (NOW I understand for the need for that sign.)
Korea: A local apartment had a very small room with a sink, toilet, washing machine (clothes), and a shower head. No tub or demarcation line for a shower stall. The whole room was a shower stall. All I could think of was a wet toilet seat and my pants on the wet floor when I sat down to do my business.
Also in Korea: The slot to put the room key in to turn on the lights. My group had never seen this before and many of us had to go find an English speaking person to tell us how to turn on the stupid lights. Word spread pretty fast after the first 10 or so got the information.
Kauai, Hawaii: We rented a little cottage in the near jungle of the north side. We got our very own can of bug spray in the bathroom.
We rented a little motel room (I thought it was Page, Arizona, but I can’t find a reference to it) that had a plaque explaining that the windows at the front by the door and high windows on the opposite side of the room could be opened for a cross breeze. (Like I would leave a window open on the ground floor.) Another feature was that there were no doors on the closet and no drawers. This was so that an occupant could quickly scan the room for stuff about to be left behind.
Breckenridge, Colorado: Summer. No A/C and no fan. No big deal until you realize that when you left the window open (2nd floor, no balcony), then you were awakened at 6 am by the building construction. Hey, they don’t build in the dead of winter so they start at the crack of dawn in the summer. So you leave the window closed. Then it gets stuffy. I don’t care how clear the mountain air is, I want a window open or a fan or both.
More and more the motels and hotels are getting to be non-smoking as the norm rather than the exception. Thank GOD!
Free internet usually means a very poor quality of hotel in my experience.
That’s not hotels, that’s required by current building code. If I ever decide to change my ancient toilet (which works fine, thankyoumuch), the new one will have the double button.
Ah, now I understand. Never seen one of those. We have proper units on the side of the shower, no cables.
Good idea. We didn’t have the privilege of going to any private homes in our brief trip, so knew only about the hotels.
Right. My mistake, I was picturing one of these: http://howto-repair.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/how-to-repair-electric-shower-1.jpg
The Brazilian is even more compact, like this: http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/364773 Which is terrifying.
But you can’t get either one in the US. Water pressure either comes from the City water tower (City water), or from a whole-house pump (well water). And there is a single central water heater for the house. Some few are going to individual water heaters for each shower/sink, but it’s quite rare.