# Wacky Stuff You've Encountered Overseas **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 9, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070 "2003-05-09T07:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bill\_H](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a5b964/32.png) [@Bill\_H](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_H)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/21 "2003-05-09T17:05:43Z")
None of these are “wacky” per se, but different then my homeland experiences. In some countries, in the hotel room in a noticable place, such as mounted to the desk will be a discrete arrow. Took me a while to figure out; it was pointing to Mecca. Obvious in hindsight to see that in Pakistan or Egypt, but I’ve seen it in Tokyo as well. Being in some Eurpopean places (Hamburg comes to mind), and seeing everything completely close down on the weekends was different. In Pakistan, there was a Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the slogan (it was in a text bubble that Colonel Sanders was saying) was “I’m a Chicken Genius!” The ultra-cleanliness of Singapore. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/22 "2003-05-09T17:16:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by that.sound.again \* > Ahh… speaking as an overseas native (from your pov) I can definitely say we do some pretty strange things. But this board constantly amazes me - te cultural differences are really rather big. I keep seeing posts about legal drinking age (what’s that, excactly?), oral sex not really counting as sex, severe homophobia from policemen, strong religious beliefs governing people’s lives, censorship towards artists who don’t agree with government policy and other smaller things that indicate that things are …different… in the us. > > Some of it is funny, some of it just makes me more content with living where I do. No offense intended. Absolutely no offense taken (by myself, at least). America quite possibly has a monopoly on really senseless and crazy crap. The Puritanical roots of our social mores can render even the most sensible concepts utterly invalid within our borders. It’s heartwarming to see people from other countries checking in here and making note of just how wacko Americans can be as well. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/23 "2003-05-09T17:38:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pipper \* > \*\*German toilets. > > Instead of a pool of water at the bottom of the toilet to encapsulate the smelly stuff, the German version has a large, dry ledge (with a small drain in the back) that allows the stink to merrily fill the entire house while you finish up your business. I suppose this cuts down on splashbacks, but it certainly increases the stench factor. > > Of course this was 20 years ago. Perhaps there have been design improvements since then… \*\* Nope. I would also like to add that a Pepperoni Pizza in Germany does not mean the same thing there that it does here. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/24 "2003-05-09T18:04:48Z")
While in Paris, Bus drivers went on strike one day. So they all took the metro to get to the strike location. I got surrounded by hundreds of striking public transit workers taking public transit! ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/25 "2003-05-09T19:36:55Z")
In Australia, the “Australian Burger” comes with a fried egg and a sliced beet (instead of a tomato)…BLEAGHHHH ---
**Author:** ![mamm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@mamm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamm)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/26 "2003-05-09T20:08:03Z")
Ok, one more to please Zenster. Wacky things I can find in the US (overseas to me): American cars. You US’ers have the most ugly and poor handling cars in the occident (excluding the Corvette, of course). Man, didn’t you learn anything from the Italians and the Germans? Things like extracting a good size/performance ratio from an engine, or make a car that you can actually drive fast in a curvy road? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/27 "2003-05-09T20:50:34Z")
In Verona, Italy, every trash dumpster in the city (and I mean _every single one_) is beautifully painted the most vibrant of colors. Sort of like mini-murals, they embrace all sorts of themes, styles, and genres, and they never fail to liven up every street or alley. In Chiang-Mai, Thailand, there aren’t any taxis. Anywhere. Oh sure, there are “taxis”, covered pick-up trucks with benches in the beds, and there are the ubiquitous tuk-tuks, but your traditional taxi (as in “car”) can’t be found. ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/28 "2003-05-09T20:57:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vl\_mungo \* > \*\*In Australia, the “Australian Burger” comes with a fried egg and a sliced beet (instead of a tomato)…BLEAGHHHH \*\* Sliced beet (which we call beetroot) _belongs_ in a burger!! Alll Aussies and Kiwis here would agree with that. We end to eat it cold as a salad vegetable ---
**Author:** ![Peg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Peg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peg)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/29 "2003-05-09T23:05:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > \*\*Taiwan’s Musical Garbage Trucks > > Refuse collection vehicles playing Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’ will always top the list. \*\* They play _Fur Elise_ now? When I was a kid, they used to play _Maiden’s Prayer_. When my cousin was learning to play that piece on the piano in the US, I described it as the garbage truck song. She refused to believe until she visited Taiwan herself about 10 years later. One morning around 6, a familiar tune played thoughout the neighborhood… Since this seems to have pseudo-morphed into “Wacky Things in Taiwan,” I just polished off a pack of “Hot Mentos”. Just like regular Mentos (only pebble-shaped instead of the flat marbles we have in the US) but mintier than usual. I guess that’s what they mean by “hot.” They also (used to?) make their french fries out of sweet potatoes rather than russets, or whatever, white ones. I actually prefer the sweet variety. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/30 "2003-05-09T23:24:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > \*\*RUssia has many weird things, but that’s just one that pops to mind as the moment. Later that evening, I was mistaken for a hard-currency Russian hooker (which was pretty funny, as I was dressed quite seductively in a long wool coat and heavy winter boots; the only visible part was my eyeballs). But that’s another story. \*\* _This_ deserves its own thread! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Syntropy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Syntropy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Syntropy)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2003, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/31 "2003-05-09T23:42:22Z")
Mayonnaise on hot dogs in Denmark. Way too weird for color TV. ---
**Author:** ![rostfrei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7bcc69/32.png) [@rostfrei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rostfrei)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/32 "2003-05-10T00:40:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kferr \* > \*\*In the UK they put sweet corn on pizza. This is wrong. \*\* They also put corn in tuna fish sandwiches, at least the Marks & Spencer variety. That’s wrong too. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2003, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/33 "2003-05-10T01:14:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eva Luna \* > … I was dressed quite seductively in a long wool coat and heavy winter boots; the only visible part was my eyeballs) … Va Va Voom! Oh baby, oh baby! The Arab guys must have been driven wild with desire. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/34 "2003-05-11T12:32:21Z")
Bah, plebians. On one particularly odd trek into the Sahara: Australians in the middle of the Sahara drinking cans of beer they had slogged along. Beer was hotter than my tea. I think the temp must have been 50C or so. Followed shortly thereafter by what I call, “the Japanese Space Bus,” an ungodly super-duper off-roading super-lux buslike thing carrying, as you might suspect, rather stereotypical Japenese tourists. All these years later I still don’t understand how the fuck it got out where I was. Of course they, the Japanese tourists, promptly descended up on the ouasis camels and hired every single one of them to go traipsing about. Later that evening there was the screaming Japense fuck chick and her camel master, but I shall leave that story for other venues. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/35 "2003-05-11T12:55:02Z")
**Coll** , **Eva Luna** , you can’t just dangle these tidbits in front of us and then shut up. A new thread please. Entitled “Russian whore/Japanese fuck chick/Camel master”. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/36 "2003-05-11T13:34:49Z")
I’ve just realised that my proposed thread title would make good porn spam. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/37 "2003-05-11T13:59:12Z")
Matatus in Kenya. These are private vehicles (usually, but not always, vans) that run regular routes like busses, but they aren’t coordinated or run by a central company, at least not as far as I could see. It looked like people just got a vehicle and decided “Hey, I will drive from the market to the United Kenya Club to the State House and back.” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/38 "2003-05-11T14:08:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Brynda \* > \*\*Matatus in Kenya. These are private vehicles (usually, but not always, vans) that run regular routes like busses, but they aren’t coordinated or run by a central company, at least not as far as I could see. It looked like people just got a vehicle and decided “Hey, I will drive from the market to the United Kenya Club to the State House and back.” \*\* Bah, that is nothing. Typical. Desert taxis (aka toyota pickups) coming out of nowhere at 100 km+ with a bunch of folks sitting in the open back, even on the sides as the bloody thing careens across the sand, now that’s fun. In fact such things are coordinated by the way and exist all over. Services, Grands Taxies, Rapides – they go under many names but their semi-organized chaos is the rhythm of developing world transport. ---
**Author:** ![Cataclysm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Cataclysm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cataclysm)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/39 "2003-05-11T14:09:26Z")
Adding to the ‘Wacky things in Taiwan’ part of the thread, when I was in Taiwan 2 years ago, I came across two of those skill tester machines on the sidewalk. One of them had a variety of sex toys (vibrators, furry handcuffs, mugs with naked chicks on them, etc, etc, etc). The other had _live_ crabs and a lobster wallowing around in water. The crabs were tied up, but the lobster was allowed to roam free. I tried to catch him, but who would’ve guessed that lobsters could move so fast? Slippery little suckers… ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2003, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070/40 "2003-05-11T14:20:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by jjimm \* > \*\ ***Coll** , **Eva Luna** , you can’t just dangle these tidbits in front of us and then shut up. A new thread please. Entitled “Russian whore/Japanese fuck chick/Camel master”. \*\* Nope, I am afraid it would undermine my image. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wacky-stuff-youve-encountered-overseas/174070.md?page=3)