What bizarre fixtures have you encountered abroad? (e.g. scary Brazilian showerheads)

In My Humble Opinion
1

My wife and I returned from an absolutely delightful (but far too brief) visit to Rio de Janeiro and the surrounding areas.
Since she was born and raised there, these trips are fairly frequent, and many of the oddities that distinguish our two fine countries have faded into the background. One thing always stands out when I am there: Plumbing.

The most unusual aspect of Brazilian plumbing is the way in which the water is heated for the shower. You see, most Brazilians do not have a hot water system in their homes – American-style gas-fired hot water heaters are expensive to purchase and costly to run. Consequently, all you will ever find in a typical home is a single tap or two taps that dispense the same water. In the summer there is no problem – nobody wants a hot shower in 105 F heat, and the water comes from a tank on the roof so it’s already pretty tepid. For the days when you want a true hot shower, however, they provide an electric shower head.

These must be seen to be believed, so I have included three specimens from the urban area around Rio for your viewing pleasure:

Example 1 (note the unused ground wire)
Example 2
Example 3 (blurry, but gets the point across)

When you open the tap, the flow of water starts the heater. You hear a sort of low hum/sizzle sound and the water comes out nice and warm (hopefully). The scary thing about these is the mixture of electricity and water. If you look at the first example I provided, you will notice that there is a green grounding wire that isn’t even connected – this is not unusual to see, and I have even been in houses where the wires lack insulation (!).

The nameplate on the first unit boasts a power consumption of 4400W and an current rating of 40A. Them’s some potent numbers and it shows: When someone takes a shower, all of the lights in the house dim and any fans that are running slow down.

I ask Brazilians if anyone has ever died in the shower and they all say “No, but I’ve been shocked before.” They then say that this is the reason why you need to wear rubber sandals in the shower. I am skeptical of the effectiveness of the sandals, so I didn’t bother to wear them.

What bizarre commonplace fixtures such as this have encountered in your travels abroad?

Do you live in a place with fixtures or construction habits that surprise visitors?

On the topic of the bathroom, perhaps someone can describe the use of the bidet? Lots of folks seem to have them down there and they have always looked very strange to me. The folks who don’t have a full bidet have a wand with a spray head on a hose next to the toilet which they presumably use for the same purpose, never considering where the end of the wand has been.

2

The half-flush button option on Aussie toilets.

3

Details?

4

Half flush for number 1’s, full flush for number 2’s. Saves water. I’m really surprised that it hasn’t caught on in the States.

5

When we moved to Tokyo, I had to learn how to use a Japanese toilet.

6

In much of the Arabian peninsula, “toilet” means “convenient hole in floor.”

In Saudi Arabia, however, all their gas stations are built by Americans, using American schematics and plans and fixtures. This means their gas stations have American style toilets.

Many people there, however, have no clue how to use one. You commonly find footprints on either side of the seat…

7

Ah yes, the legendary Japanese toilet bowel.

So if that’s the standard fixture, what are the ones with all-electronic everything?

8

“Flash heaters” are common in Europe. These are small gas-fired water heaters, mounted on the wall in the kitchen or bathroom, that heat on demand, rather than storing and maintaining a huge quantity of hot water. This means you get all the hot water you want almost instantly. The problem with these things is when the vent isn’t connected properly and carbon monoxide escapes from them. I had more than one family complain of nausea and headaches and upon investigating found that the vent either leaked, or wasn’t connected.

One’s first acquaintance with a bidet can also be…enlightening, shall we say?

9

In the tourist-trap hotels, of course.

Well, that’s where I’d put one, anyway.

10

I spent a couple of weeks with a tour group in Europe this summer, and first encountered the infamous bidet. None of us used it, except in one instance, when a girl in the group melted her curling iron using the voltage converter improperly and tossed the charred remains into a lovely pale-pink fixture.

11

Siberian toilets. I had the distinct displeasure of using one on the road from Novosibirsk to Altai Region, near the Mongolian border, at what passed for a roadside rest stop. (“Road” is also a relative term in that neck of the woods. Until I made that trip, I couldn’t understand why it was supposed to take us an entire day to go 200 km, and why the bus driver insisted on doing it in daylight hours.)

It was basically a hole in the ground. Actually, it was 3 holes in the ground, with a ramshackle wooden hut-type thing over them, and no privacy dividers of any sort between the “stalls.” The remainder of the rest stop was populated by muddy cows, pigs, and a couple of lonely-looking guys grilling kebabs a few feet from the “toilets.” One moron in my group bought a kebab there and ended up with dysentery.

12

I’ve seen the mini water heaters for showers in Germany but the real bugaboo for me were the toilets. Apparently the Germans are far more scatalogically minded and the toilets reflect this.

Rather than have the American style bowl where your scat is allowed to settle to the bottom prior to flushing, the German toilets bowls consist of a large plate (dry no less) or ledge that is just a few inches from the rim. There is a much smaller, deeper bowl toward the front where the drain is. Apparently this allows one to be able to examine ones output prior to flushing.

Sure beats a hole in the floor but I admit to having a lot of trouble getting used to them. I think I held it for a couple days after my first experience.

Observe

13

Singaporean toilets (the ones that aren’t troughs set into the the floor) – and perhaps other foreign toilets – differ slightly to Aussie toilets.

First, as noted above, they don’t have a half-flush button.

Second, when flushing, water doesn’t gush from the top of the bowl (i.e. from under the lip) and churn your leavings down into the sewage pipes, but instead fills up from the bottom before falling away.

This produces the rather alarming sight of one’s poo rising close to the top of the toilet bowl on a rising tide of water, breath-takingly close to the precipice… before seemingly collapsing and rushing down to whereever good poo goes to die.

14

You know, I never figured out what the deal with those are either. I chalked it up to the universal interpretation by tourists: Foreigners are WEIRD!

15

After reading the thread title I thought of the EXACT SAME thing that the OP described.

My experience was in a small oil town in southern Ecuador - Lago Agrio. The showerhead was similar to the links provided by minor7flat5 , but the thing that scared me the most and forced me to take a cold shower was the switch used to turn on the heater. It was a bare metal switch like the ones used to “throw the switch” on executions in the electric chair. A rubber grip, a “U” shaped metal switch and two connectors on the bottom.

So, to get hot water I stand IN the water and throw a bare metal switch…no, thanks!!

And count me as another person bemused by the German toilets - the “display area” caught me by surprise the first time I saw it.

16

I ran into a row of urinals at a gas station in Thailand that presented an unusual challenge. Like a lot of urinals in the U.S., they were separated by little wing walls, for a bit of privacy. The only catch was that these wing walls were built for typical Thai guys, and were closer together than the span of a large American’s shoulders.

I could just barely get between the wing walls while still facing forward, but the 6-foot 240-pounder with me had to stand about two feet back from the urinal and hope for a strong flow and good aim.

17

I’ve had the 3rd tap in the bathroom sink in Caracas - Hot, Cold, and safe to drink or brush your teeth.

In Italy I had a bathroom where the toilet was inside the shower.

In Amsterdam, a shower that looked like a portapotty that was in the exact middle of the bedroom, with a hose from the sink. Why it wasn’t just next to the wall by the sink, I have no idea.

18

In Thailand, instead of toilet paper, all washrooms have a hose next to the toilet. Much more sanitary, but you gotta have good aiming.

19

I have to ask; since it is impossible for most people to do number 2s without also doing number 1s, and that squatting to use this device positions the trousers/underpants below and in front of the user, how does one avoid urinating all over aforesaid garments?

20

Ok… I may just be thick, but I haven’t ever quite figured out the advantage of the sinks with separate hot and cold faucets versus the US single faucet with 2 knobs.

With the US version, you can regulate the water temperature from full-on cold to full-on hot or anywhere in between. With the 2 faucet jobs, you get your choice of boiling hot or freezing cold, and no middle ground.

Makes hand-washing and shaving interesting in the winter, I’ll bet!