We have all been overseas haven't we. We know about the different toilets/bathrooms/lavs. What? You haven't? While all of us around the world are doing the same thing, we seem to use different appliances to do it. Can I rename what we call in Australia a toilet, to an appliance?
I shan't dwell on Asian squat toilets. Most are awful and disgusting, but in classier places they are ceramic and have a hose for washing. The upmarket ones are not so bad but I really don't like standing or squatting on perhaps clean wet floors, but who would know. The areas are invariably wet. You haven't had experience of a shower in Asia, or an Asian person use your shower? Believe me, the whole area will be very wet. Stereotype I know, but I am yet to be proved wrong.
I haven't been to the Middle East, but I would guess that there is much water splashed around there too.
The French have their bidets. Given that I once read that a bar of soap lasts a French person for three years, it is just as well.
Of course the English keep coal in their baths. They just pop another anorak on to contain and dissemble.
Not having been to the UK or to Europe, I am only guessing here, but I think they have the same types of toilets as we do in Oz. The water sits in the low neck of toilet, you flush and everything disappears down either the S or P shaped bend and hopefully cleans the sides. In these water saving times in Oz, the amount of toilet flushing water is much reduced and the appliance may require more than one pushing of the flush button to clear the flotsam and jetsam, thereby defeating the water conservation measures. Who thought that one up?
Asian countries seemed to have sided with the US on the matter of flushing toilets. The water sits very high in the appliance and while I was not alert the first time I used one, I was very very alarmed. Upon activating the flush system, the appliance quickly filled up nearly to the brim. OMG, as young peoples say and I stepped back to avoid the imminent overflow. Then suddenly with a very audible slurp, it all disappeared and the water level returned to normal.
I should have done some research on this before writing. There are many assumptions, especially about American 'bathrooms'. I have no idea of the mechanics of these toilets that fill to the brim. Are they typically US? Perhaps there is a release flap when the weight of the water gets to a certain point and the flap opens. This sounds like it could go so so wrong. Our toilets only fail by water continuing to run into the appliance which is usually short term fixed by tapping on or repressing the button.
Over to you Daisy Jo, educate the Aussies, but don't shoot me with your own branded gun.