Worst public toilet you've used? [When travelling]

[Pushka]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

I took my then 2 year old to an auto toilet in Germany. Instructions written in German only. I don't think it ended well for the next person.

 

[tuapekastar]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

Two cases I recall.

One in the expensive up-market pretty real estate of Sausalito near SFO (and only last year). A temporary facility while works were being conducted on the normal ones, it was basically open the lid and look no more than 18 inches or so at all the previous occupants' paper and bodily waste just sitting there untreated in any way. All over. And it stank!

And for 'number ones' nothing could beat the original (and alas, long gone), Bugis Street in Singapore. There were two male toilet blocks IIRC (one of which famously used to host drunk foreign sailors performing the 'Dance of the Flaming coughhole' starkers on it's flat roof, but I digress), and their floors seemed permanently awash in about an inch deep of piss you had to wade through to reach the urinal (in hindsight, why did we bother?). We drank plenty of beer down there but many an aching bladder was endured in order to avoid visiting these facilities. God only knows what 'number twos' entailed. :shock:

 

[whatmeworry]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

A bit off topic but them German/Dutch toilets with the platform so you can see your stool...

 

[jetlagger]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

And for 'number ones' nothing could beat the original (and alas, long gone), Bugis Street in Singapore. There were two male toilet blocks IIRC (one of which famously used to host drunk foreign sailors performing the 'Dance of the Flaming coughhole' starkers on it's flat roof, but I digress), and their floors seemed permanently awash in about an inch deep of piss you had to wade through to reach the urinal (in hindsight, why did we bother?). We drank plenty of beer down there but many an aching bladder was endured in order to avoid visiting these facilities. God only knows what 'number twos' entailed. :shock:

Oh! Glad you can recollect.. I guess before my time.. Though that is surely an insight into a Singapore of a bygone era.. beyond the glossy utopia facade (selective history) that Singapore claims nowadays.
I still remember often visiting when the flamboyant entertainer Kumar used to do his/her shows at the Boom Boom Room in Bugis though.. :shock:

 

[straitman]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

The worst I have seen, (couldn't bring myself to use) were the public urinals in the streets of Delhi. Very little was left to the imagination :!:

 

[Princess Fiona]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

This thread confirms my prejudices regarding public conveniences and my lifelong aversion to using them :!:

 

[tuapekastar]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

Oh! Glad you can recollect.. I guess before my time.. Though that is surely an insight into a Singapore of a bygone era.. beyond the glossy utopia facade (selective history) that Singapore claims nowadays.
I still remember often visiting when the flamboyant entertainer Kumar used to do his/her shows at the Boom Boom Room in Bugis though.. :shock:

The government, in their eternal wisdom, knocked it all down I think when building early MRT lines. They actually introduced a sanitised Govt approved replacement for Bugis St but not surprisingly it did not take off. I have heard of Kumar, but have never seen him/her perform...I imagine it would be a blast! My time was early 1970s (Bugis Street demolished I think mid-1980s) - I was a teenager (and only mid-teens) at the time. Singapore either had no legal drinking age, or otherwise it was something ridiculous like 5yo. They were great times.

 

[ckelly10]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

My worst toilet experience was when I went on a weekend trip to Rome. I used a public toilet to find out it was basically a big hole in the ground with what can only be described as a makeshift toilet made out of a big metal box with a hole cut out of the top to aim in. The hole that was cut out was very jagged so I had to be very careful not to let my bits and pieces touch it or risk very serious injury. If that wasnt bad enough the 'toilet' seemed blocked so the smell was unreal.

On a plus side I have used a public toilet before that has one way glass so I could see out but nobody could see in - it was quite weird watching people looking right at me but not being able to see me - or I hope not anyway haha

 

[Sprucegoose]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

I couldn't possibly bring myself to comment on this thread having worked in some of life less salubrious addresses.....

 

[Warks]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

I've used some pretty horrid long-drop dunnies all around the world but nothing ever compares to a flush toilet where people don't.

1. At the Santa Caterina monastery near Mt Sinai in Egypt there was a 'rest' stop. The flush (amazingly) toilet there had a pile of faeces modelled on the nearby mountain - it projected above the rim of the toilet. I remember writing in my diary I'd never see anything as bad as that as long as I lived.

2. Lilongwe bus station in Malawi - I was wrong! About two months later I was changing buses and walked in to find two 'booths' which not only had poop mountains in the bowls but piles of 'logs' all around the toilets on the floor. Worse still one user had obviously decided that he wasn't going in there so decided to lay a cable over at the foot of the urinal. I can remember the line in my diary "killed Santa Caterina stone dead".


No I have never seen worse. And I hope I never will.


Apologies for the scatalogical anecdotes but it is on topic!

 

[hummel]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

For me two toilets stand out.

1) Squat toilet in Guangzhou city centre a couple of weeks ago, I was already feeling a little queezy... the toilet didn't help.

2) The toilet on the Hanoi-Sapa overnight train, again I had a massive fever that nearly stopped my trick in it's tracks. Memories of looking at a squat toilet in the end carriage, meandering our way up the mountain in the middle of the night. Actually a good memory in the end, as this was the start of one of my best ever life experiences.

 

[Pushka]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

So it's not the toilet really but the way people abuse it. All quite disgusting really. Especially the towers. <shudder>

 

[horseman]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

In a very trendy melbourne nightclub, one unisex toilet for the whole place, yellow all over the floor and loo, used paper on the floor, brown on the wall and the one roll of paper was wet. I turned around and went thinking there's no way! Unfortunately the several pints of pear cider I drank earlier disagreed. (Pear cider it turns out is an incredible laxative!)
It was used, abused and left in worse condition than I found it in. Thank god the motel was only a couple blocks away.

 

[Must...Fly!]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

The long drops in rural WA mentioned earlier I haven't found TOO bad...worst off the top of my head was probably Doha airport several years ago...floor was soaking, the whole thing was just disgusting and a line out the door. Terrible...

Come to think of it I think some at my university would come close to the worst :s

 

[straitman]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

Street urinals in Delhi that I could not even bring myself to use.

 

[docjames]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

Walking to 7/11 tonight, apparently the railway underpass near my house is a urinal (as was being demonstrated as I passed through).

Discraceful, there's a public toilet on the train station! I doubt it's as bad as any toilets described in this thread, plus this guy would be stdnding anyway.

 

[Catweazle]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

Melbourne's Southern Cross train station is kind of crummy. Not quite as bad as some other places I've used.

Unlike SIN, where the toilets are so beautifully clean and a pleasure to use. (No, not in that sense)

 

[tuapekastar]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

I've used some pretty horrid long-drop dunnies all around the world but nothing ever compares to a flush toilet where people don't.

1. At the Santa Caterina monastery near Mt Sinai in Egypt there was a 'rest' stop. The flush (amazingly) toilet there had a pile of faeces modelled on the nearby mountain - it projected above the rim of the toilet. I remember writing in my diary I'd never see anything as bad as that as long as I lived.

2. Lilongwe bus station in Malawi - I was wrong! About two months later I was changing buses and walked in to find two 'booths' which not only had poop mountains in the bowls but piles of 'logs' all around the toilets on the floor. Worse still one user had obviously decided that he wasn't going in there so decided to lay a cable over at the foot of the urinal. I can remember the line in my diary "killed Santa Caterina stone dead".


No I have never seen worse. And I hope I never will.


Apologies for the scatalogical anecdotes but it is on topic!

We have a winner! That is just so gross!

 

[Fantic125]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

Street urinals in Delhi that I could not even bring myself to use.

You mean the walls where they've stencilled "Do not urinate here"?

 

[erkpod]

Re: Worst public toilet you've used?

I took my then 2 year old to an auto toilet in Germany. Instructions written in German only. I don't think it ended well for the next person.

Related: One of my jobs was working at Town Hall station. Cleaning the toilets (prior to the current arrangement where you can close half the room at the time & keep the other half open) was a balancing act between keeping the toilets open & keeping them clean. Except for occasionally emptying bins, my roster was dedicated to cleaning the toilets. Not pretty.
Slighty OT...

I was in Frankfurt at the main train station & noticed they had unisex toilets.

Fast forward a few weeks & I was busting to pee at the main train station in Berlin.

There was a Y arrangement so I followed the person to the right. I noticed the room was full of women but I paid no attention as I headed off to do what I needed to.

A cleaner was waiting for me & started talking in German. Not knowing she was talking to me, I continued walking until someone pointed out in English that I was in the girl toilets. Then a lot of women had their 2 Euro worth.

When I left the area, the sign was obvious. Turns out someone was standing in front of the sign on my way in & I was concentrating on getting the job done.