August 12: Memorable Moments: Shower Shenanigans
I’ve never been particularly talented when it comes to using showers abroad. With their myriad levers, nozzles, hoses, and adjustments, not to mention often missing doors or curtains, I consider it a major victory if I’m able to leave the bathroom without soaking the entire thing. However, between getting electrocuted, dousing my ship’s cabin with water, and almost failing to prevent flooding an entire hotel room, I’ve had plenty of excitement with showers this summer.
My most significant summer’s shower shenanigan occurred just before leaving Morocco. By this time, I had had two weeks of practice with the African plumbing and was becoming a little more confident with my morning rituals. Imagine my shock when I reached out to close the slightly ajar shower door after already applying my shampoo, only to receive a rather large electrical jolt in my hand.
Not wanting to get the whole bathroom floor wet, I decided to use a wet washcloth to close the door instead, only to remember after receiving another shock through the material that water conducts electricity. Finally reaching for a dry towel to close the door, I assumed I was safe. However, when my foot inadvertently touched a metal water pipe attached to the wall I was shocked again. I have to say I don’t think I’ve ever rinsed my shampoo out faster!
Just a few days later I boarded a GNV ferry headed from Tanger Med, Morocco to Sete, France. After arriving at my small interior cabin, I noticed that the toilet would not flush. Since I had already asked the harried mechanic to fix my faulty air conditioning, I decided to wait before getting further assistance and wash my sweaty clothes in the sink in the meantime.
When the sink wouldn’t drain, I resolved to let the excess water drain out via the overflow hole in the upper back portion of the sink rather than ask for help. Unfortunately, that opening just led to the garbage can under the sink which rapidly began filling with dirty water. While waiting for the mechanic to return, I heard the toilet flush of its own accord and thought to myself, “well, good things come to those who wait!”
The next morning, sure that nothing else could go wrong with my room, I stepped into the shower, leaving the door to the rest of the cabin open to try to prevent steaming on the mirror as there was no fan. After I had already lathered up, the hose to the shower head burst, sending a vigorous spray of water right out my open bathroom door, drenching the bed, walls, and carpet of the room. It was a little embarrassing approaching the information desk yet again, this time asking for new bed sheets.
Several weeks later while in Corlu, Turkey I arrived at my utilitarian hotel room to discover the bathroom floor was wet. Thinking that it had just been cleaned, I thought “well at least the room is not dirty.”
However, when I hopped in the shower to rinse off the sweat from riding in searing heat that day, I realized the shower drain did not work. Suddenly, the presence of the squeegee with the large handle standing next to the toilet made sense.
My eyes opened wide as shampoo ran down my face and I watched the water level rising in the bathroom, completely covering the floor and inching towards the doorway. Squinting my eyes to try to prevent suds from entering them, I valiantly tried to use the large squeegee to pull water away from the door while simultaneously rinsing the soap off my body.
However, since there was no curtain, when I leaned down with the tool, the shower spray thoroughly drenched the toilet paper just a short distance away. I had wondered why the toilet paper had been placed inside a box instead of on the wall but in that moment my question was answered, leaving me now wondering who would design a bathroom where the toilet tissue had to be hidden.
Deciding to erect a barrier to the rest of the room with all my towels, I narrowly averted a flooding disaster, leaving me with dry bags on the floor outside the bathroom but no clean towels for myself.
Over the course of my travels, I discovered a dizzying array of unusual shower and bathroom set ups, on at least one occasion needing the help of the hotel staff to figure out how to flush the toilet. After encountering several toilets that didn’t flush, I resolved to leave these situations as is, figuring I was only there for the night and would rather be exploring the village I was staying in than dealing with plumbing issues.
Perhaps the most unusual restroom I encountered was at a gas station I stopped at when leaving Slovenia. I opened the bathroom stall door to find not one but two toilets side by side, only one of which had access to the toilet paper.
Although I have appreciated the extent to which my bathroom mishaps have added yet another layer of adventure to my journeys, I must admit I am looking forward to hopefully having fewer restroom surprises when I return home.
