Before these people ever foreign travel again, they need to learn some of the basic laws. Unbelievable they reacted this way.
Well-traveled Americans in Asia have been pretty clueless, too. This is especially sad because in some cases business deals fall through. Many travelers here and abroad, think they’re cosmopolitan in the ways of the entire globe, often because they watch the Travel or NatGeo Channels.
During Il Palio in Siena, Italy in 1999, some Italian friends and I watched an American tourist speak English slowly and raise his voice to an elderly Italian woman as if that would have made his question understandable. It was pretty funny because it was at the public restrooms and he finally gave up and started gesturing for more toilet paper by imitating wiping his ass.