[Mr. Jeeves]

If the new experience is worse, then you have a better appreciation of what you have come to accept and live with. A good example is going to the public toilet in rural China. You really start to appreciate Western-style public restrooms.

You don't even have to go to rural China - just about any public building in Guangzhou (outside of the ultra-modern Tianhe District) offers the same, er, culturally enriching experience. :)

[hal ogen]

Travel India to get the “full monty” eye-opening experience.

[untenured]

When visiting a friend in Guangzhou I had occasion to use a public restroom and it was a bit...unhygienic.

OTOH in Shanghai and Beijing, at least the parts I saw, there was a campaign underway to put lots of modern public restrooms in high-traffic areas. So things are getting better fast.

[vannrox]

By far the worst bathroom experience that I ever had was on the North Korean border outside of Harbin.

It was a doll-house sized brick construction. The floor was all shit. You would walk on top of randomly placed bricks. You would then try to balance yourself on two of them as you did a Chinese crouch-crap. Needless to say the stench was over-powering.