it was like a sick peep show!

I was in France once and dashed into a public loo without paying my 20 centimes (pre-Euro days). I was standing at the urinal doing my stuff when I became aware of a very prim and slightly irritated lady standing beside me. Initially I thought that maybe I had gone to the Ladies by mistake. Then I realised that I was in the right place and that she had come for her money. Well I couldn't stop as I was in full flow - so I smiled, apologised, finished, zipped up, washed my hands and then gave her the money. She never took her eyes off me once!

I wouldn't have wanted the kids to watch me in the restroom. I would have wished to use the restroom alone. It would have been fine if there were three stalls, from the ground to the ceiling and lockable doors on each one. I am very keen on traveling. I didn't like it when I went to a restroom in Los Angeles and there were no stalls. The restroom had a row of toilets and no privacy was offered. So I waited until I reached the next restroom. In Indonesia the toilets were a hole in the ground, water and no toilet paper. Rather that use a tire in the middle of a gas station I went to the bushes hidden from the road, other travelers and local people.

I can honestly say I've never been in a public bathroom like that! but if I found myself in that sort of situation I'd definately wanna pee as fast as possible and get the heck out before they did LOL..

Hi, There's this new trend in the restrooms nowadays where they won't put a partition wall between the male loos. It gives me a very sick feeling. I simply have to hold it up unless the next person is a bit far from me. Your incident really seems to be a "sick peep show."

Haha privacy win! Hey sometimes these things happen, this one time I was at a public stall and the door opened to a toilet that faced sideways, so i ran in and in a hurry I forgot to lock the door some kid of about 10 walked in took a gander said sorry and left. Awkward much? It was really strange and I know how you feel, maybe not as bad though.

lol moonlitmagikchild, When I visited China, I experience something 'nice' - Restroom without doors. You had to 'pretend' that no one was watching and do your business like it is nobody's business. Did I go ahead? Of course not. I was holding it like gosh, no word is crazy enough to describe it. One of my friends was smart enough to use the umbrella to shield herself though! :P

Yeah, that stinks. Can't say I have ever had it happening to me but if there's something that annoys me more than people who are noisy is people who can't seem to respect the privacy of another.

I'm a guy and I had an interesting experience in Japan. Our bus had stopped at a roadside coffee house. Anyway, the restroom for men was just a big square building with the type of open urinal that runs from the floor drain up halfway up the wall. It's all metal. To get in through the rather large open (no door) entrance, you had to politely elbow your way through the wives standing in the doorway shouting at their husbands while the men stood there and peed. For as much as they were looking in and carrying on yelling conversations, they could have just as easily walked in with their husbands and carried on a normal conversation.

I've never encountered that in a public bathroom...thank goodness because I'd be like you. I am very modest when it comes to that sort of thing. Once when I was attending a concert and I had to pee. My brother was in the band and there were no public bathrooms. It was an outdoor concert in the middle of nowhere. I walked way way out in the woods. Just as I pulled down my pants to take a pee I heard my brother on the intercom announcing that he wanted to introduce his sister who was in the audience. When I did not appear, he announced...Oh...she's probably up in the woods peeing. we'll wait a minute. OMG...you have no idea what an embarrassing moment that was.

Wow an idiot must have put them together cause I have never had that problem yet!

I've never had that happen HOWEVER i admit i hate public washrooms so much i will try and hold it as long as i possibly can rather than using one.

Hello I had this problem when it seemed like the person washing their hands can see me, really uncomfortable to say the least, I usually use the last stall or first depending on how its situated this way I have a little privacy. Thank you, good discussion.

I have to say that this is one of the things I found really weird and funny when I moved from England to America - the fact that you can wave at people through the giant gaps! (I realize this may not be everywhere, but be warned if you come to Massachusetts...lol) I came to the conclusion that it was in case anyone felt the need to join hands and sing a patriotic song....land of the free, and all that... Although reading some of the replies here, about restrooms with no doors at all, etc, I say God bless America...lol....apparently some countries are VERY...erm...'free'...! You know the other thing that freaks me out, in ANY country? Little kids feeling the need to look under cubicle doors! Really. Go away.

LOL!! I think i would have waited as well, i mean, i would not like to pee, with a bunch of kids staring in at me...unless i was desperate!, then i would go, but, as you say, sounds like they need to remodel the loo's, you want privacy, when going to the loo! :)

ha ha ha ha ha... I understand what you mean. Back then, I was on a training stint in Australia. And Australia being the green country, had these dowmus worms systems where the toilets are totally flush-less and waterless. All you have to do is to do your business down the chute that they erected and the worms will do the rest. Well, the cubicles all have doors. But the darn doors are so high up, and all the cubicles are all the squatting types, when you squat, the lower half of your privates can be seen by all who comes into the toilet! The first few days we didn't noticed as each of us used the toilets at different times of the day and the toilets were quiet and "private" due to lack of human traffic. It was when we came back from training and everyone has to go that we discovered the height of the toilet was actually so high. Opposite the cubicles are a roll of basins where you could brush your teeth, wash your face... etc So imagine, all you got to do is just stand in front of the mirror and you get a full monty view of all those using the cubicles doing their business. All the dongs on display, together with the big business going on! Sure makes you lose your appetite early in the morning! And then comes the second thoughts... I HAVE BEEN DOING THE SAME DISPLAY FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS AND I AM NOT EVEN AWARE! Some call it memorable. Others call it a hard to forget training trip!

hi moonlitmagikchild well I might have wanted to wait til'the next stop but since that was two or more hours on the trailway bus I was on, I did go ahead and go even though I cou ld see one little kid squinting up at me from being on his hands andknees in the next stall. I blame the mom for not controlling the little imp and the designers of public restrooms too. they just dont think of our privacy.

Rushing in the restroom at the Denver airport, that particular one was very crowded. My turn came, I went into the stall, and started my business. Suddenly, I noticed something moving beside me! The sanitary napkin waste basket was not in place, and there was a square of nothing between the other stall and I. I had noticed a carry on being wheeled in, which had caught my attention. It was at the level where an effort would of had to been made to really see anything, but I was still amazed I had not noticed it before.

I have never been in a restroom like that before. If I was I would go as fast as I could. Once when I was in a public restroom a little girl was looking under the stalls as people were using them. When her mother finely saw her she took the little girl aside and took her that was not nice to do. She ask if would like someone doing that when she was going the little said no and did not do it again.

I think I would have been in the same boat as you. I have a hard time using the bathroom when I know that there is someone in the room besides myself. It isn't because of the gap in the door that I'm like this because it embarasses me if it is even a bathroom with stalls. I am the kind of person that prefers the bathrooms that have the full doors on all of the stalls. So they are more like individual rooms than stalls. Once I think I am going to get to use the restroom I am never able to hold it until the next stop.

Ha.that must have been a bad experience!!i ve had a lot of such experiences.But finally i do it,no matter how many are watchin!!!!