"Winnebago Bathrooms" Top 5 Page for this destination South Korea Local Custom Tip by jburron

If you're familiar with the RV maker Winnebago you probably know that, to conserve space, they have the toilet and shower on top of each other. Many Korean bathrooms are similar.

Some homes have more-or-less Western bathrooms...everything is laid out as you'd expect: tub, shower, toilet, vanity, sink. But others cram them all into one. One thing that all bathrooms have here is a hole in the floor. No, not a hood-style toilet (see tip) but a drainage hole--and not just in the shower, but in the actual floor. This is because some Korean women wash clothes in the bathroom and many Korean kids splash a lot in the tub (mine included). Another reason: it makes cleaning very easy. Pour some bleach on the floor, spray it around, done!

It's when bathroom have 'open architecture' showers that the hole really comes into play. Basically, the whole bathroom becomes the shower stall. At first it seems pretty weird (like the first time you take a trip in the RV), but after a short while you either (i) start to see the sense in it or (ii) don't care.

On to my tip, though. Bathrooms in Korea will always have slippers in them. This is not so that you can keep your dirty feet off the floor; it is because the floor is invariably soaking, wet or damp from the last person. Many a dry sock had been sacrificed before the lesson was learned in my case.

Do not, as one VTer suggested, take off your socks whenever you enter a bathroom. Koreans are not too fond of bare feet and you'll waste too much time taking them off and putting them on every time you visit the loo (and you should not do this in front of elders, either). Just use the slippers.

Oh, and be sure that the knob that sends water to the sink tap or the showerhead is in the correct position (these set-ups are fairly common). One false move and your hand-washing exercise becomes a (cold) shower.

• Updated Apr 28, 2004
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