General Travel Tips and Advice Have you traveled before?- Please share your tips and advice with fellow Tpunks! |
|
|
10-21-2007, 06:31 AM
|
#1
|
TPunk Emeritus
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Northern British Columbia Canada
Posts: 926
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
|
electric showers
ok this is for those of you heading off to S.E.A. or Africa, maybe even S.A.
Electric fucing showers, I have such a beef with them. Like they are awesome cause they give you warm water when normaly there is no warm water to be found, but damn!! Ok so I got a couple tips!
1. IF you find a place where you can crank the heat on full blast and it stays warm well, thats awesome I would stay there!
2. Most of the time though your gonna have to turn it just a teensy bit so water just starts trickling out becuase if you blast it, the water moves to fast through the head for it to be heated and its gonna be cold. So shitty!
3. Keep you head away from the shower head, there has been several times I got a jolt cause my hair touched a shady electric shower head and the current went right down through my hair and into my brain, it made me look like this in the shower
4. same goes for touching it with your hands, oh and dont touch the wires sticking out everywhere eaither, dont even go close with wet hands....I know most of your are like well duhh, but it happens, trust!
ok other then that, love them and hate them as much as I do.
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 07:32 AM
|
#2
|
always trippin'
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: The Island of Rhode
Posts: 2,063
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
|
Love the "suicide showers", good times. :D
__________________
Check out my band!
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 09:54 AM
|
#3
|
TPunk Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Sierra Vista, AZ
Posts: 2,829
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
wow that sounds pretty safe! anywhere that can send an electric jolt through your head is safe in my book... electricity, wires, and water... excelent combination.
__________________
SO FAR: USA, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Kuwait, Qatar, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan
UP NEXT: Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Grand Cayman Islands - Feb 2012
tpunk gallery * twitter
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 11:42 AM
|
#4
|
Rabidly Xenophilic
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Austin Texas, but originally from Ann Arbor!
Posts: 1,223
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by pinknic38
wow that sounds pretty safe! anywhere that can send an electric jolt through your head is safe in my book... electricity, wires, and water... excelent combination.
|
I took this in Peru earlier this year. Mainly to show to my dad, who's an architect, and ask "is this up to code?"
At least they use a circuit breaker
But they really do suck overall, you can only let it give the slightest trickle to get it luke warm, and if your hotel isn't heated and its cold the freezing air plus luke warm water spitting on you is like torture. I don't need much, but I barely function as a human without a warm shower in the morning.
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 02:58 PM
|
#5
|
TPunk Recognized
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 578
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
yeah, those things usually don't work too well . . . in fact I gave up after a while. Plus, it was so damn hot when I was there that a cold shower was nice anyways.
__________________
So Far: Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, England, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Morocco
Right Now: Grad schoolin' at the Columbia School of Int'l & Public Affairs
Next Up: The real world ... where one has to work, hopefully doing some sort of mediation/conflict resolution gig.
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 04:15 PM
|
#6
|
TPunk Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Sierra Vista, AZ
Posts: 2,829
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
hey at least there's a dish for your soap!
__________________
SO FAR: USA, Canada, Mexico, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Kuwait, Qatar, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan
UP NEXT: Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Grand Cayman Islands - Feb 2012
tpunk gallery * twitter
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 04:21 PM
|
#7
|
The " ... " queen of TP!
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ontario
Posts: 2,946
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
|
So what was the answer to your question? IS it up to code?
__________________
~Laura
GO CANADA!!!!
If you walk backwards, you'll find out that you can go forward and people won't know if you're coming or going.
Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.
-James Dean
Countries I've Visited: Austria, Botswana, Canada, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy. Malawi, Mexico, Portugal, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, USA, UK, Vatican City, Zambia
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 04:41 PM
|
#8
|
TP Ghost
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Indianapolis, IN
Posts: 2,055
Thanks: 1
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
That is really awesome I didn't even know those excisted. I don't know how i would feel about taking a shower with the possabilty of glowing in th edark afterward
__________________
My Flickr Stream
“Life is too short to spend it doing something you don't like... if your passion is selling surfboards by the sea, then that is where you should be.”
-My Dad
"Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria's mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once."
-Anthony Bourdain
“If you can imagine a man having a vasectomy without anesthetic to the sound of frantic sitar-playing, you will have some idea what popular Turkish music is like.”
-Bill Bryson
"The older I get the less likely I feel I will ever figure my life out... I think that might be okay though"
-Me
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 04:41 PM
|
#9
|
TPunk Recognized
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: NY
Posts: 111
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
yeah right, there's probably a hundred things wrong with that picture, I'd be surprised if no ones been killed yet.
just for general knowledge circuit breakers only trip on dead shorts or more than the breaker is rated for, your body wont do that, so you get shocked until you can let go of the wires or draw more than the breaker is rated at which is usually 15-30amps, when it only takes milliamp to kill you. thats a scary picture.
__________________
Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
-Ernest Hemingway
Last edited by Kevin-L; 10-21-2007 at 04:49 PM.
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 04:59 PM
|
#10
|
Rabidly Xenophilic
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Austin Texas, but originally from Ann Arbor!
Posts: 1,223
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
heh, well I meant to show it to him as a joke...you can always count on an architect be in some perfectly normal place and say "hmm, this railing appears to be violating section 403-b subsection 12 of the building code which CLEARLY states that blah blah blah"
So that hideous picture might give them nightmares :D
Anyway, my guess is that the breaker is there so that they can cut the power to safely remove any bodies that pile up. This kind of rig is actually pretty common down there, the guidebooks even all mention it and say that you might get a brief shock but it usually doesn't kill people
Between the risk of electrocution death and not having a shower, I will choose the shower.
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 05:07 PM
|
#11
|
TPunk Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: From Aussie, but living in Canada for now
Posts: 1,789
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Ah yes, I got electrocuted by many of those in Central and South America. Damn they hurt.
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 05:31 PM
|
#12
|
TPunk Recognized
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 578
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
guess I got luck, never got shocked
__________________
So Far: Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, England, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Morocco
Right Now: Grad schoolin' at the Columbia School of Int'l & Public Affairs
Next Up: The real world ... where one has to work, hopefully doing some sort of mediation/conflict resolution gig.
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 05:46 PM
|
#13
|
always trippin'
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: The Island of Rhode
Posts: 2,063
Thanks: 0
Thanked 1 Time in 1 Post
|
Me neither. But I never ever touched the shower heads.
__________________
Check out my band!
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 07:19 PM
|
#14
|
No one regrets traveling
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Tampa, FL
Posts: 2,056
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
^That is quite relevant. H2O doesn't conduct electricity. Now I know what you are thinking... but if we had pure H2O (deionized free of impurties) you could drop a toaster into your bathtub and be fine.
If you touch the showerhead, you can end up the providing a path to ground. As Kevin said, that won't trip the breaker necessarily (they call it a "high impedance fault")
Fortunately our skin is quite resistive
All that electrical theory aside, I would be nervous about showering there.
--Joey
__________________
Countries visited: USA, Netherlands, Norway, France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain (and Gibraltar), Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Austria, Ireland, UK, Japan, Canada , Portugal, Czech Republic, Poland, Andorra, Croatia, Montenegro
Next up: Mongolia, China
"I sought trains; I found passengers" - Paul Theroux
Help Travelpunk's continued existence with a small donation
|
|
|
10-21-2007, 08:48 PM
|
#15
|
TPunk Recognized
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 578
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by joe7f
All that electrical theory aside, I would be nervous about showering there.
--Joey
|
Oh, that's all part of the fun! Who couldn't use an extra boost anyways?
__________________
So Far: Peru, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Dominican Republic, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France, Spain, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, England, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Morocco
Right Now: Grad schoolin' at the Columbia School of Int'l & Public Affairs
Next Up: The real world ... where one has to work, hopefully doing some sort of mediation/conflict resolution gig.
|
|
|
10-22-2007, 01:27 AM
|
#16
|
TPunk Recognized
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Ireland
Posts: 1,590
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Quote:
3. Keep you head away from the shower head, there has been several times I got a jolt cause my hair touched a shady electric shower head and the current went right down through my hair and into my brain, it made me look like this in the shower
|
It gets you going in the morning though. Nothing like a good hair raiser to get rid of the sleepy head.
Electric showers are quite common in Ireland (I have had them in all my last rentals) but they look nothing like that one in the picture. I've had ones that are either Extremely hot or extremely cold with no inbetween. My current one's working fine though.
|
|
|
10-22-2007, 07:18 AM
|
#17
|
TPunk Recognized
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Texas
Posts: 446
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by MeTurk
Electric showers are quite common in Ireland...
|
I was going to say... I've never seen anything that ghetto, but I spent about a week in Northern Ireland and all the showers were electric. Of course I never saw any hanging wires or got shocked by it, but that was still a first.
__________________
"Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds."
-- FDR
|
|
|
10-22-2007, 07:54 AM
|
#18
|
TPunk Emeritus
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Buenos Aires
Posts: 1,773
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
I had never actually heard of this! Are you guy just goofing around or is the probability of feeling the electricity go through you an actual fact? Casue i can tolerate a lot of things, but I would be soooo scared of taking a shower there! I' rather clean up with a garden hose!!
__________________
Been to: Argentina, Chile, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Egypt. Greece, Turkey, England, France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, USA, Mexico, Spain, Monaco, Czech Republic, Ireland and Uruguay.
Next trip: Still pondering the possibilities for January 2009... * OH THE MYSTERY!! *
The travel bug is insatiable
|
|
|
10-22-2007, 08:29 AM
|
#19
|
The " ... " queen of TP!
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ontario
Posts: 2,946
Thanks: 0
Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts
|
^ I think being a girl it wouldnt be as bad because we're usually much shorter than guys so the chances of out hair hitting the showerhead wre much less likely. See? Being short has it's benefits....
Of course I'm assuming you're not 6ft from your pics...if you are...well, good luck
__________________
~Laura
GO CANADA!!!!
If you walk backwards, you'll find out that you can go forward and people won't know if you're coming or going.
Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today.
-James Dean
Countries I've Visited: Austria, Botswana, Canada, Costa Rica, Democratic Republic of the Congo, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Italy. Malawi, Mexico, Portugal, Rwanda, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, USA, UK, Vatican City, Zambia
|
|
|
10-22-2007, 04:40 PM
|
#20
|
TPunk Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: From Aussie, but living in Canada for now
Posts: 1,789
Thanks: 0
Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by florencia9699
I had never actually heard of this! Are you guy just goofing around or is the probability of feeling the electricity go through you an actual fact? Casue i can tolerate a lot of things, but I would be soooo scared of taking a shower there! I' rather clean up with a garden hose!!
|
No, no goofing around here, you can (and probably will) actually get electrocuted by these things. Some of them have metal levers on the actual shower head to turn them on. As metal conducts electricity they wrap the levers in electrical tape to avoid electrocution. Unfortunately, sometimes they miss a little bit of lever here and there. So, when you go to turn the shower off with your wet hands - ZAP. Sure does wake you up in the morning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by simply_angelic
^ I think being a girl it wouldnt be as bad because we're usually much shorter than guys so the chances of out hair hitting the showerhead wre much less likely. See? Being short has it's benefits....
|
Unfortunately, this doesn't help. I'm only 5'6" and I definately had my fair share of electrical moments.
|
|
|
Thread Tools |
|
Display Modes |
Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is Off
|
|
|
All times are GMT -7. The time now is 05:03 AM.
|