differences of hygiene

Swimming in South Asia opened our eyes to our bad hygiene in America. Who knew that sitting on the edge of the pool, dangling your feet in the water, was unhygienic?

One of our friends was doing just this, and was approached by a man and asked to remove his feet from the water. Now, if he wanted to put his entire body in the water (including the feet) that would have been perfectly clean.

Also, apparently a lot of South Asians don't own their own bathing suits, so when they go to water parks or swimming pools, they just rent their suit, or "costume" as they are called here.

I wish I had a pic of the costumes. The mens' is as little material as possible. Meaning, speedo or if we're lucky, boxer-brief type things. The womens', however, is the opposite. They include sleeves, knee length shorts, and a skirt. And that's usually still too little material for the women, who opt out of swimming for lounging poolside in their clothes in the stifling heat, or as I've seen a few times, they will swim in their saris or traditional suits.

I would have bet good money that it would have been renting a bathing suit that would be unhygienic, and dangling your feet in the water as perfectly normal. But that's just me.