Most Bizarre Bathrooms On Earth

Most restaurants and shops don't put a lot of money or time into designing a memorable bathroom. That said, you can sometimes find a truly memorable and bizarre place to take care of your business. Here are some of the most bizarre bathrooms found across the globe.

China is known for a lot of things, like its incredibly large population. Currently, China houses over 1.38 billion people — when you add them all up, that's a lot of people peeing and pooing. The people of Chongqing, China decided to do something about this, and built for themselves the world's largest bathroom. They didn't just go with endless rows of toilet stalls and urinals — as you can see from the picture, there are a lot of options when it comes to doing numbers one and two.

The building consists of an Egyptian-themed façade holding more than 1,000 toilets within a four-story building. The overall space within is a whopping 32,000 square feet. It isn't just about taking care of one's business either. "We are spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle music and watch TV," explains Lu Xiaoqing, an official from the tourist area where the bathroom is located. "After they use the bathroom they will be very, very happy." And not just because they're suddenly three pounds lighter.

Though it's just a bathroom at the end of the day, it has become something of a tourist attraction. At least a tourist checking out the building and taking pictures, shouldn't have a hard time to find a place to take a break and relieve themselves.

There are several locations across the globe that feature a urinal allowing a man to pee into what is basically a person's giant mouth. Ok, that description was pretty nasty, but looking at the picture, you can see what we mean. In the Rolling Stones museum found in Mönchengladbach, Germany, the urinals aren't just an interesting oddity and homage to the museum's subject — they are a source for controversy.

A group of women's rights advocates targeted the museum back in 2012, demanding the urinals be removed because they viewed them as sexist. Women's rights activist Roda Armbruster helped lead the (Unsuccessful) campaign to have the urinals removed. "That's discrimination against women," she told regional broadcaster NDR. "Why does it have to be a woman's mouth? If it had been based on the emblem of the Stones with the tongue, it would have been OK. But the tongue's been left out and they really looks like women's mouths." The museum operator refused to remove the urinals and they remain there to this day. Sorry, protesters — you can't always get what you want.

Have you ever been out swimming in a lake, or maybe fishing from a boat, and had to take a leak? You held it until you got back onshore and found a bathroom, right? Of course you didn't — nobody does! You either made yourself a nice, warm spot in the water, or let loose over the side of the boat. Well, the folks who manage Lake Powell in Utah wanted to put a stop to such practices, so they constructed a floating bathroom, free for all to use.

Now, you're probably thinking that Lake Powell is pretty large, and just one of these won't cut it. Well, the caretakers of the lake agree, and they've placed them all over so you can feel free to boat and play, knowing a toilet is never too far away.

Granny Grannyboot's is a home located near San Francisco's Potrero Hill, consisting of rooms designed and assembled by her many grandchildren. Each room comes with a theme, and the bathroom features one of the best of them all: an homage to The Beatles' Yellow Submarine and Terry Gilliam's Brazil.

The bathroom is called "Gaudi Submarine" and features a tiled mosaic across each of the walls and ceiling depicting an ocean setting. The bathtub has illustrations of portholes with The Beatles looking out in the same way they did in the animated film based off their hit song. There's even a brass periscope handing down from the ceiling, though it's not clear if it actually looks up into the next floor. Let's face it—that would be both creepy and awesome ... but mostly creepy.

When a company like Dolce and Gabbana decides to open a Milanese restaurant and bar, they don't exactly go for a minimal approach. The place is called Gold, and everything in the entire place is covered in gold, including the light fittings, staircases, and—you guessed it—the bathroom. If you ever want to enjoy dropping a deuce in the most elegant and refined bathroom in the world, look no further, Gold is for you.

The bathroom comes fixed with some — and this is an odd way to describe a toilet — beautiful places to take care of business. Gold-lined sinks, gold wallpaper — you get the idea. The place is bedazzled in gold so much that it's pretty obnoxious, but you should still check it out anytime you visit Milan. It probably won't surprise you to learn that a place called Gold, filled with gold, isn't cheap. An average plate of food will run you somewhere between $33-$131, so plan accordingly and make sure you drink enough so you have to go and at least do number one. Otherwise, there isn't much point in going there in the first place.

In Saddam's former palace in Baghdad, many a military person found a ridiculous amount of marble. The walls, ceilings, stairs, and even the bathrooms are covered in marble. Everything in that bathroom is marble too, including the uniquely designed toilets and sinks. Some of the toilets even have gold inlay and painted designs. Al Faw Palace was the location where diplomats would visit the former dictator of Iraq, so it was meant to display a certain level of opulence and style.

The bathrooms are also equipped with like-designed bidets, but being that it was most recently occupied by the United States military, they were stuffed with toilet paper rolls (Yanks just don't know how to use those things!). Other than that, United States Central Command maintained the bathrooms in pretty much the same way Saddam did, since it remained the location people would come to visit whenever State Department representatives and politicians would visit the embattled city and had to their official government duty.

Have you ever watched those crazy science-fiction flicks from the 60s and noticed everything was in a pod of some sort? The people behind the design of the bathrooms in the London restaurant Sketch must have been big fans of those films, because stepping into their bathroom is like walking into one of those movies.

The restroom is filled with large pods, like that scene in Alien when John Hurt's face befriends a facehugger, only much nicer. Each pod is larger than an average person and contains a single toilet. And don't think of these as permanent port-a-potties or anything — they are very well designed, and oddly beautiful in their own way. The design of the pods isn't the only thing about them that makes this bathroom unique — each pod is mostly soundproof, featuring both color-changing LED lighting and futuristic music playing inside. So when you're in London and ate so much, you feel like a chestburster is milling about inside you, you know where to go.