Interesting! In much of South America that's true too.
Ice is rarely served at restaurants unless you specially request it (many believe drinking very cold drinks is what gives you a cold) and most expats don't order ice anyways because the water is of dubious origin.
Many public restrooms can barely be called restrooms, consisting of dug up holes in the ground. Those that actually do have real facilities are often horribly filthy. In either case (dug up holes or real restrooms) you often see an attendant at the door who hands you very carefully counted pieces of toilet tissue as you pay to enter LOL!
