Dyslexic Plumbing?

It has seemed to me to be the norm that when it comes to taps on basins, sinks and baths, that the right hand tap is for cold water, and the left hand tap is for hot water. Now, on the coast of KZN, specifically in a dwelling at Salt Rock, I have encountered the reverse. At first I wondered whether the taps had been mistakenly put in that way - and that the tap labelled cold would actually be hot and vice versa. But in taking a risk to find out in the shower, it turned out that the right hand tap labelled hot was indeed hot. And this has proven the case for each of the installations! So it is a relief that I can take the labeling as being accurate.

But other questions now arise:

- Is the installation specific to this house only, or is it common on the Natal Coast? To find out the answer I will have to do some investigating in other houses and buildings. Unfortunately, being a visitor to this area, the opportunity doesn't arise for me to do this. So, I guess, the easiest way to find out would be to visit a hardware/ plumbing shop. Or maybe to simply ask the owners/ builders of this establishment - which is by far the easiest way of finding out.

- Is the hot/ cold water arrangement global or a north/ south hemisphere thing? Perhaps like the direction the water circles down the plug hole - i.e. clockwise below the equator, and anti-clockwise above the equator [don't laugh - I saw this for myself when I spent a year in the USA]. So I shall have to ask my northern hemisphere friends about the arrangement of their taps. I wonder what they will think of my question? - perhaps that I am going batty?

- Is the tap arrangement British versus Other? If so, then this part if the Natal Coast, or the builders of this establishment were/are not of British extraction - because in my experience, the taps in the United Kingdom have cold on the right and hot on the left. If it is a British versus Other thing, then this is a potential scandal as KwaZuluNatal is considered by some of its inhabitants (who are in the minority although you wouldn't think so if you we're to spend time among the little commercial enterprises in the Natal Midlands) to be the last outpost of the British Empire.

Whatever the answers, at least I can know that for now I will not scald myself when turning on the tap labelled 'C' for cold (unless both taps are labelled C as for the bath!). But it will be good to check wherever I go, in case the plumber who did the installation suffered from dyslexia.