Mayan Spiritual Carving:

I now live in Thailand, and have always traveled the world with the idea that I would never have a chance to see that particular place again. Therefore, I buy locally made oddities relentlessly.

China, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, East & West Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Tibet, and Vietnam are the places that keep me busy these days. But as a California native, Mexico & Central America were the playgrounds of choice in my younger day.

In 1981, my wife and I rented VW bug in Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. We drove from Cancun, to Chitzen Itza, to Merida, to Uxmal, over to Tulum, up to Playa del Carmen, then back to Cancun. In those days, much of the area had roads that seemed to be a throwback to a time forgotten. Deserted and nearly empty, the roads were long, confusing to direct, and, at that time, lined with lots of extremely dense rain forest. Villages along the way from Uxmal to Tulum mostly consisted of tightly packed white yurtlike round houses, all surrounded by one very tall, rounded top, beige colored wall that surrounded the entire village perimeter.

Near the little "town" of X'Cabil, there was a very small village with a drive out area adjacent to the perimeter wall that had obviously had been painstakingly hand carved out of the jungle. Some enterprising guy had made a little tourist shop in the clearing! And, seeing as we were semi lost, (as always) we decided to stop in. The shop, we discovered, was full of very strange wood carvings with fantastically detailed images of the Maya. And, as it turned out, the man that had created the area itself was also the creator of the super detailed carvings on display. A man on a mission.

We bought eight of the carvings, one of which was a 16"X12" piece featuring two Mayan priests having front-to-front sex with each other with fully detailed headdresses and fully detailed genitalia as well. The owner said that he had spent 9 weeks carving the piece, and that it was based on Mayan stories about the ultimate spoils of war. Stories that had been passed down in the area for centuries. In whisper, he said that the carving represented the exact moment of orgasm, and the celebrated supreme victory over his defeated opponent. "A moment far better than simply enjoying the killing of the arch enemy, yes?" He asked. (True or untrue made no difference, the guy was strange, all of his stuff was simply weird and fantastic in the minutest of details too. Truly amazing items, and each came with its own meticulously concocted and marvelously told story.)

I've collected all kinds of stuff. Fetishes, ancient glassware, antique silks, ebony carvings, swords, knives, spears, stone reliefs, prayer rugs, lots of masks, ancient coins, tiny bronzes, knots, prayer wheels, paintings, effigies, preserved food & whiskeys, and lots of strange relics and curios that have all stood the test of time (and will be passed to my grandchildren, and theirs.) However, the X'Cabil Maya carving remains as the strangest piece that I have ever encountered. Brought with me, it now resides in my family room eterge here in Thailand.

By the way, that shop owner also had an indoor area next to the shop where he kept an incredibly beautiful and large gold & black spotted leopard. Found as a kitten, then fully grown at five years old, it was very healthy, large eyed and well muscled, truly a perfect specimen of type. We watched from our car as he exercised, played & communicated with, then fed that obviously well loved animal. It was hard for us to leave.

Like many other off the beaten track adventures, it now all seems like a hazy dream, but certainly, it wasn't. Like the others, we had taken videos and lots & lots of pictures just so we could later watch and remember that it was in fact, all real.

Posted By Douglas Cameron on October 10, 2010, 6:20 AM

I once saw someone take a leg bone from the Catacombs in Paris and hid it in his pants leg. He "limped" out the exit and no one suspected a thing.

Posted By Steve At TravelingProfessor.com on October 10, 2010, 9:46 AM

this spring in zihuatanejo mexico i purchased one of the more unique souvenirs i've seen. while walking past the hardware store i noticed a display of baskets. each was different in terms of coloration, size and shape. upon closer inspection we figured out they were made of the dried and stretched skin from the testicle sac of what we guess were bulls. yeah, i bought one.

Posted By jen wilson on October 11, 2010, 1:36 AM

When driving through the backroads of Germany's Blackforest region we passed many lumber mills. As a wood carver I decided to see if could secure a piece of wood to carve when I returned home.

We zipped into the next lumber mill and through pantomine I was able to convey my desire to have a small piece of wood. Being female and and a carver seemed to amuse the workers, but they were delighted to fill my request.

I only wanted one small piece, but ended up with three pieces and had to strongly decline more. Both parties were left with a unique memory.

Posted By Peggy Fleming on October 12, 2010, 10:07 AM

I visited Tokyo Disney and I was having a hard time thinking of what to get my mom, it had to be a great souvenir. After much thought and traveling through various places in Japan I decided to buy her a pink ear pick with a cute Minnie Mouse topper. Those hard to reach pieces of ear wax are now simple with the handy dandy ear pick. I would never find something like this in the U.S.!!!

Posted By Andrea Staudt on October 12, 2010, 11:35 AM

I go to Italy to by salsa tartufata - the Tuscan and Umbriam black truffle sauce to put on pasta, bread, grilled meats. I eat as much as I can, but I also buy jar after jar. This year, I returned with twelve jars - plus truffle and fig jam, and truffle honey. And yes, I bring an empty bag so I can transport my truffles home.

Posted By Phebess on October 12, 2010, 1:59 PM

When in Rome (alone) about 1965, I bought a 6" metal cowbell on a large wooden hoop that goes around the cow's neck. The nice Roman boy who was trying to pick me up and rode the bus back to my hostel with me was SOOO embarrassed at the occasional clangs of the bell, even though it was wrapped in newspaper. I think it helped me get rid of him.

I still have the bell. It works as a doorbell on the back door.

I DIDN'T buy a beautiful ceramic bidet with violets painted inside at the same fleamarket. It just wouldn't fit in my backpack.

Oh, the good old days.

Posted By Eileen O'Farrell on October 12, 2010, 2:10 PM

While living/traveling and studying in central Mexico with a group in college several of us bought something we saw in Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. We bought them because they were the oddest and I'll admit funniest thing we'd ever seen. It was a plastic effigy of a man in a seated position. You put it on the side of an ashtray. He came with small pieces of what looked like candle wicks, but worked like the snakes you get for fourth of July. You stuck it to his bottome with a small wad of gum and then lit it making it appear that he was relieving himself. What made it funny was the pantomime action of the vendor and his insistence on calling the object simply a "shi**er".

Posted By BJ on October 12, 2010, 4:47 PM

A colorful bathroom sink in Puerto Vallarta was one of my strangest, yet practical, souvenirs ever.

In '97 my wife and I had the opportunity travel to Puerto Vallarta. After graduating college and getting married the year before we were on our way into careers and had earned a week off.

For the week we were in PV we kept noticing the wonderfully beautiful handpainted bathroom sinks that seemed to be in every bathroom we had the priviledge of patronizing. At our hotel, in lobby bathrooms and at restaurants we kept seeing these awesome 'local' sinks.
We knew the coming year would bring us into the home-ownership phase of our lives so we asked a local we had met earlier in the week, and had grown to trust, about where to get one of these great sinks. After collecting himself (he broke out in laughter when he understood what it was that we wanted to take back in our luggage) he directed us to a local artisan factory where we purchased the 'sink of our dreams' for around $35US. We both fell in love with the design of our sink right away and had the shopkeeper wrap it tight in newspaper (which was an interesting read when we came home). After we thought about our re-pack for the return to Oregon. it was decided that it would best to pack it in a light shoulderpack and take it on carry-on. Not only did I look like one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the customs agents in Mexico and LAX got a bit of a laugh at our 'souvenir'.

In '99 we bought my grandparents old house. Our first project was the bathroom. And, you guessed it, that sink looks great. Two kids and a decade later, we still bring up our first 'real' vacation at least once a week which leads to big smiles.

Posted By Matt Bucknell on October 12, 2010, 5:05 PM

In 2002, we spent time with our daughter in Malawi, Africa. In Blantyre, we visited an elephant dung paper company. Journals and cards made from elephant dung were purchased.

Upon our return, we gave some as gifts to friends and family. They commented on how lovely the gifts were. Their reactions changed considerably when we told them the gifts were made from elephant dung.

Posted By Arlene Hohn on October 17, 2010, 4:50 PM

My most unusual souvenir was in New Zealand. We talked to an expert cow inseminator who explained the process. I asked how they got and stored the semen. He told us the process and gave me a vial of semen to remember him.

Posted By Marie Lee on November 11, 2010, 1:03 PM

And here I thought buying a heavy rubber and coir doormat in England to take home to California was pretty weird.
Apparently not so much.

But it was JUST the one I was looking for.

Posted By J on November 11, 2010, 1:36 PM

It's a pretty common item there, but I thought the snowglobe pyramids and snowglobe pyramid keychains that I bought at Giza were HILARIOUS. So did everybody else.
Although my cousin, who was on the same trip, had me beat--she bought a Fez for every single person on her list (without figuring out how to pack them, first).

Posted By Beth on November 11, 2010, 2:14 PM

I forgot, I also bought a bottle of reindeer moss schnapps from Iceland. That was the trip my mom brought back the jar of fermented shark chunks (taste, and smell, like ammonia, but a great delicacy). (*shudder*)
I'm beginning to think I'm not creative enough.

Posted By Beth on November 11, 2010, 2:23 PM

A few years ago when I was in China for a wedding, I went to the dirt market in Beijing, and bought not one, but two awesomely weathered and smooth low stools right out from under the behinds of some ancient vendors. It took a bit of haggling and considerable re-packing, but was worth every penny of my ten bucks :)

Posted By Kira on November 11, 2010, 2:46 PM

The previous post by Andrea Ataudt re: a pink ear pick from Tokyo Disney makes me wonder… I have never heard of ear picks until his post.
While in Seoul Korea and looking for inexpensive and small souvenirs, I found what the clerk told me were ear picks with embroideried strands on the non-spoon end. My friend and I bought all he had – about 20.
We showed off our find to fellow travelers only to have them laugh. Had we been sucked into buying cocaine spoons? No way! When I got home and I sent one to my nephew who took it to school for show and tell. He was almost expelled! The end opposite of the spoon end unscrewed, came off and had a short but very sharp poker. Maybe they are cocaine spoons! But we have had several great laughs. Did I really send my 80-year old dad a cocaine spoon?

Posted By Ann Nelson on November 11, 2010, 4:44 PM

Without a doubt my strangest purchase(s) were penis
gourds haggled for in various villages in the highlands of Papua New Guinea during my trip there in 1989-90. Although I tried not to stare at the locals wearing them, I'm sure I did. The range of sizes, shapes and decorations was amazing. After I purchased my first one, (long, thin, "uplifted" with a curl at the end sporting several dangling sea shells) I decided I wanted a "grouping" to hang down the side of a bookcase at home. I collected curved, crooked, pointed, blunt, tapered, thick, thin, plain, carved and decorated. They looked wonderful on the bookcase and were a sure-fire conversation starter about exotic travel!

Posted By Lillian Stoner on November 11, 2010, 6:10 PM

Bought a dried pirana in Brazil, years ago. Lots of sharp teeth...really unique.

Posted By Jerry on November 11, 2010, 6:53 PM

His & Hers Souvenirs--How about "Moose Drop" keychains (yes, varnished moose poop on a key ring) made in Two Harbors, MN by an enterprising young man. And for Her? Matching "Rabbit Drop" earrings.

Posted By Ruth Rabold on November 11, 2010, 10:27 PM

Bought a dried seahorse on an island near Cancun, Mexico....

Posted By Nikki on November 12, 2010, 9:29 AM

I grew up in Phoenix, so one of our regular family trips was to the border towns of Mexico. I remember one trip my brother bought a dried stuffed bull frog. I was probably about 8 years old at the time; that frog was still around when he moved out 5 years later. Yuk.

Posted By Patricia on December 3, 2010, 4:29 PM

Not really too strange, but a bit unusual... I hunted for a hardware store in the back 'streets' of Venice, Italy. I left St Mark's square and wandered past plazas, lovely houses and quiet courtyards, and crossed canals over pretty stepped bridges, soaking up the richness of it all, away from the usual tourist haunts. (My favorite thing is to escape those.) I was looking for an antique style long handled 'door-set' for my old house back home. They must have to replace hardware now and then, no? But it would be an accident if I found it. I didn't know the city.

Lo and behold, there beside a sloping path was a little hardware store, with the very thing I wanted displayed in the window. Even better, the price was wonderfully reasonable. My decent grasp of Spanish served as a good communication vehicle, and it tickled the shop owner that I was going to install that door handle on my adobe house in New Mexico. It even came with a nice sturdy box, making it easy to pack. I delightedly brought it home to install as a useful, beautiful reminder of that pleasant and sunny afternoon.

Posted By Eileen on January 3, 2011, 9:37 PM

I bought an oosik in Alaska. You may look that up, but for a short definition, it is part of the male anatomy of a walrus.

Posted By Michelle on April 18, 2011, 3:48 PM

I was in Communist East Berlin once in uniform as a member of the U.S. Air Force, and bought a set of school textbooks used in teaching English to young students. They were well written and interesting -- except the narrative on almost every page was a story illustrating how awful life was in the United States for the average American.
Not too subtle -- and apparently not very effective because everywhere I went in the city ordinary East Berliners would come up to me to shake my hand and tell me (not too loudly) how much they hated their own government and the Russians. Apparently the Berlin Wall could stop people, but it couldn't stop West Berlin TV. They could see the difference...

Posted By Steve K on June 3, 2011, 12:37 AM

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Posted By odszkodowanie on March 2, 2012, 9:25 AM

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Posted By Maurice Mccarry on March 9, 2012, 11:34 AM

I have found many unique souvenirs over the years from adried Pirhana in Rio, to a salt snow ball in Salt lake city but there were some others, a stuffed camel toy from Wgypt made of camel skin leather, a white owl carved out of camel bone, tufts of Buffalo fur from SD, and of course candy (lollipops mostly) with critters in them!

Posted By Ann Peck Abdelzaher on May 3, 2012, 11:08 AM