Unpacking My Souvenirs

The Before - packaged with care

Despite 17 hours of transit time, I was still excited to open the packages of souvenirs I'd mailed home from Hong Kong, China, Nepal, India, Thailand, and South Africa when I got home from Colombia.

Some of the stuff seemed trivial (like the stupid aluminum can tuk-tuk I paid far too much for in a Bangkok market) while other items like the Tibetan “Wheel of Life” thangka I spent a day shopping for in Kathmandu were as beautiful as I'd remembered.

For a few items, I used expensive courier shipping like FedEx, but for most, I relied on the national mail service.

The After - worldly souvenirs

I lost one package, which contained all the souvenirs I'd bought in Cambodia and Laos, plus a few DVD's of photos and videos.  I learned a valuable lesson I used the rest of my trip, and will continue to adhere to on future trips – burn two copies of photos/video, so if you mail one home and it doesn't arrive, you've got the back-up still in possession.  Blank DVD's aren't that expensive these days…anywhere.

Thankfully, I had been compulsively uploading ALL my photos to Flickr like a mindless travel-blogging zombie, but only a few of the video clips were ever uploaded to YouTube, so the rest of the footage I took during the time period was lost.

Since I didn't talk much about my souvenirs while I was traveling, I thought I'd feature some of my favorites week to week.  Of course, each one has a story to tell…if I can manage to remember them!

Dave Lee

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio. He's been to 66 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Read the full story of how he became a travel blogger.