Your tacky travel souvenirs:

My wife does the souvenir purchasing in general, the worst was the dried/petrified frog purse (blown up like a blow fish) including leather shoulder strap from Nicaragua…One enters the purse through the hinged mouth, of course…

JSC

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I see absolutely nothing wrong with buying “tacky” souvenirs! They’re what makes traveling fun. Not only are they often inexpensive, but they are fun to look at and show (or give) to your friends!

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I was on a trip to Thailand last week and one of the group was a big snow globe fan. We thought they might be an unlikely find in a country that has probably never seen snow, but lo – we found one with an elephant inside! Added to that someone else in the group managed to find some dog socks (unfortunately I don’t think they had Thailand written on them, which would have been a real bonus)!

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I really hate it when I get given souvineers, never know know where to put them, they always look so out of place where ever I put them It’s even worse when I have to buy them, they all look so tacky!

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Used to have a massive thing for collecting shot glasses… not the best idea since they get stolen, lost, or broken very easily!

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I’ve got an ashtray purchased from atop the Vatican. I’d have a Pope head in a snow globe, but they buyer was scared of being damned to hell (even though it was the Vatican selling it).

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My tackiest souveniers would be a stone ax replica and a koteka from Jayapura, Papua. Bought them three years ago, still couldn’t find the right place to display them. My office desk looks like the right place. Now why didn’t I think of that?

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Not tacky but silly. When we travel we try in poor countries to buy something locally made. In the Gambia we purchased a “wooden locally made elephant” and show it to a friend. Who said “very nice but why does it have made in china on the foot?”

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The frog purse sounds ace. My favourite souvenir was a bracelet bought in a Cape town market which was made from elephant hair.

Despite how that may sound I think it might actually have been eyelashes! I burnt a bit of it to see if it smelled organic and i’d say it did. I was comparing it a smell from my youth… i.e. the smell ants being melted with a magnifying glass/blow torch.

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I purchase stamps from each country and stick them on a big envelope I carry round. I also collect pins for each city I stay in – which is particularly easy and awesome in Eastern European countries, where people sell old pins from soviet days on the streets for a few cents each.

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I love Collecting souvenirs, when I travelled around Europe two years ago I bought a fridge magnet from each country I visited – needless to say the one fridge magnet I bought in France had a “Made in China” sticker on the back of it.

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