Souvenirs Collecting Dust? Trade Up, Says Doug Lansky

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  09.27.07 | 2:21 PM ET

imageWe’ve all got them: African batiks, Hungarian tea sets, kitschy souvenirs from long ago travels that end up moldering on basement shelves. When writer Doug Lansky concluded his collection began to resemble “travel trophies” rather than meaningful mementos, he decided to trade up for more useful souvenirs, along the lines of a Japanese toilet and a Thai rickshaw. In a wonderful audio slide show posted on the Guardian’s Web site, Lansky recalls how he transformed his home in Sweden with accoutrements from across the globe.

The oscillating, blow drying toilet has been a particular hit. “Now our dinner guests return to the table laughing with a travel tale of sorts when they use our loo,” he says.

And his three kids feel like “princesses” being driven to school by rickshaw.

Lansky’s not the only one looking to bring life-sized tokens home. Recently, I had a conversation with the head of a Washington D.C. think tank who lit up when he learned I had just returned from a year in Taiwan. He wanted to know if I had a line on one of the discarded statues of Chiang Kai-shek collecting dust in government warehouses on the island. He said he’d like to install one next to his pool.

“Can you just see it?” he asked, cupping his hand to his mouth. “Kids…stop splashing Chiang Kai-shek!”

Related on World Hum:
* Slide Show: Rug Burn in Istanbul
* Hannibal Lecter to Hotel Guests: ‘It’s Time to Wake Up!’

Photo by kidcadaver, via Flickr (Creative Commons).

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Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


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