TRAVEL | TRAVEL STORIES | JOURNALS | SOUVENIRS

The Best Travel Souvenirs Are My Memories

And it helps that I wrote some of them down

There are certain things in life that we just can’t let go of. Despite downsizing and getting rid of all of my personal possessions in 2017, except two small totes which are stored at my parents, there is no way that I could ever part with my travel journals.

Thankfully, as a young woman, I documented my travels. I suppose I still do, but the stories come in this form, on Medium, not the hand-written way.

Somehow the hand-written way is much cooler.

Actually, I’m not sure if it is because it is hand-written, or if it is the insight into my young traveling brain that makes these journals so cool. Reading the thoughts that I had about the world helps me to remember how alive with curiosity I have always been. But, as a young woman, everything was new, and the world was a much simpler place — I wasn’t jaded by the challenges of life just yet.

I grabbed these journals from one of my totes on my last visit to my hometown earlier this year. Since then, I have been carting them around with us as we visit family and friends in Western Canada.

Reading these journals brings back memories that have long since passed. Like the time I played hacky sack high up in the Himalayas with the Sherpas who assisted us on our Everest Base Camp trek. Or remembering I turned 16 on that trek and that our cook made me a Nepali birthday cake.

Reading through these is like a journey through time. I am transported to a time and place that I may not remember immediately, but in reading these pages it is all brought back. Suddenly I can see the sights in my mind, I can hear the hustle and bustle around me, and I can taste the excitement of something different.

My ex-husband and I drove to Mexico in the year 2000. I documented all of it including when we painted our van smurf blue before leaving Canada. Plus, let’s not forget the time that we “lost the war with the fish” while camped by the shore in Baja.

In 2001 we shipped our tandem expedition kayak to the Bahamas and paddled around the islands for about 3 months. We would purchase staple foods when we could but also lived off of the land by chopping down coconuts and spearfishing lobsters and other delicacies.

But then, in reading my journal, I am also reminded of the pure kindness of strangers that kept us going during those days.

….it wasn’t a very ideal night and the next morning we were both in foul ass moods and fighting. However, we packed up and paddled over to Warderick Wells and the Park Ranger station, fighting the whole way. But when we got there we were alright. We ended up talking to some Canadians that offered us a shower on their boat. We gratefully accepted, but in the meantime we asked them if they had any oats since we had run out that morning. They said they didn’t but 10 minutes later, a guy approached us and told us that he had heard the conversation and that he did have oats. While we were up at the warden station, I noticed him walking away from the kayak, so we assumed he had dropped some off. We went down to the waters edge and waved to him and yelled thanks, and then not even looking, went for a walk. When we came back and opened the kayak we found a whole loaf of BREAD, oats, some other breakfast cereal, melba toast and some dried fruit. What a treat. We felt so bad that we didn’t thank him more or even talk to him some more, since as we opened the kayak, he was pulling out of the harbour…………

Or there was the time when we met a family that took a liking to us. They were the ones to finally teach us how to open and cook conch the proper way.

…..we also went and found 5 fair size conchs that afternoon, and later on paddled them over to their boat. We were hoping that we would get the chance to see how they are opened and peeled since we hadn’t gone near one since Green Cay and our horrible experience……..

…..John gave a good lesson, and when he was done we immediately came back and went to work on ours. Sure enough, they were easy as pie to prepare and we fried them for supper. Finally we know what to do with conch.

Journeying through my journals has also brought me back to the turning of the millennium. Unfortunately, I was very sick during this time while my best friend and I were in Fiji, but I still found the energy to write about our experiences, which I am very thankful for.

…Anyways, at about 5:00 that day we headed over to the village to witness yet ANOTHER kava ceremony. Somehow I managed to choke back a bowl of kava even though at that moment I felt like hell. Just as the ceremony finished about 30 kids jumped out with spears and weapons. They all were jumping around hooting and hollering. I think they were pretending to be cannibals. It was very cute. But it didn’t end. They all started singing these darling songs that were so adorable. And somewhere between the kava and the kids I forgot that I was sick and actually started to enjoy myself………..

Or on that same trip when we later flew to New Zealand and rented a car with another girl we met in Auckland. The three of us did a whirlwind trip around the South Island and had an incredible time.

January 11, 2000

The last 24 hours have been NUTS! We arrived to Picton at about 8:30 and immediately put more clothes on. It was overcast and raining and very, VERY chilly. We set out to find a rental car. While talking to them we decided it best to drive to Queenstown via Christchurch. It’s about a 4 hour drive so we made it there at about 2:00 am. Fortunately Tara had a friend living there who let us sleep at his house. She had called him ahead of time so he was expecting us at the ungodly hour that we finally arrived. I was the last to drive and I was a total zombie since I had been up for 20 hours straight. It was probably the hardest that I have slept while on this trip. It was a very comfy bed and I had an amazing shower in the morning…..

The pages of these journals are treasure troves. To me, they are the ultimate souvenirs and I am so thankful that I had the inclination to write about my travel adventures at such a young age.

As I move into these later stages of life, these journals remind me that I have always been adventurous and my curiosity about the world has never wavered. And I know with certainty that it never will. These stories remind me of why I travel. I travel to seek out new experiences and to meet amazing people. I travel to learn about other cultures and to understand that there are many ways for us all to live this singular life that we are given.

Some day these stories will likely find their way into a book, or maybe a few books. But in the meantime, as I sit back in my home country of Canada, I will enjoy flipping through these pages, transporting myself to a different time and place while allowing the memories to flood back, and reconnecting with that young and vibrant part of myself who still had her whole life ahead of her to look forward to.

Souvenirs is our October writing prompt. What are your favorite travel souvenirs? We at Globetrotters want to hear all about them!

Read more souvenir contributions to the prompt:

Brad Yonaka has a very unique souvenir. Possibly the only one like it in the world!

Simon Whaley tells the tragic tale of the enduring souvenir.

To read more about some of my adventures mentioned above:

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