We do a lot of travel in our line or work. What is the coolest thing you’ve picked up overseas (no diseases or wives please)? I got this meershaum pipe in Iskenderun Turkey back in the early 90’s. So show us your cool stuff from around the world.
The clap. 
Naw just kidding. I got a cool hand carved wooden marlin statuette in Panama.
all I ever got was just a big fid from the boss…
other than that, I brought home alot of funny foreign coins
A beautiful scrimshaw whales tooth from the Azores. It’s at home, pic will have to wait.
Sea turtle shell I got in Cartegna & brought home. Sold it when I got to the states for triple my $$
Alabaster and copper in Turkey was super cheap, at least in the '80s. Had a really nice alabaster chess set for abt $15. A dozen mixed color eggs in a woven basket and some fancy candle holders, both open and covered, for less than $20 total. Mom still has all that stuff out around the house. Have an 8 place German China set that is still in its original box. Might use it some day. Got that in '85.
My wife, enough said.
I gave most everything away once I got back. I’m like c.cap all I got left are cigar boxes of old furin money.
I really didn’t have much else other than the pipe. My daughter found it in a box and was asking me about it. Most of what I brought back was hangovers and fuzzy memories with an occasionally good sea story.
Got three cool painted ostrich eggs in Capetown. A third egg was a taxidermied ostrich chick in a cracked open shell. Brought back a camel saddle from Egypt. A baby seal purse for my exwife (she was my future exwife at the time) that I got in Norway. Bought a real nice 3/4 length black leather coat from a junkie in Naples for $10. Sold it when it no longer fit for $150. Emerald earrings from Brazil, gold jewelry from UAE and Egypt. Semiprecious stone jewellery from Singapore. Dammit, I been sailing too long.
I had a couple of ebony wood carvings from Indonesia, but I have no idea where they are now. I still have a pilfered saucer from States Lines. . . . Like some above, I was the guy who would stand in line clearing customs with nothing to declare. More than once one of the old timers behind me would push me on the shoulder and tell me, “Good thing that they don’t charge duties on memories, huh, Kid!”
hmm, probably a piece of scrimshaw from the azores, the tooth is very old, predates the treaty so it’s legal t have in the US as well.
[QUOTE=seadog6608;145108]Got three cool painted ostrich eggs in Capetown. A third egg was a taxidermied ostrich chick in a cracked open shell. Brought back a camel saddle from Egypt.
[/QUOTE]
Made the mistake of declaring mine and they confiscated it. Something about disease. I wanted to see them destroy it, but they wouldn’t. Wonder where it ended up?
Geeze…The worst thing was my EX but the best was my oldest daughter from Colombia. My daughter was 6 weeks old when we were signing all of the immigration papers in Bogota at the consulate. Jean Kirkpatrick (ex ambassador to the UN) was the asst consulate general. Ms Kirkpatrick was holding my daughter and was drenched in piss. This was before pampers made it to South America.
I bought some $20 gold pieces for $80 in Trinidad in '74. Malachite eggs and figurines from W Africa. A shit load of semi precious stones and gold over the years from all over South America.
And of course Dominican cigars, single malt from Scotland and Flore de Cana from Nicaragua.