We interrupt the Dakotas Solo Road Trip posts for an announcement.  SRT will soon begin a series about other travelers called, What I Brought Back.

To follow the SOLO continuum already established by SRT, this series will be Tammie Dooley’s travel related version of eating Nan bread. Therefore, you should not expect conventional travel writing fare — there won’t be any of “the sunset was beautiful”. To eat Nan, palm the bagel-like perfection and with a quick twist of the wrist, turn the bread over to expose its underside.  Inspect for fragments of the oven wall that adhered during the baking process.  With a finger nail, rapidly fleck off this debris. From the initial palming of the bread to the last bite, the entire process is gloriously tactile indulgent.

And so becomes the aim of What I Brought Back.  We’ll fleck away the travel debris of where, when, and how to reveal something more personally insightful: 1) what a traveler brought back in their suitcase [from cheesy souvenirs to exotic treasures] and 2) what they brought back that could not be physically contained.

An ivory teapot purchased from a Silk Road flea market in Kashgar, China.

I brought the above teapot back from the 4 week backpacking trip with my son to China. The interior is flaking with the tea-rust built up from many a Chinese tea party; the exterior rubbed smooth by the hands serving it.  It is my favorite What I Brought Back item packable in my suitcase.

And here’s something from the China trip that could not be physically contained.

Skipping Rocks on Karakul Lake. Xinjiang Province.