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Universal Orlando Resort: Where to Stay & Play for a Few Days

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My recent stay at Universal Orlando Resort was so much fun and I’m going to share and highlight my favorite moments with you. First and foremost, I stayed at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort on the property which allowed me early access (one hour) to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™. It was my first time experiencing Diagon Alley™. I took advantage of the complimentary shuttle service to Universal Studios Florida and was able to … [Read More...]

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Navigating Disney World During a Pandemic

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Taste the Flavors of St. Thomas USVI

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Bringing home a calabash bowl from St. John changed how I see souvenirs

I have brought home my share of forgettable souvenirs over the years. Mugs from theme parks, coffee-table books that never get opened, a keyring or two that survived exactly one flight before snapping. Walking through the small shops of Cruz Bay on my second day in St. John, I expected more of the same. The storefronts in the Virgin Islands lean heavily on branded tees, shot glasses, and rum-flavoured everything. I had almost given up on finding anything with a pulse when I spotted a wooden bowl tucked under a market umbrella, and it stopped me in my tracks.

The bowl turned out to be a hand-carved calabash, made from a dried gourd rather than a plank of timber. The vendor, a local woodcarver named Mr. Allenby, explained that calabash bowls have been part of Caribbean life for centuries, used for everything from serving food to carrying water. I walked away an hour later with the bowl wrapped in brown paper, more thoughtful about what I had bought than I had been in a long time.

The morning I found it in Cruz Bay

Cruz Bay is the small, easy-going port town that most travellers pass through on their way to the beaches of St. John. I had wandered there from my guesthouse before the cruise ships docked, when the streets were quiet and shopkeepers had time to talk. The craft market near the ferry terminal is not large, perhaps a dozen stalls under canvas awnings, but the quality varies wildly. A few tables were piled high with mass-produced jewellery made from resin rather than shell. Another was stacked with printed sarongs.

Mr. Allenby's table was the one that drew me in. He works alone, he told me, sourcing his gourds from farmers on neighbouring St. Croix and drying them in his back garden for several months before carving. The bowl I chose was about the size of a cereal bowl, with a deep amber colour and a pattern of fish etched into the outside. He had signed the base with a small burned mark and a date. Nothing about it screamed souvenir. That was exactly why I wanted it.

The quiet skill behind the carving

What surprised me most, once I had the bowl home and started looking at it properly, was how little of the original gourd shape had been wasted. The curve of the rim follows the natural growth line of the fruit, and the thickness of the wall is uneven in a way that only happens when someone is working with an organic form rather than milling a plank. There are faint tool grooves where Mr. Allenby's chisel caught slightly, and a couple of darker patches where the gourd's skin did not sand away completely.

Carving a calabash is a slow craft. The gourds must be cured for months until the flesh inside dries to a hard, woody shell. Once cured, the artist cuts the top, scoops out the dried pulp and seeds, and shapes the exterior with hand tools. The patterns are usually inspired by local life: fish, turtles, flowers, sailboats. My bowl's fish motif caught the light differently depending on the angle, and I kept catching myself tilting it to see the shadow shift. It felt less like a decoration and more like a small sculpture, the kind of object you want to keep on a shelf rather than shove in a cupboard.

Wrapping a gourd for a thirty-hour journey

Getting a fragile wooden bowl from St. John back to Australia is, on paper, a ridiculous undertaking. The flight from St. Thomas to Sydney via San Francisco takes roughly thirty hours once you include the layovers, and checked luggage is not known for its gentle handling. Mr. Allenby warned me about this when I bought the bowl, and produced a sheet of brown butcher's paper from under his table. He wrapped the gourd in three layers, then slipped it into a small cardboard box he had clearly saved for exactly this situation.

In my own bag I padded it further with a rolled-up beach towel and wedged it between shoes. I had read enough traveller forums to know that declaring a fragile item at check-in can lead to oversized baggage fees, so I did not mention it. By the time I walked out of Kingsford Smith Airport in Sydney, the bowl had survived three security screenings, two turbulence-heavy descents, and a baggage handler's idea of careful stacking. It came out with one tiny chip on the inner rim that I have come to think of as its travel scar.

Clearing Australian biosecurity with a wooden bowl

This is the part of the story that catches most of my friends off guard. Australia treats wooden items brought in from overseas with the kind of suspicion that surprises people who have not travelled here before. Under the Biosecurity Act 2015, all incoming passengers must declare any wooden, plant-based, or animal-derived goods on their Incoming Passenger Card. Failure to declare can mean an on-the-spot fine of several thousand dollars, and in serious cases prosecution. Hand-carved bowls fall squarely inside that list.

When I landed in Sydney, I ticked the wooden goods box and walked up to the red line at customs. An officer from the Department of Agriculture inspected the bowl, asked where I had bought it and how it had been dried, then ran a small swab around the outside. He explained that untreated wood can carry hitchhiking insects, fungal spores, or larvae that would pose a risk to Australian horticulture. Because the calabash had been thoroughly cured and the surface was sealed, it was given the all clear and returned to me within minutes. If it had not been dry enough, it would have been sent for fumigation or, worst case, destroyed. A friend in Perth once had a similar wooden sculpture held for three weeks of heat treatment, which is why I had asked Mr. Allenby so many questions about the drying process before I left the island.

Where it lives now in our Brisbane kitchen

The bowl has settled into a permanent spot on the open shelf above our stove, where the afternoon sun from the back deck catches the carved fish and throws a soft pattern across the splashback. It holds garlic, sometimes lemons, occasionally the odd piece of jewellery I forget I am wearing. It is the most asked-about object in our house, particularly by friends who grew up here and have never seen a calabash in person. Several have asked if I can get them one, which has so far turned into a small group text where we debate ordering from Caribbean exporters online.

I have bought other things on other trips since. A framed print from a market in Hobart, a tin of coffee from a roastery in Melbourne, a couple of prints on cotton from a Sydney fair. They are fine, and they live on walls and in cupboards, and they are exactly what souvenirs are meant to be. None of them made me pause at the airport, write a column in my notebook, or learn a section of Australian legislation I had previously ignored. The calabash did all three, and it is still earning its keep on that shelf.

How the calabash sits alongside a few other traditional bowls I have owned over the years:

Bowl type Material Origin Weight Care needed How I use it
Calabash gourd Dried fruit shell St. John, USVI Light Wipe clean, keep dry Garlic and lemons
Salad bowl Solid Huon pine Tasmania Heavy Oil occasionally Serving at dinners
Resin souvenir bowl Cast plastic Florida Medium Dishwasher safe Holding keys
Stoneware mixing bowl Glazed ceramic Sydney market Heavy Dishwasher safe Baking
Coconut shell bowl Polished husk Fiji Very light Oil to prevent cracking Nuts and small snacks