The British colonizers had planted golden rain trees in the 1880s when the gardens were established, and these days the massive trees seem to reach their branches down to the lakes.
Originally a tin mine, the 64 hectares (160 acres) site was the first public garden in British Malaya.
After our walk we met up with the group and drove to Gopeng Rainforest Resort, for the next chapter of our durian adventure.
Located in the rain forest, the view from our simple cabin included rambutan trees covered with fruit
and durian trees filled with their spiky fruits. In this area there are mostly kampong durians. Kampong means village seedling, and the fruits are not of a registered variety, thus they vary widely.
Gopeng was where our tour group practiced opening durians. In this photo Edward has used the blade to open the seams of the durian and pulled the two halves apart.
We ate a lot of durian here, and the wheelbarrow was a handy place to toss out any durian we didn't like, along with the seeds and rinds.
After our durian feast we went rafting. Pete got this photo of himself and Edward as we started down the Sungai Geroh river.
First we had a 'water test' to practice what to do if we got thrown out of the boat. Kristina and everyone passed.
The Riverbug guides were very skilled, making the 90 minute ride down the level 1-3 rapids really fun.
To get back to the resort, we rode in the back of this truck, in the rafts.
The food at the resort was great, with a large variety of vegan dishes.
The next day we went to a nearby Orang Asli village. The Orang Asli are the indigenous people of Malaysia.
Originally nomadic, these days they live in houses made of wood and bamboo with palm thatched roofs.
We were invited into this house. Pete volunteered to stir fry some ferns, a traditional food of the Orang Asli.
The ferns can be eaten raw or cooked, and here are shown on a banana leaf plate with cooked cassava root. It was all quite tasty.
We made necklaces from the cassava leaves. From left are Qing Hui, David, Lindsay, Kristina, Pete, Hannah, Edward and Loren. It was a fun group to travel with.
And we each tried their dart blowpipe. Pete was able to aim his dart and pop the balloon twice in a row!
We drove south to try Mr Lim's durians. In this photo he is opening a Black Thorn, a boutique varietal durian that is registered with MARDI as D200.
Black Thorn won first prize at the annual Fruit Competition three times, and it became a highly desirable durian. But since there were few Black Thorn trees, its price sky-rocketed. Black Thorn was one of our top ten durians on the trip, but I doubt we would have paid the high price if we'd been on our own. Inside the rind, the fruit is pinkish-orange color.
Lindsay shared her immense durian knowledge with us and we learned a lot on the tour. (She also writes a blog about durian.) Here's closer look to show the wrinkles on the delicate pillows of durian flesh that Lindsay calls "fine, luxurious wrinkles".
Pete got this photo right before taking a big, gooey bite and savoring the fruity, sweet, creamy taste.
We also tried five types of cempedak, a new fruit for us. Related to jackfruit, we liked the durian cempedak and the acaya cempedak, which had a mango flavor. With Lindsay's Brix hydrometer she has found that cempedak have the highest sugar content of any fruit.
Mr Lim's durian farm and nursery is a family-run business and he is Chinese.
This woman is spouting durian seeds.
Once the sprouts are a few weeks old, they are transferred to bags of soil so their roots can develop. In a few months they will be grafted with Musang King wood, to become Musang King durian trees.
We drove towards Bentong and stopped for a break at a place with a nice flower garden.
Our tour guide Lindsay has lived (off and on) in Malaysia for the past six years, so she is well connected with durian farmers. Her friend Stephen had recently opened a durian cafe in Bentong, so we went to check it out.
At Stephen's we got our first taste Tekka. Also known as D160 and Bamboo, we immediately fell in love. Its flavor is complex: creamy, earthy, nutty, oniony and sulfury. And its texture is rich like whipped butter with caramel.
Lindsay suggested we walk around Bentong's historical district. Kristina posed with this cool durian-themed mural. She is carrying baskets of durians and the man on the left is opening some durians.
The next morning we got up early so we could visit the National Elephant Conservation Centre (NECC). It was raining, so we took shelter and enjoyed some durian and watermelon for breakfast.
After cleaning the elephants pens, we fed them durian. The elephants step on the durian to break the rind, then scoop the delicious fruit into their mouths with their trunks. They even eat the thorny rinds.
NECC is run by the Malaysian government, and the elephants we interacted with were injured or orphaned. Our tour mate Loren is next to Daat. Daat lost her left front foot in a trap and as a result she has a lot of physical problems caused by her shortened front leg. But she enjoyed eating the fruit we brought her.
Kristina is giving a durian to Chat. The five elephants we met each had a nickname that they responded to.
And here is the whole tour group, from left: Pete, Hannah, Lindsay, Lauren, Qing Hue, Edward, David and Kristina.
After cleaning up as best we could, we headed to Stephen's Musang King factory. First we learned the external characteristics of it: medium sized and round, with large, 4-sided, green spikes with brown tips.
We tasted it and enjoyed the clean, sweet, buttery flavor. Musang King is another high priced durian. We learned that Musang King freezes well, so we plan to look for it when we're back in the states and we're craving durian.
We also got to pick mangosteens in Stephen's orchard.
Mangosteens are one of our favorite fruits, and it was a treat to get them so fresh. They are called 'the queen of fruits' and durian is the king. This photo shows the whole mangosteen.
Once the bottom rind is peeled off, the white fruit can be eaten in one bite. It's a juicy and cooling fruit that counter balances the richness of durian, which is said to cause heat in the body.
The mangosteen tree has shiny green leaves.
We didn't want to get too close to this huge spider who was a resident in the orchard.
The next stop on our action-packed tour was an organic D24 durian farm. On the left are the owners, Mr Ng and Ms Ng is wearing a red t-shirt. They were very kind to us.
After showing us an interesting durian powerpoint presentation, Mr Ng gave us a tour of his farm and told us with pride about his organic practices. For example, the silver tubing near the base of the tree keeps squirrels and rats from being able to climb up to get the fruit.
Then we got to eat some D24. Kristina was a fan and described it as creamy, bitter, sweet and oniony.
The next day we went up into the hills near Kuala Klawang to try some new varieties of durian.
This is D17. (Special thanks to Edward for diligently labeling and sharing his photos!)
It was really fresh, and we enjoyed the tangy, nutty, oniony flavor as we ate it. We took some with us to enjoy after dinner, but we were disappointed that just eight hours later, the onion flavor was so strong that it overpowered all the other flavors.
Another new variety that made our top ten list was Tawah.
Its flavors were pleasing and sweet.
And alongside the Tawah you can see we ate a lot more cempedak too.
Durian flowers are pollinated by bats, so the flowers only open at night. This is a baby durian. The trees will shed most of their fruits when they are this size, leaving about 50-150 fruits to mature on a tree per season.
We stayed at the Dusun Eco Resort, a lovely place, and had a Minangkabau cuisine (from western Sumatra) cooking lesson. In this photo Joe and Loren are in front and prepping the greens.
Then we ate a delicious meal of jackfruit coconut milk curry (yellow), pineapple in chili (red), and ferns sautéd with shallots (green). There's also a spoonful of tempoyak, fermented durian paste (white). Joe is a fruitarian from Sydney, so this was a perfect meal for him.
The next day we visited a dragon fruit farm. The cactus plants are grown in groups of four around a post so they resemble trees.
Some of them had a lot of blossoms. The fruits are covered in blue plastic bags to keep the bugs out. We were pleased to learn that the farm is able to reuse the bags four times before throwing them away.
This is what the blossom looks like close up. The flowers are pollinated at night by bats and moths, and they last only about 24 hours before they wilt.
Once pollinated the baby fruit starts to grow.
Kristina is holding a partially peeled red pitaya (aka dragon fruit). It has such a beautiful color.
And Pete is demonstrating the after-affects of eating the fruit. The red pitayas have a lot more flavor than the white ones we've eaten before.
The owner of the farm served us these pandan coconuts, freshly picked from the tree. The coconut water was so fresh, the best we've ever tasted.
David is a jackfruit aficionado and he was happy to see this enormous fruit for us at Eco Do Dem cafe and durian stand. The group was able to eat about one third of the fruit, and the rest we took with us for later.
We each picked out a durian to try and opened it. Lindsay is coaching Hannah, as the rind is quick thick and it's hard to open a durian.
Pete is using his whole body to get his durian open.
Pretty tasty, eh?
We next went to Haji Baha's durian stall. Joe looks ready to grab his choice fruit.
This is Melaka (which is often spelled Malacca in English). We rode up the Sky Tower to check out views of the city.
We quickly noticed how important tourism is to Melaka, with the large number of rickshaws that were decked out in themes like our favorite Doraemon.
Perhaps you'd prefer to ride in a Pokemon rickshaw?
That evening Lindsay took us to her favorite durian stall in Melaka.
This time we ate durians we knew from prior tastings, a fun way to confirm our opinions about which ones were our favorites.
On the table in front of us are several D24s that varied in taste from nutty and perfect, to oniony, to bland with nice texture. It's so interesting how each fruit has its own taste. Loren's boyfriend Derek (right) joined us in Melaka and they will continue traveling in Southeast Asia after the tour.
The next morning we got up early to walk along the Melaka canal, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
Except for a few locals out strolling or riding a bike, we had the area to ourselves.
We liked the bright colors of the buildings and all the nice plants.
There are lots of murals along the 3 km walkways by the canal. We liked the restaurant mural with its lotus roots and bok choy.
A number of the murals have cultural themes about the people of Melaka.
We crossed over the canal to check out the other side.
To the right of the colorful mural you can see old car hoods (click the photo to enlarge it).
This is the Melaka historic square with clock tower in the nice morning light.
On our final day of the tour we went to Gunung Ledang Recreational Forest in Johor. The van smelled strongly of durian and jackfruit as we got in, which was common throughout the tour.
We spotted this super cool millipede, but didn't stop to count its legs.
We hiked up to the Princess waterfalls and enjoyed cooling off in the water.
It was a great place to hang out.
For lunch we had an all-you-can-eat durian buffet. We liked that the durian stems were labelled with the variety, as we are still having trouble telling them apart.
Kasap was a big favorite of ours, second only to Tekka. It tasted nutty, creamy, and savory, like gooey, buttered marshmallows. Of course we ate too much.
By the time we rolled into Kuala Lumpur (KL), we were feeling less stuffed. The sign in the lobby of the hotel made us glad we hadn't brought any extra durian from the buffet with us.
After hugs and good-byes, Lindsay drove the van back to Penang and the tour dispersed. Later we received an epic poem from our tour mate David, in which he memorialized our experiences in “9 days of After Dinner Durian (A.D.D.)”.
For a Durian trek, into Penang we flew
Eight strange folks, who none of us knew
We met downtown to leave on Tour
Go many places we’ve never seen before
The Durian Princess was our guide
Hardly a Durian she has not tried
Eating Durian was our main task
Just how much, wish we had asked
To Karuna Hills on our first night
With views of the straight, what a sight
Biked the land, made a waterfall trek
Learned to cook and made durian kek
The Durian was devoured in a blur
Just when gone, then there was more
For Kristina’s Birthday, a Durian Feast
Edward showed he was a Durian Beast
Just when you thought that was enough
Loren coaxed him, another piece was stuffed
Toured the exotic fruit farm with Ali
While Joe ate every duku on the tree
We stopped in Palau, on our way to Taiping
Drove into the forest to do our durian thing
Climbed a palm tree, ate Indian food
Drank some toddy to put us in the mood
Saw fireflies on a river boat cruise
In a garage, we drank special booze
We went up a hill on New Year’s Day
Then onto Gopeng for our next stay
Went white water rafting without our queen
Assuring us, falling in the water was never seen
Pete and Dave, both flew out of the boats
And made good use of their life vest coats
We walked at night, looking for large bugs
Hannah got bit by several leech like slugs
The Orang Asli highlighted the next day
As Pete showed off his blow dart forte
We ate lunch where they grow baby trees
Musong King by the thousands, all graftees
Then to a resort with no one else there
Where we ate dinner with a limited fare
We cleaned the crap from the elephant’s place
Then stuffed durian after durian into their face
Visited a factory where they make durian packs
And dehydrate tropical fruit as tasty snacks
Picked mangosteens, all we could eat
Had organic durian as our afternoon treat
To get a great view, we drove up a hill
Ate bitter B17 that gave us a thrill
Qing Hui was bit by a hound
Fed her durian to bring her round
Later that day we arrived at the Dusun
Couldn’t go hiking, but still had fun
Ate durio lowianus and lots of tawah
Had some cooking that made us say ahh!
At the Dragon Fruit Farm, Dave ate three
Wasn’t too long, he had to do more than pee
Found the biggest jack fruit ever seen
As we ate it up, it was hard to stay clean
We had to pick our own durian to eat
After Lindsay’s teaching, an easy feat
In Melaka, to a Museum that was grand
Up in the sky to get a view of the land
For dinner we had a vegan delight
And ate more durian late at night
On our last day, up a trail we hiked
Swam in a waterfall that we all liked
Came down the hill for a feast so loaded
We all left with stomachs too bloated
We drove into KL for the final trip
The end of the tour, hard to grip
So many memories and so much fun
Overfull bellies, playing in the sun
Tekkah, Kossop, Black thorn, Batu
Red Prawn, Chanee, Kun Poh, and D2
So many types of durian we did consume
Eager for the next place, that durian 'fume
A.D.D., a nonstop buffetThe next day a few of us wanted some durian, so we made our way to Donald's Durian in the KL suburbs.
Wouldn’t have done it any other way!
Although the sign says Musang King, we opted for D2, D24 and Tekka, a delicious finale to durian for awhile.
We had visited Kuala Lumpur in 2016, so we didn't feel compelled to do much sightseeing in the next few days. But we did enjoy looking at the newly renovated area along the Klang River.
This is the Sultan Abdul Samad Building tower, as seen from the river walk.
Behind us is the Masjid Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad mosque.
We went back to our favorite Indian restaurant in KL, Betel Leaf, which serves food from Chennai. The green drink is called jal jeera and is made of fresh mint, cumin, black pepper, fennel, amchur powder (to make it sour), tamarind and salt, blended in water. The orange drink is carrot, pineapple and ginger juice.
We enjoyed Goan fish curry, palak paneer and a few different naans.
We went back for another look at the river and mosque at dusk.
Next we'll be in Chiang Mai for ten days. We'll take a break from blogging, and our next post will be from New Zealand.
