"On first tasting it I thought it like the flesh of some animal in a state of putrefaction." - French naturalist Henri Mouhot. The fruit has been described as smelling like a combination of rotten onions, turpentine, and raw sewage. Food writer Richard Sterling wrote the smell could be best described as, “…turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock." Other words to describe it's odor include sewage, vomit, skunk spray and used surgical swabs! Many public places throughout Asia prohibit bringing it on the premises. Hotels, restaurants, busses, trains, planes and other places do not allow it because of it's offensive smell. Heck, it's even banned from the entire Singapore public transportation system. In SE Asia, it's the King of Fruits. It's the size of a football and I pay $10 for one just picked from the tree. It's the Durian, and I am in the 'City of the Durian', Kampot, Cambodia.

My 2 Cambodian friends joined me in Siem Reap to make the trip here .This quiet, small, Cambodian town (just a few kilometers from the Vietnam border) produces and sells this large fruit, exporting many of them to Vietnam. 

Kampot is situated on the banks of a wide river. It's one of those small, charming little towns. The mountains on the other side of the river make a picture-perfect background for the many French-style buildings sitting along the banks. In the middle of the small town is a huge statue of the Durian.

Kampot was also one of the last strongholds of the murderous Khmer Rouge Regime! Kampot is a town where nature lovers come on weekends to get away from the large, hectic places like Phnom Penh.

We rented bicycles and rode into the countryside, looking for a waterfall. We passed durian stands all along the road, usually set up by the growers of the fruit, in front of their grove of trees.

Eventually, we stopped the bikes and walked through a small durian farm . They grow up to a foot long and can weigh up to 7 pounds! We bought a whole fruit, recently picked, right there beside the Durian tree! The seller cut it up for us and put it in a styrofoam container. 

The durian that is grown here in Kampot is considered the best to be had. Some places in the states, and around the world, will have something that they are known for. Maybe a special watermelon or ice cream, or sandwich or whatever. You will pay more for it than normal, but it is just the thing you must do when in that area! It is the same with the Kampot Durian. Our medium sized durian cost almost $10 (U.S.). 

The average Cambodians here cannot afford to eat much of them. If they get them it is usually just a few pieces cut up and placed in a styrofoam container. There are cheaper versions of the durian to buy, imported from Thailand or one of the other Asian countries. They cost half as much as Kampot's durian.

The Cambodian government defines poverty as existing on less than 75 cents (U .S.) a day. So, to the locals, durians are a luxury. On the other hand, the people that do have the durian farms get very rich.
 
One farmer said he planted his durian trees in1979 and is now building a large, fancy hotel on the river bank with what he makes. This place is ideal for growing the durian because of the soil and climate here.
 
We took our durian and continued our bicycle trip through the countryside. We came to a zoo and it just seemed the right thing to do to stop and see what animals were here. The zoo was small compared to American standards but still, the monkeys and lions and camels and other animals were fun to look at. I think at one time this was a much bigger and nicer zoo. 

There are rides and other things around that look deserted now and in disrepair. One thing I have noticed while traveliong many of the SE Asia countries is the lack of maintenance. You can tell a hotel, or attraction at one time was very nice but they are just not into maintenance here . Even new places show evidence of things breaking or not working and not being repaired.

We found a spot on the ground in the zoo to sit and eat our special durian. The zoo was not crowded and had lots of open spaces meandering through the trees.

A strange fact about the durian: Some people find the odor of the durian revolting and disgusting. But, other people find the odor pleasant.

Why does it smell good to some people and horrible to other? How can this fruit smell wonderful, enticing and strong and repulsive to others at the same time? There is an explanation!  

A study of the gas chromatograph found 44 chemicals in the durian. The aroma experts examined eatch chemical and determined what smell each was creating. Some people pick up the smells from the good smelling chemicals and some people pick up the bad smelling ones.

I have never really found them repulsive like some people do . It is strong enough to some people to even cause vomiting. I guess I am lucky enough to have the 'good smelling' senses!

One more thing about the durian, it is called the 'hell and heaven' fruit. If you have the bad smell sensors and can get past the smell, the inside of the fruit is DELICIOUS!

After the zoo, we rode on down the road and eventually found the waterfall. But, being the dry season there was not much of a fall. We stayed around and napped in the hammocks and ate lunch just the same.

The main reason people travel to Kampot is because of the Bokor Mountain. It is now a national park of 1,581 square kilometers. We took a one day tour in a van to the mountain.

On top of the mountain is the abandoned French hill station. The climate on top of the moutain is always cool and there is a luscious rainforest to enjoy.

There are a lot of animals that live on the mountains, including the leopard, Indian elephant, Asian black bear, sun bear, gibbons, macaques, the slow loris and others .
 
There is an old Catholic Church on the top of the mountain that we visited. It was built by the French in the 1920's. You need to climb some steep rocky banks to get to it. The church, although abandoned, is still very interesting and the views of the countryside from it are great!

You can also walk through an old casino and hotel. It was also built by the French in the 1920's. You can go to the back of the casino and get fantastic views. Then, climb to the top and see the clouds clipping the tops of the mountains.

We arrived back in Kampot in the late afternoon and got on a boat to go down the river to see the sunset. On the way back, after dark, the boat stopped at a spot for us to watch fireflies (lightening bugs). While sitting there, Villa, my Cambodian firend, announced to the people on the boat "Next we go see the mosquitoes" The girls on board screamed, "No, we don't want to see the mosquitos." His Cambodian accent made it extra funny and everyone got a good laugh!

 I tipped our young Cambodian boat pilot as we left the boat . Tipping is not common in Cambodia, but as a foreigner I still like to do it some if the service is good. Later the next day my Cambodian friends with me told me the driver made $5 a day. They had talked among themselves on the trip in their language. All the rest of us were foreigners on the boat. If I had known how much he made in a day I would have tipped him $5 or $10 instead of the $2 I gave him. It would be so little for me but mean so much to him. A sad thing is, I was the only one on the boat that tipped him as we left. These people have so little and the foreign tourist make me ashamed sometimes with their greed in dealing with the locals.

(Take note: My following entries may be out of order as far as date wise. Sometimes I might skip ahead with an entry to keep up to date about where I am. Then, later go back and pick up on earlier entries. Time and internet connections just do not allow me to keep up to date and travel at the same time!)