Soaring mountains, sandy/pebbled banks, lush vegetation of the rain forests and the crystal clear water liberates the spirit; and not to mention that the delicious durians we found floating on the river feeds the soul and stomach as well!

Wished you were here! Unless of course you don't like durians!

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We tend to bitch complain when we have to do chores or run errands that entail physical activities that make us sweat easily in the hot and humid tropical Malaysian climate.

But take a look at these women villagers at Borneo Highlands and the burden(s) that they carry on a daily basis and see if you still want to complain the next time you have to pick up something heavier than your office briefcase or a stack of files.

By the way, besides being a considerate road user, I had more than a passing interest in their welfare and a compulsion to take photographs; I was actually hoping that they had some durians for sale!

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Durians are digital because there is no in between – you either love 'em or hate 'em! It’s on or off; or one or zero. You cannot sit on a fence on this one as the thorns of the durians are too prickly for that!

So it was 'judgement day' on Sunday morning that Stephanie and Charlotte from the UK tried this ‘dreaded’ king of fruit from hell or heaven depending on your leaning. For Nick, it was a no-brainer as he absolutely loves this fruit and was on the lookout for them upon learning from me that we could pick them up from the river; and much to his delight and joy he did!

Back to Stephanie and Charlotte; who both tried durian for the first time and Charlotte was absolutely disgusted to put it mildly while Stephanie was an instant convert!

To some durian lovers, eating this rich and intoxicating flesh is almost akin to sex! I absolutely love durians but I wouldn’t go as far as this lah! Less I'll be denied this pleasure of the flesh!

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I received this email a while ago on the danger of using disposable chopsticks which could be just another one those unsubstantiated health warnings. However what could be substantiated is this lone 'chopstick' tree we found along Sungai Sarawak Kiri at Borneo Highlands. Perhaps the crown could have burned after being struck by lightning or more likely the leaves caught fire in the process of the burning off of the surrounding vegetation in clearing the land for farming. Perhaps Professor Jackson Mathis can verify this!

DONT USE DISPOSABLE CHOPSTICKS

This is a true case, if you don't believe try the following test:

Soak a pair of disposable chopsticks (usually given to you when you buy pack food from a Chinese take-away) for between 3 to 5 minutes inside hot boiling water. Within minutes and right infront of your eyes, you will notice that some white colouring matter seems to be dissolved into the hot water from the chopsticks. What is released from the chopsticks is actually a chemical, a bleaching agent.

In a campaign promoting healthy care in Singapore recently, Professor Jackson Mathis reminds people not to use disposable chopsticks, as almost the majority of them are made in or imported from China. He explained that during the manufacturing process of disposable chop-sticks before the actual production itself, all raw materials are already cover-grown with germs that make the wood materialslook like they are coated in multiple colours or are covered with poisonous fungus.

The first process itself is already frightening as the manufacturer starts the process by soaking up the wooden raw materials inside a very big container that is filled with a very toxic and highly poisonous chemical. This chemical is intentionally added in inorder to preserve the materials. After a few days of soaking, they are then washed with an even worse cleaning agent, in this case it is a bleaching agent (which chemical ph level is believe to be more Than a thousand times over the general permissible/acceptable international standards). And guess what? these chemicals itself is likely to cause greater harm to our health (if we continue consuming such chemicals into our body on a daily basis) not forgetting that since these chemicals used are usually carcinogenic in nature, they arelikely to cause cancer.

Since his last visit to a disposable chopsticks manufacturing plant in China 5 years ago, Professor Jackson Mathis has immediately stop using such disposable chopsticks anymore. In Professor Jackson case, just incase if he ever forgets to bring along his own pair of chopsticks for lunch or dinner, he usually make sure that he do not forget to put on pair of it inside his bag since it can be re-use again and again. Professor Jackson Mathis said: "If you have been using disposable chopsticks in the past, and you insist on continue using them again, please pause and think for a moment. Why is cancer spreading like wild fire these days throughout the world affecting all sorts of people. After that think of how many pairs of disposable chopsticks a factory in China is producing by the minute. The answer itself is right here !"

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You have seen pink bananas here but have you ever heard of or seen red durians? Not me until today when Selba, who in keeping with the 'practice' of email forwarders, emailed me this photograph of red durians apparently from Sabah, without any other information.

I trust that they are edible unlike the pink bananas as I can imagine that they are akin to fine red wine! Bon aperitif!

Yes they are from Sabah and they are edible as I found out from here:- "The ‘king of fruits’, the durian, flourishes in Sabah, which has 15 wild varieties. One unique variety has red flesh, and lacks the distinctive fragrance of the durian. This red durian is – sacrilege to durian lovers elsewhere- fried with onions and chilli and served as a side dish or sambal."

Labels: Durians

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If there is any silver lining to the hot weather, it has to be durians which ripen best in the hot and dry weather. And as luck would have it, there are durians trees a plenty lining both banks of the river where I normally bring guests to kayak on the weekends. Because some of the trees are right next to the river, so when the durians fall when they ripen, they fall right into the river and luckily they float! And they are there for your picking when they drift to the river banks.

If you’re not feeling lucky; where we put it at Bengoh, there are always villagers coming out of the jungles with sack loads of durians that you can buy from. We bought one sack full of durians containing 8 large durians for RM40/- last Sunday. We normally do not like to bargain with these honest folks for their time and labour in collecting the durians from the jungles.

Also on the river trip we normally take a break at Danu, a bidayuh village where we have another chance to purchase durians if we didn’t buy or had not found any along the way. In the worst case scenario we are also sometimes able to buy them at the take-out at Kg Semadang before we head home.

So that's how we get durians when we go kayaking and this is just the beginning of the durians season in Kuching; so durians kayaking anyone?

Labels: Durians

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To me what sets Kuching apart from the other towns and cities in Malaysia and the region is the main river, Sungai Sarawak, that flows through and the primary reason for its early settlement; and the architecture of the charming old buildings. A perfect illustration of this is the view from the 12^th floor lounge of Kuching Hilton which is one of the most satisfying places to enjoy the sunset and views over old Kuching town.

I happened to be there early this month to meet someone and took the opportunity to take some photographs in the hazy lights where I had similarly been charmed to do so on other previous occasions. I'm borned in Kuching and chose to come back to live here after working and living in various countries in the region. I connect with this place; especially the rivers.

But it is of some concern to note that this idyllic and picturesque view is sometimes marred by the jarring sights of mindless jet skiers who sped down the river without any regards to the other ferry users of the river and the pace and flow of the river. They can and should be banned as the noises, pollution and wakes they generated does nothing but spoil the ambience of the river scene. However what cannot be banned and of even greater concern is the scale of the upcoming D.U.N. building across the river whose massing would make a mockery of the sensible and sensitive roofs skyline of the historic old shophouses and the other similar charming old colonial buildings and especially the adjacent historic Fort Margherita which would be completely dwarfed.

Enjoy these unadulterated views before the heart and soul of the old town is changed forever by the intrusion of new development we strangely termed as ‘progress’. I for one am for change if it’s for the better but certain thing are pricelessly timeless and the least we can do is to be good guardians of them for future generations to enjoy. Is that too much or too late to ask?

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