Day 3 evening

Evening:

(4 pictures:)
The Rambutan tree is tall. The fruits grow in clusters of 30 to 50,
The Durian tree is even taller, around 60 feet tall. Here you see one with some almost ripe durians. The spikey durians are shown in the next picture, and when (somehow) opened, reveals the sweet, aromatic fruits.

Ann suggested we go for a hike after an informal dinner of leftover curry noodles. It was just a quick walk from the house up the hill to the top of the hill. The walk was not strenuous, but at least it was some exercise. After all the good food I have been eating, I think this is very necessary. As the temperature is still quite warm, even though it is around 7 PM, we were drenched with sweat. Kean Ming and Loong2 jogged over to join us when we almost reached the top. Near the top of the hill is a water tower. This must be the water supply for this housing development. Toward the right side of the road, the trees are overgrown, and needed trimming badly. Some of the branches protrude into the middle of the road and obstruct any vehicle that travels along the road. Seng said if called, the local City council will send out a work crew to cleanup and trim the trees. Ann received a few work phone calls along the way. There may have been some problems at work. She said there are minor database problems that she cannot do anything about. One call she received on the way cheered us up. A work friend who owns a durian plantation is going to come by to drop off some durians for Ann.
Around 9 PM, the friend came, and dropped off four durians. These are all good quality durians, one of which was a "red meat" durian. Seng, ever the expert, opened the prickly fruits with a chopper, and we all enjoyed the fragrant fruits.

This batch of durians were all top quality. The fruits in every compartment of the shells are of good quality: soft "pudding-like" ripe meat, fragrant, without worms which sometimes comes with the fruits, of which we will eat around if we have to, rather than throw out the fruits with the worm. Sometimes the fruits are not fully ripe, called "raw potatoes" to describe the crunch, raw potato-like quality. This would be less tasteful, unripe, and no one's favorite, but no one would throw it out, but will still eat it. The raw potatoes fruits also have no aroma, and is thus not enjoyable.


Durians have a prickly, hard outer skin. They grown on tall trees. The drop down from a height of about 40 to 60 feet when ripe. If you hae the misfortune to walk under the tree when the fruit drops, you will get to enjoy the fruit in heaven, Nowadays, the plantation owners string big nets under the trees to catch the fruits, and partly to prevent the fruits from breaking as they hit the ground, and to prevent thieves from walking off with the fruits. Behind and across from Seng's house is a fruit plantation, where there is a good crop of durians and rambutans. I took some pictures of the fruit trees in the plantation.