Durian - My New Love

Money in hand and eyes on the prize.

Some time ago I wrote about "firsts" and how they come less and less frequently as you grow older. Food offers lots of opportunities for firsts because there are so many freaking cuisines prepared around this world. Take out the preparation part, though, and food in its natural state is much more limited in scope. If you then subtract the animal kingdom - things like fried tarantulas, dog, beating snake heart, monkey brains, etc. - you're limited to grains, leaves, fruit or any other edible parts of plants. You can sample many of hundreds of kinds of mango, for instance, but even if they vary wildly in quality and character, they're still mangos. Discovering truly new and interesting food as a vegetarian isn't easy.

Negotiating for a Little Globe of Heaven

About eight months ago, when we were first in Cambodia, we tried, just for the heck of it, the fruit called durian. I'd heard about durian for at least twenty years. I say "just for the heck of it" because the first thing people remark upon when describing the fruit is the smell. It was supposed to be a sulfury, sweet aroma that many people find unpleasant. Many places, notoriously Singapore, don't allow Durian on buses, trains or in many public places simply because of its aroma.

Recently, Tami and I were told by staff and other passengers on a bus to stop eating the durian we'd brought along for the ride. Novice mistake. Once you taste it, though, and especially if you fall for it the way we have, you'll understand how we might have wanted to take it everywhere.

People get obsessed about durian. When we first arrived in Bangkok, there were two Australians going on and on . . . and on, sheesh . . . about durian. They'd just arrived and couldn't wait to find some to eat. I thought the woman was going to break into an erotic dance just talking about it. It was weird. The guy said he'd sometimes eat two a day when he had access to them.

That kind of behavior is not uncommon. Check out this guy's website: Durian Palace There are lots of sites out there like this.

Now, after getting familar with the fruit, I have repented and can understand why. I didn't even know something with such a complex and powerful flavor existed in an uprocessed state in nature. Like many new and challenging experiences, when we first tried it I wasn't sure I liked it. It's like the first time you try blue cheese or a single malt Scotch or the first time you heard Kid A by Radiohead. You weren't sure what to expect but what you got was like nothing you'd ever had.

For reasons we have yet to fully discern, durian seems to stir a certain kind of sinful indulgence. Vendors set up on roadsides and sell almost exclusively at night - often late into it when most all other vendors close. It isn't so cheap, either. We typically pay between 25 and 40 Thai Baht for a kilo - about a US buck a pound - but more than half the weight is waste. At the above stand, I met three women who had driven AN HOUR to get a rare variety of durian. Apparently it was pretty special. It cost 280 Baht a kilo - stratospheric in these parts!

We first sampled it a couple times in shakes. I'd walk along afterward thinking, "That was different. But, do I like it?" I'd wake up the a day or two later wanting to try it one more time just to see. Curiosity got the best of us and we bought our first whole fruit. Our room was filled with the sweet, fecund aroma. We cut into it and, for the next hour, tasted and mused on what other foods compared to it and what other foods it might combine with it to make new recipies. We thought about naming a restaurant after it and using a sillouhette of the fruit as the logo. We'd have durian dishes never seen before on the menu.

The fruit itself? The outside rind is covered in tough, sharp spines. Cutting into them is a craft in itself. The fruit's texture is kind of like an avocado crossed with a soft artichoke heart. It has a butterscotch flavor (especially when it's more ripe), some vanilla, some kind of subtle nut and (here's the part that most people would get sqeamish about, but it's the best reference I have) liverwurst. I know . . . . it sounds crazy but somehow it works. I am officially obsessed. It's hard to imagine not having access to this food once we leave. As I understand it, the US doesn't allow import of durian unless it's been frozen - and subsequently, completely ruined. I don't know, if it weren't for the fact that I want to go home to see my mother, we'd buy a house here and open a restaurant called Durian.

Only In America.....(unless you're not there)

Celebrating Burning Man 2007 at Si Satchanalai, Thailand


For the ten years prior to coming on this journey, the end of every August found me making my way out to the Black Rock Desert ninety miles northeast of Reno, Nevada to participate in Burning Man. I never really had a doubt that the gathering was special. I'd never come across an event where so many people chose willingly to subject themselves to so much. If you want to attend, you face inclement weather, hard work, lack of sleep, usually significant out of pocket expenses among other discomforts.

Burning Man might not be for everyone, but it's come to be the social center of gravity for me and many of my best friends in San Francisco and further afield. Now, after being a spectator of two "Burns" from outside the United States, I see Burning Man in a context I couldn't have appreciated before - and I can see, more clearly than ever, how unique it is and how lucky are the folks who attend. There simply is nothing like it going on anywhere else.

Tami and the Man, flanked by two Buddhas

The obvious distinguishing factor is that the large majority of the people on this planet simply don't have the discretionary wealth to spend on something like Burning Man. If you've attended, you know how much it can cost. When you're out there, you can see how much infrastructure and how much material and labor go into the art, to setting up the city and the large camps. The RV's many people drive to the Playa are far more luxurious and spacious than many family "homes" on this planet. What many camping Burners think of as adventurous outdoor survival for their week in the desert would be normal living conditions for hundreds of millions of people. How about time off from work? A majority of people on this planet don't have firsthand experience of what vacation time is, either. "A week in the desert to dance round the clock and look at art? Right..."

Ariel View of Black Rock City (Eric Bong - 2004)

In addition to all the time we've spent in "developing" countries, we've also met a great number of traveling Europeans, Australians, Japanese and other people from industrialized countries. They have the wealth but they don't have anything like Burning Man happening. I'm not sure why. Few countries have the open space; especially publicly-owned open space the use of which is codified in law.

One disquieting difference we've noticed is that many countries don't allow their citizens the freedom to even conceive of such a collective, participatory and counter-cultural freak show. I put special emphasis on freedom. I bash the politics and governance of the US a lot but, the Patriot Act and the other encroachments foisted on us since 9/11 notwithstanding, Americans have been endowed with civil rights that are still the envy of many people on this planet. Go to a country like Laos or China and try to pull off a Burning Man event. The authorities would, without accountability to anyone but themselves say, "Ummm, I don't think so." And that would be the end of the discussion. If it wasn't people would get hurt.

The "Belgian Waffle" (Nightshade 2006)

From afar, I also have come to recognize that Burning Man owes a specific debt to the colorful history of northern California and maybe San Francisco, in particular. Starting with some curious explorers (Sir Frances Drake comes to mind) and loads of fortune seekers, a lot of freaks have settled there over the years. Northern California has long been a haven for those who stand out because they look, think or behave differently. Extend that propensity for oddity out to an extreme and you can see something like Burning Man taking root.

We've covered a lot of miles and spent almost two full years in lands that fly many flags. Apart from maybe the citizens of India, I think if you dropped a typical person from most any country down in the middle of Black Rock City, they'd honestly think they were on another planet and have a breakdown

Of course until the nearest well-mannered Burners took them under their wing and helped them get sorted out. :)

Anyway, the whys and wherefores matter little. Burning Man happens. That it does is something anyone who's come to appreciate it should cherish. People do join in from all over the world. With luck, the whole lovely experiment will grow and spread.

Preah Vihear

Every once in a while we have a day or two where I'm reminded exactly why we came out into the World. When you've been travelling as long as we have, it's easy to fall into a routine of just 'living' on the road. You move from one town to another; find a decent guest house, suss out the markets, find out who sells the strong coffee and cold beer, see the sights. More often than not, the sights don't amount to much more than a town going about its daily life. Luckily, that can be plenty interesting.

If you're really lucky, those routine times get punctuated by experiences that stand in such dramatic contrast that you feel like you just stepped off the plane. Did I say strong coffee? Some places can make you feel like you just poked your head out of the womb or you're at your first day on campus. Preah Vihear - a temple/palace complex on the Thailand/Cambodia border is one of those places. We'd heard about it and had it on our list but, because it's difficult to access, we weren't sure when we'd be able to visit.

Fate had it that we recently had to cross over into the Isan peninsula of Thailand. This was as close as we needed to get. We aimed for Si Saket, the town that is the traditional jumping off point to visit Preah Vihear from the Thai side. Even though PV is in Cambodia, it takes a couple rough days of dirt-track travel to reach it from there.

From 950-1150 AD, a series a Khmer kings began and finished a temple on the peak of a sloping mountain 2000 ft. higher than the surrounding plains.

Looking Southeast

Looking Southwest

One the the first impressions you get as you climb into the ruins is how much power and wealth the Khmers must have had. Monuments like this certainly display a certain long-term vision. Ten centuries after it was built, people still come to marvel and draw inspiration. Makes me wonder what we'll leave for people living a thousand years from now.

Ruins are fun for planying on....even for kids.

Thousand year-old portico

Monk Invasion

You also can't help but see that the builders appreciated a good view. You'd have a hard time finding a better place. It's like looking out over an ocean but it's all jungle.

Fine and lasting craft.

These kids brought great life to the ruins.

Girl and heavenly door



















Proud Cambodian

Blocks get eternally comfortable with the trees

Side Trip in Ten Photos

After crossing into Vietnam from China, Tami and I hunkered down in Hanoi. The city has a lot of character but it's one intense place. After three weeks we decided to take a break and go down to the ocean to a place called Ha Long Bay. It's famous for these limestone karsts studding the coast. We ended up spending two weeks bouncing around a few locations. It was breathtaking.

View of Hon Gai from a Karst on the edge of the bay. We climbed up here twice, spent at least three hours and saw no one. Notice Tami down to the left with her hands up.

Ultra-modern bridge spanning a smaller bay between Bai Chay and Hon Gai.

Father of a family we spent time with in Hong Gai. They have a view to die for.

The boat out of Hon Gai to Quan Lan Island. Hello Ha Long Bay.

One of the beaches on Quan Lan. We pretty much had them to ourselves like this. Gulp...

Tami (if you close) over Bai Tu Long Bay.

Cai Rong pier from a karst in Bai Tu Long Bay.

Rolling down the pier to ice the fish.

One part of view from our hotel room when we returned to Hong Gai.

Drying sea stars in Hong Gai.

We're still in Vietnam - mid-way down the coast in Hue. For our latest photos you can click here: LINK http://destinationasia.myphotoalbum.com/view_album.php?set_albumName=album46

Venal - adj. 1. willing to sell one's influence, esp. in return for a bribe; open to bribery; mercenary: a venal judge. 2. able to be purchased, as by a bribe: venal acquittals.
adj. 3. Capable of betraying honor, duty, or scruples for a price; corruptible.
4. Marked by corrupt dealings, especially bribery: a venal administration.

Duplicity – noun 1. deceitfulness in speech or conduct; speaking or acting in two different ways concerning the same matter with intent to deceive; double-dealing.

I just got back to Internet land and read that Lewis Libby will walk. Yeah, George Bush merely commuted the sentence, but that removes the only part of the penalty that would really sting. Call me naive but I simply can't believe the audacity. They are essentially letting a man off the hook who, as found by a jury and sentenced by a conservative judge (a judge appointed by Bush himself), was guilty of obstructing justice in a matter of national security. Bush based a big part of his platform on protecting American citizens from anyone who'd compromise that security. He made his name, in large part, as a tough-on-crime guy. "George W. Bush during his six years as governor of Texas presided over 152 executions, more than any other governor in the recent history of the United States." His administration has renditioned people off the streets of foreign countries. They're tapping the phones and reading the mail and e-mails of American citizens.

Now, Libby walks. I can only imagine Dick Cheney and Karl Rove were sitting there saying, "George has said so many unbelievable things maybe this one will fade into memory just like everything else."

Fool - noun 1. a silly or stupid person; a person who lacks judgment or sense. 2. a professional jester, formerly kept by a person of royal or noble rank for amusement: the court fool. 3. a person who has been tricked or deceived into appearing or acting silly or stupid: to make a fool of someone.

Bye Bye China

Four days ago we rode a train then a tuk-tuk (a scooter converted into a mini taxi) to the border of China and Vietnam. In many ways, I was sad to leave. In one very important and overriding way, I was happy - happy to have discovered the country when and how we did. China has been the unparalleled pleasant surprise of this trip. Admittedly, I entered with only the vaguest notions of what was in store. Due to such vacancy, China had only its immediate predecessors to live up to. Being that the most recent of those had been the decidedly inhospitable Laos, the ground was fertile for an upside surprise.

Boom truck, decorative rocks and billboard outside Dali

China's natural beauty, comparative tidiness, ambition & industry but most of all her people, coalesced into an unfailingly pleasant place in which to spend time. Again, our visit here has to be qualified by the caveat that we visited only three provinces quite far from the political and population centers. Nevertheless, if New Mexico, Washington State or Missouri can be said to typify at least a few things American, our travels had to have touched on some of what is China in 2007.

Neon sign that covered the entire side of a building in Kunming. Check out the small blue symbol of an atom on top.

And if a country can have a collective mood, it's really 1960 for the people of the 'Middle Kingdom'. China is ebullient, genial and above all else, welcoming. For many Chinese, things are looking up for the first time in their lives. Kids are all going to school. People are (again...for better or worse for the planet) are buying things they could never buy before. Chinese are traveling in their own country, a place of which they are very proud. Folks are out trying to make money in all kinds of ways - and, from what we saw, there is money to be made....even if some of the ways are entry-level.
Tami and our bikes on a bamboo ferry - Cost for two: about a buck.

One-girl band at a big, outdoor night market in Yangshuo.

Very, very nasty looking truncheon carried by men guarding an armored truck. There were NO smiles when I took photos.

For those such as the Tibetans, Uighur or any other ethnic minorities out of favor with the ruling Hans, the same cannot be said. We didn't see any repression or talk to anyone who had but that might have been due to the language barriers and the short length of our stay. We certainly read enough about cultural hegemony, restrictions on freedom of speech, punitive economic treatment, among other curtailments of rights. I suspect plenty of that does go on. It just was not apparent. Some residents of New Orleans, former and present, might say something similar about their plight.


Post-Katrina New Orleans


Before leaving, we'd spent the prior few weeks cruising around areas that are, for the most part, barely touristed by non-Chinese. It's a bit of a mystery to me why hordes of Western travelers set their sights on the countries of Southeast Asia when China, just to the north, offers such an interesting and fun array of possibilities. Even more, China ain't gonna stay like it is for long. I know I've said it before but, from when we arrived to our last minutes in the country, you can see evidence of the gargantuan energy going into modernizing the country.

For my money, most of that modernization is a tragedy because what China is losing is rare and becoming harder and harder to find.

One-man sawmill carving a beam from a tree for a traditional style bridge. Check out that pipe.

So, that's it for China. If we're lucky, we'll be back. If you're lucky, you'll go.

Artful Farming

Since we've left home, we've spent time in chili pepper plots that filled the shallow valleys of southern New Mexico; cotton fields of west Texas that were plowed so close to the dirt roads that there was no shoulder or ditch, tulip fields laid out in Holland that looked like a Mondrian canvas - only brighter; fragile, high-mountain fields of barley and buckwheat in the Himalayas that (and this is a fact) will not exist in twenty years because the glaciers that supply the water for irrigation will be melted; super-verdant planes of rice that stretched to the horizon in the Mekong delta where conditions are so fertile they can plant and harvest three crops in a single year. There were others but, for sheer, fully-realized beauty, none hold a candle to what we hiked through in Guizhou Province.

Wandering around the developing world, you come to the undeniable realization that most of the world's population is still involved with farming. In the US, something like 40% of our population still farmed as recently as the early 1900's. Now, the number is closer to 2.5%. Not so in almost all the countries we've visited. During planting or harvest, fields are CRAWLING with PEOPLE digging or cutting or threshing or carrying or plowing.

In the hills of southern China, for example, they don't even use gas powered roto-tillers. Almost all the farmers still plow with Oxen and hand-made, wooden, single-bottomed plows. We even saw one guy pulling a plow himself while his wife steered it. If you think you have any idea what hard work is, try doing that. I will forever remain humbled.

Imagine if this were your office.

They work hard but, wow, what beautiful plots they tend. We traveled around this area for a few weeks. I haven't felt so at peace since we were isolated on an island in Thailand or high in the Himalayas of Nepal. I have no idea how long areas like this will remain. China is undergoing such huge and sweeping changes right now. The largest migration in human history started some twenty years ago and is accelerating each year. Rural, farming Chinese are flocking to the cities for higher paying work. The trade-offs don't make the choice look simple.

Like farming a skyscraper

Chance Meeting in South China

Travelin' Tish Hendershot and Tami Quest

I think we have a new category in our "heroes" gallery.

Perhaps it had to happen eventually. If you're out here on the road long enough, you start bumping into other travelers who you've met one, two or three countries prior. It doesn't occur often but we've met familiar backpacker types in back alley eateries or sitting at the other end of a restaurant full of people - sometimes months and months after last seeing them. Maybe your eyes develop a latent sensitivity to picking the known from masses of unfamiliar faces teeming the cities and streets of Asia.

That might help explain my reaction a few nights back while Tami and I were eating dinner on a side street in Yangshuo, a tourist destination in Guanxi Province. It was a Saturday night and the street outside had a steady stream of strollers like the midway at a fair. Suddenly, a profile and walk looked distantly familiar. Without even thinking, I got up, ran around the corner and tentatively uttered the name of the person I thought it was - "Tish?" She turned around with an "I've just seen a ghost" look but we knew right away we'd just made a very, very....very low-probability connection.

For the first few minutes I think we were all too stunned to say much. After we came back down to earth, we realized that Tish had some time, we had some time and so, we spent the next four days doing a bike tour around some of the most sublimely beautiful country on this planet.

Back to front: David, Tamara, Tami, Tish, Sarah

I've known Tish from San Francisco for quite a few years now. Her work takes her all over the world but I was still stunned to meet up with her unexpectedly. As a further note of coincidence, a few years ago, Tish bumped into Captain Ken on a street in Bangkok - the same Captain Ken who just visited us! Tish and Ken get around.

She was in Yangshuo because she'd just finished a project up in Beijing and Shanghai. She came south with some friends and we all rode to Fuli town the next day to a market.

Man at the Fuli Market selling all manner of creepy crawlies that bit stung and otherwise apparently work wonders when rendered in rice whiskey for you to drink or rub on that aching joint. The original snake oil? Note the elderly patrons to his left.

The day after, we headed north into the countryside with the town of Xiping as our destination. No decent maps were available so we set off with a hand-rendered tourist diagram and asked farmers along the way for guidance. What we thought would be easy to reach in a day proved utterly elusive with only an hour or so of light left. We covered a lot of ground but we had yet to cross (or find a ferry to take us across) the Li River. Plus, every time we asked people which direction to Xiping, they invariably got agitated and launched into an indecipherable monologue in Chinese.

David practices some circus moves during recess.

Luck was with us, though. As we entered a small village, two people were motioning animatedly for us to go just up the hill to . . . what looked like a small guesthouse. Low and behold, after riding for seven and a half hours through nothing but seventeenth century farmland, we'd found refuge. The proprietor, Zhao Qiao Young, could not have been happier to see us nor more hospitable. He loaded his refrigerator with coveted beers and we settled into a long spell of relaxation.



Things at Camp Zhao were so comfy, in fact, that we stayed for a full extra day just to explore and soak up the beauty of the area.

Tami, Mr. Zhao and Tish above the Li River

We finally did make it to Xiping - two days later than planned but I remember no one complaining. Tish departed north and Tami and I, as our visa was running out, made for the Vietnamese border. If life's best pleasures are those that come unexpected, Tish helped make our already wonderful time in China that much more magical.

Ron Paul

I've been reading speeches by this guy for a couple years. He makes more sense than any politician I've heard in a long time. I can't believe the system actually allowed him to get elected in the first place. Let's see how the other Republicans try to take him out of the race.

Here's what he had to say about patriotism a few days ago before Congress:

The true patriot is motivated by a sense of responsibility and out of self-interest for himself, his family, and the future of his country to resist government abuse of power. He rejects the notion that patriotism means obedience to the state. Resistance need not be violent, but the civil disobedience that might be required involves confrontation with the state and invites possible imprisonment. Peaceful, nonviolent revolutions against tyranny have been every bit as successful as those involving military confrontation. Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., achieved great political successes by practicing nonviolence, and yet they suffered physically at the hands of the state. But whether the resistance against government tyrants is nonviolent or physically violent, the effort to overthrow state oppression qualifies as true patriotism. True patriotism today has gotten a bad name, at least from the government and the press. Those who now challenge the unconstitutional methods of imposing an income tax on us, or force us to use a monetary system designed to serve the rich at the expense of the poor are routinely condemned. These American patriots are sadly looked down upon by many. They are never praised as champions of liberty as Gandhi and Martin Luther King have been.

Full text of speech is here:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul388.html

His campaign website:

http://www.ronpaul2008.com/

China Consumes

A shot of China Consumes Association's TV show "Consume Times"

If you haven't been reading the financial press for the last decade or so, China's economy is a mega-beast poised to gobble down, process and spit back out a tsunami of consumer and industrial goods like the world has never seen. I can vouch for their appetite to shop. Those with the means have what seems like an undending supply of stores in which to blow time and money. Now and again, due to equipment wearing out, I've had to dive in myself.

Before some recent hiking, I needed to find a pair of trailworthy shoes. In the country that supplies the bulk of the world's footwear, you'd think finding shoes wouldn't be a problem. Not so. Many of you have heard such tales before but I was astounded to find out how difficult it is to get shoes big enough for Caucasian feet. I wasn't in a huge hurry but, over the course of a couple weeks, I must have asked at well over a hundred stores. The best any of them could come up with were high-top basketball shoes.








A world-class star for some world-class consumers












Old Yao has had quite an impact here but it didn't do me any good. Luckily I found a store in Kunming selling top-of-the-line hiking shoes at a third the cost I'd have paid at home. Had my feet been two sizes smaller, I'd have had an infinite supply. Also in Kunming, we went to what only can be described as malls - of just athletic shoes. All the big cities have shopping like this. Multi-storey buildings specializing in shoes or women's accessories or whatever. My sister would love it here.

The Chinese middle class is estimated to be around 300 million people strong currently and growing fast. The buying power of each of those is something like one fourth to one third of that of a typical American consumer. The thing that frightens me most is how the whole tendency to consume is accelerating. We've only spent a couple months here but you can get an idea of the growth continuum from snapshots by visiting different places.

China still has plenty of poverty. We've spent a lot of time in villages and the people there buy nothing more than the absolute essentials - things like farm tools, rice, sandals, etc. In bigger towns you start to see cell phone stores and motor cycle dealers. The big cities are as I described above - they have it all and all you want of it. Keep in mind, we've only been visiting the southwestern hinterlands of the country. The real wealth and buying power is concentrated in the east. What I've heard about those areas sounds like a consumerist's shangri-la. All I can say, is look out Planet Earth.