Watch Out For Falling Stinky Fruit

In the Meleka Palace Hotel in Kuching there was a sign above the elevator, warning that 'no durian fruits were allowed on the premises.' I read the local paper today to discover a photo of a man wearing a motorcycle helmet, holding one of these famously stinky, spiky fruits. Durian, I was told by a Malaysian woman, is the symbolic food here, beloved by nearly everyone.

The Straits Times story told of the problem in the jungle--there are so many durians falling out of the trees that they risk being bonked on the head by this King of Fruits, which fall from between 40 and 80 meters high. It's a bumper crop, pounding down on their unsuspecting heads, so helmets are required when anywhere near the durian orchard.

The trees yield bumper crops like this every five years or so, and each giant spiky stinky one goes for about 5 ringet per kilo.

In other local news, the state oil company, Petronas has boosted its yearly payment to the government to a health 6 billion ringet, after windfall profits due to high oil and gas prices. Now you know why the people are protesting prices, since they could have just lowered the prices instead.