Trip to Borneo was a success

[ben mango]

I will say musang king in Kuala Lumpur was some of th best fruit tasting of the whole
Trip. I spent 6 weeks traveling around with my gf who is also into fruits. Anyways, back to musang king. Is it really worth the price ? (Of around $12 per kilo). The answer is yes but the price is definitely high. For me, I really like arancillo in Davao and the taste is similar to musang king , bitter sweet, creamy texture. And price in peak season is only a dollar or 2 per kilo there for the best quality arancillo

We sent seeds back to Hawaii of Durio gravoelns (3 types/ orange , red and even one that was orange and yellow, , graveolens x zibethinus hybrids (2 types, one red and one orange), Durio oxylenaus , couple types of cempedak and, many dabai seed which were  my favorite new fruit for me. Some of the cempedak we ate were very rich tasting, making even a Marang seem not as flavorful, and a jackfruit boring. the cempedak would give off strong hints of butterscotch and caramel , leaving my mouth feeling coated in sugar. Many of these seed will be going into the ground soon at a friends piece of land on the hamakua coast on big island.

I recommend Borneo to any exotic fruit lover and I plant to go back again at some point to eat Durio kutejensis which we didn’t get to try on this trip. Also dabai is a really amazing fruit which I can easily eat a pound or two everyday if they are available. Yet, when it comes to getting to feast on unlimited good quality durian Davao still is top for me

[HIfarm]

Congratulations on the trip, sounds like you must have had a wonderful time!  Good to hear that you were able to collect seeds from some choice varieties.  Good luck with the APHIS folks, hopefully your seeds will breeze through & help increase our fruit diversity here in HI.

John

[Future]

Good to hear. What cities did you visit?

[Ethan]

Sounds like one heck of a time!

[Finca La Isla]

Nice trip.  What were the most rewarding locations in Borneo?
Peter

[ben mango]

Miri / graveolens were in abundance, some oxyleanus, dulcis, zibethinus x dulcis and zibethinus x graveolens hybrids were available at Emart farmers market and the daily market downtown, amazing dabai. Then we went to Kota Kinabalu where there were also a lot of wild Durios not including kutejensis, I guess we were too early for that. Great night market there every night with several fruit vendors it starts to open up around 4 or 5. There we tried tenom, Its yellow skin and reddish pink flesh. went to Kuching for a week and explored some of the markets there. Nothing very impressive found besides a 10/10 cempejak , the market in Serian an hour outside Kuching was worth the ride , where we found nice cempedak s, pedalai and more graveolens. Next time I go I would plan to go later in the season and hope to find abundance of kutejensis. Sibu would be great to visit next time too

[Coach62]

I spent 6 weeks traveling around with my gf who is also into fruits.

You might want to reword that LOL.....

Sorry, it is Friday night. 

[Finca La Isla]

Thanks a lot for the information.  There’s a lot of markets, I suppose that timing is critical and that is really the random factor with success on a project like this.
Can you drive around Brunei or is it best to fly between Sarawak and Sabah, renting a car in each to access more remote fruit growing areas and markets?
Thanks,
Peter

[Future]

Kuching for a week and explored some of the markets there. Nothing very impressive found besides a 10/10 cempejak ,

Can you explain what 10/10 means just to be sure.

Which market did you find it?

[ben mango]

we flew from city to city, rented a car for one day around Miri but did go into more rural places a couple times. The city still have a good selection of fruits.
Future, 10 out of 10, at least for me the flavor was perfect,sometimes the cempeJaks can have an off taste to it , that particular one was found at a random little market