Friday Fabulous Flower - Tropical fruit version

Spent an hour this morning cleaning off a large book shelf, a well built book shelf, ca. 1976.  Deciding what to discard, keep, and give away was a challenge such that the thought of drastically downsizing into a retirement flat is a horror nearly beyond comprehension. But you do find good things too, like pictures from long ago.  Here's a nice basket of tropical fruit, a gift on a trip to Thailand some 30 years ago and we still have the basket.  See if you can identify all five of the fruit.  And tell us how many you've actually eaten. Note in one case the seeds are eaten and the fruit discarded.

Erotic garden in northern Thailand

Sorry TPP missed this erotic garden on his last visit to Thailand, but it's newly opened. Not sure this is quite TPP's cup of tea, but it does have a tea house. To be sure, this is not the first place featuring numerous phalli that TPP has visited; one temple in southern India had thousands. That the owner of the garden looks like a very nice lady only demonstrates how differently different cultures perceive such imagery. In the USA you'd probably get arrested for pornography or lewdness for constructing mammaries in your garden. But were they botanically true to the theme? Will they have Amorphophallus and Phallus growing? There are other plants that might be appropriate too, e.g., Clitoria, Mammillaria. Why things may get out of hand and require some Euphoribia antisyphilletica. Here's one of the milder images for this family-oriented blog, quite an idea for a fountain really (a phallic phoutain?) but suddenly TPP feels a strong urge to urinate!  Must be the tea.  Wonder what the ladies over at Garden Rant will think of this garden design. Ladies? 

 

That's one strange Thai temple

TPP has been to Thailand several times, and in the process traveled the country from top to bottom and side to side. Somehow TPP missed (?) this temple, Wat Rong Khun, a contemporary religious study in white with some pretty strange features. It's one of those things that you simply have to say is "interesting".  Another "interesting" modern place is the aptly named Ancient City (now called Ancient Siam) outside of Bangkok, which is a huge (couple of hundred acres) outdoor museum of scale models of historic structures originally intended to be a features on a golf course. So in

this case, the "ruins" are recreations, and actually rather impressive if only to demonstrate one man's obsession with preserving historical places in replica.  Pardon the image quality; it was a very early digital camera.

Durian - Love it or leave it?

Experienced travelers in SE Asia would know what this sign means.  No Durian!  It would be displayed right outside your hotel along with similar no smoking, no pets, no solicitations, etc.  The only thing remotely close to this was seen in a classy motel in far upstate New York that had a sign in the bathroom that said: No Fish Cleaning In The Bathtub.  This is the only fruit TPP has known to ever be banned from buildings.  It's true, when ripe this hard, spiny rugby-sized fruit can smell something like an open sewer.  It isn't pleasant.  Yet in Thailand this fruit is a much beloved and favorite food that fetches a considerable price when of high quality.  Westerners usually have a very negative reaction like the weird food guy (Andrew Zimmeren) gagging on durian.  We laughed because it takes a lot to make that guy gag, but his reaction seemed extreme based on our experiences.  What you actually eat is a creamy colored, custardy textured aril that surrounds the seeds inside this very protective fruit.  The first record by a westerner of durian comes from no less than Darwin's younger counterpart, Alfred Russel Wallace, "To eat durian is a new sensation worth a voyage to the East to experience."  Now to be fair, he didn't say he liked it, although he did say it was worth the trip in a day and age when it took months, and it would be a new sensation.  Far from the love it or leave it extremes, there is a broad middle ground where TPP resides.  Both Phactors have had durian on more than one occasion, and our reaction is similar, it's nothing vile, nothing special; we ate enough to be polite.  Thai acquaintences snarfed up the rest.  It's rich, sort of creamy or soft cheesy in texture and taste, but rather bland, no tartness or normal friutiness at all.  We can't figure out the big deal Thai make of it, nor can we understand the negative reaction of so many people.  Durian ice cream is OK, the sweetening helps.  Only once in the continental USA have we found durian (frozen) for sale (Jungle Jim's, Cincinnati, Ohio); who knows how that is, but it was too expensive for a trial.  So for what it's worth, durian has been ticked off our bucket list.  If you've given it a try, tell us what you think.  Report on any other exotic plant foods too.     

Safe drinking rules

TPP has provided some rules for drinking safety before, and woe be to those who violate them.  First and foremost, don't drink anything with a funny name or funny color.  Clearly here is a case where breaking that rule had tragic consequences.  Any local hooch that includes a plant hallucinogen (and they are toxic) that is laced with DEET cannot be good for you.  Yes, you read that correctly: DEET!  Sounds pretty repellant, but in this instance the combination was apparently deadly.  Enjoy the beach, people, but stick with bottles of Singha beer.