Durians - The King Of Fruits....

.... Some say! In South East Asia we heard of the fabled Durian, a fruit that was the most unusual, delicious, revolting and a delicacy all at the same time. We had seen Durians for sale on the side of the road in many countries, its spiky green exterior enticing passers by to purchase them and eat their fleshy fruit.

On speaking to many Malaysians, whom the majority love Durians with passion, the best description I received was that trying one is like 'eating custard in a toilet!'. But yet i was undeterred and had to try out for myself. I was convinced i would like it!

All smiles, this is before the torture began. We were amused to have found one that looked like a love heart! Foolishly, we thought that was a good sign - but little did we know what vile gastronomic terrors lay ahead.
Ps yes, those really are my biceps (Preet's) - im not just a pretty face you know!

So the quest for the elusive fruit...

So one evening with Captain Sukhdev Singhs family it was decided to eat durians as a dessert, to find the fruit we searched the deepest darkest corners of Kuala Lumpur, but alas no Durian's! On went the search, as we exited a dark alley way a lone seller sitting in a corner had a few Durians for sale, on enquiring the price we moved on as the price was deemed extortionate. We went to a spot where we would be guaranteed to find them, and find we did, so after careful selection by the captain, three were percured. They were loaded into the boot of the car, a moment later a strange smell arose, the smell was something similar to an open Drain, or as Preet mentioned, off onions. Later I nailed the smell to being like off mangoes being fried with off onions!!!

So the taste....

We just had a great dinner, so went to the garden for 'dessert'. The smell of the fruit in the garden was eye-watering, really it was that bad. The Durians were skillfully cut open with a special knife (yes, they actually have a special durian knife!) and the fleshy seed was pulled out, the feel of the fruit like holding on mushy gone off apple, but yet i persisted! The taste was revolting, much like the smell but a lot worse. My dinner nearly made a second appearance, it was that bad. But a few minutes later i thought i would try again, but on tasting and having the same gag action i gave up defeated by the king of fruits!!

The before shot...
The after shot!

I watched in horror as our host family were laughing and joking at me in pain, and gorging on the king of fruits. This was a bad, but memorable experience for me and Preet too!

The haze is not from taking a bad photo, im sure its the evil fruit spirits dancing around!

Zafar went crazy for the fruit - he loves it more than all of the family put together!

My theories on Durians...

1.God was experimenting with fruits, but on this occasion got it badly wrong, so packaged the fruit in spikes, made it look ugly to prevent man from eating it, but man invented special tools to crack the skin to get to the flesh!

2.Adam ate a Durian not the forbidden apple.

3. Hell is having to eat only Durians for eternity.

4. Durians are like eating mouldy custard in an open sewer.

5.Durians are just bad news!

So there you have it... my experience!

After seeing Gurcharan - do I reeeeally want to do this!??!!!!

I will touch it with the end of my tounge - that's as far as im going!

Penang

Speed Singh of Penang!

So after spending a few days in the capital city we decided to head out to one of the islands - Penang. We wanted to go here even before arriving in Malaysia but couldnt get any accomodation because of xmas and new year the whole of Penang was fully booked. But at the Samalan, Mr Sukhinderpal Singh came to the rescue and offered us to stay with him, so we did!

We arrived to Penang via the 8km bridge which connects the island to the mainland on new years eve, which meant that we would be lucky enough to attend the evening diwan until after 12 am into the new year.

Firstly we attend a program at the local Gurdwara with our host Mr Sukhinderpal Singh where he resites 30 pages of the Guru Granth Sahib every monday with a screen showing the text romanised, translated and in gurmukhi for sangat to follow, and follow they do.

After the program we headed to the old Gurdawara which is the oldest standing Gurdwara in Penang and possibly Malaysia, i can't remember. The Diwan was great and Kirtan was done by the local sangat in to the new year.

The next day we met Mr SS's lovely family who arrived from Ipoh- which is out of town. The kids would be our source entertainment for the next few days. While in Penang we managed to catch some of the local life in there many and ever increasing malls, and debt is a problem in Malaysia it seems with many people wanting all the latest stuff and not affording it so they buy on credit, we were treated to a fantastic meal at an indian restaurant by Mr SS, we saw the snake temple with its drugged and not so dangerous reptiles, we visited the beach and ate pronta's and drank tea curtosey of Mrs SS. We also visited the rest of Penang on the way back from the beach, which isnt difficult as its an island so you go round in a circle and end up in the same place!

The girls are adorable - they were so excited and giggly, which was quite infectious! Here Gurcharan was putting his Engineering skills to practice.

The Temple with all the drunk snakes

Overall Penang is a great place with lots of history and culture and worth a visit, but the highlight has to be our host on a bike (yes, Mr Biker Singh!) Mr Sukhinderpal Singh and family!

Kuala Lumpur II

As mentioned previously, the Malaysians are super duper nice, and that's an understatement!
We had the good fortune to stay with another fantastic bunch of people (and a dog!). Harkiren is one of my brother's good mates - she's a bright bubbly young gal who studied in London and is now back in Malaysia with a high flying job - you go girl, you! hmmmnnn...this is sounding more like an ad for the matramonials! heehee! (pssst...she is quite a catch actually!)

Anyhooo, we ended up staying a good 3 nights with her wonderful family and had an absolute blast.

Harkiren and the wonderful family...yes, including me - im the adopted one!

Meet Zafar - the durian loving dog. He is the most adorable furry thing you will find

Kuala Lumpur

Gurcharan got a tad excited when he saw this.

This update is long overdue!

After the Cameron Highlands we headed back to KL.
Accom was, as I understand it, in the heart of the city - in the Colonial District. Not far from the sizzling spice scents of Little Indian or the blazing red lanterns of China Town...er...for a country with so many Chinese, yes, they still have a China Town!

Malaysia was never on the books - so we were kinda caught out with what to do. However, we were promptly rescued by the locals! This has been our most memorable experience in Malaysia - always someone willing to help...with a smile!

On our first day, we were lucky enough to visit the Gurdwara (Petaling Jaya Gurdewara) for a wonderful kirtan programme led by the very popular Veer Manpreet Singh Ji of UK (Better known as Mr Tuhi Tuhi by the Malaysians).
Here we got to see many of the wonderful people from the Samelan again.

The Samelan Times

These mug shots should be on the most wanted poster - not in the copy of the Samelan times!!!!
Anyways, have a read.

Apparently there is a dodgy video of the two of us and the notorious Raja floating around on you tube! I dont know how to put em up so you'll have to check it out yourself!
http://snsm.org.my/samelan2007/?PHPSESSID=3b34a8c421702fbf03f60607fd85ef1f

Raja's concert was ELECTRIFYING!!!!! some seriously good stuff! So don't get bored by our interview bit - wait till the end to when the concert starts! No wonder the kids keep coming back to the camps!

This is a fantastic website put together by the media crew we met at the Samelan.
http://snsm.org.my/samelan2007/

Malaysia - The Aftermath

So after the Samalylan which was great and made some good friends, we decided that while in Malaysia we should check out what else there is on offer. Before we came to Malaysia we had trouble getting accommodation so had to cancel our original plans of going to Langkawi- which is meant to be a beach paradise, so had to change to the Cameron Highlands and Melaka.

So from the Samaylan we went to stay with Balwinder Singh and his family who kindly put us up for the night, staying with them a luxury after the hardship of staying at the Samalan's 59685098 star luxury accomodation (Really it was tough!!)! The next morning we attended the wedding of Avtar Singh's daughter, we wern't actually invited but went along for the samosa'a and ladoo's.

Balwinder SIngh Ji and lovely wife who made us some nice paronthay before our bus journey to Cameron. mmmmm they were so yummy!

After the wedding we caught a bus for the Cameron Highlands, this was going to be our chill out few days. It didnt start well.... our fellow passengers were monster ants, a noisy man on a telephone and other obnoxious people. Then , the bus broke down, twice! We had to change buses, then on nearing our destination the bus was stoppped and searched by the police and two people were arrested!!

The Hillview Lodge - a beautiful guesthouse with a beautiful view of the hills!

Cameron, what can i say, its a beautiful hilly destination which is cool, so cool that you have to keep a jumper on you. But this was a nice change to KL and Klangs heat. There was lots of opportunity for trekking and other excursions but we did little else then eat and chilllllllllllllll out! But on the last day we went for a day out visiting tea plantations, strawberry plantations and a butterfly park who's highlight was the HUGE insects!

During the colonial rule, the British established Cameron Highlands as a retreat to beat the heat of Malaysia. Hence the traditional scones and tea!

The temperatures here are ideal for growing strawberries - here I am eating a strawberry naan! as you can tell I should have stuck to strawberries with cream!

Big mother of INSECTS..

At the butterfly park there was a collection of insects, ranging from millipedes to scorpions which our guide saw it fit and quite funny for us foreigners to hold these creatures, and hold we did, the big ass mother insects, man they were huge! But quite tame, esp the scorpion who didn't, thankfully run up my arm and bite my face!

Overall we had a great time in Cameron, the 4 nights was too short- we didn't even visit the two nearby Gurdwara's.

Gurch spotted these old school motors and went a bit mad over them!

A taster.....

For the sake of the BBC (Beadhbi Baba Club), I am posting up some pics - they keep pestering me and I definitely dont want to get in their bad books - lest they curse me with their super Baba powers!

These pics are from the Gurmat Parchar Samelan 2007 held in Malaysia. We had TONS of fun, met the most WONDERFUL (and weirdest) people, learnt a whole new perspective of what the Sikh religion is all about, tasted the most scrumptious langar and showered in the most awful showers (!)

In this pic - from left to right Sant Ji, 'the UK couple', Desi BabaJi, Scotland aka Pink Panthar Ji, Smiley Baba Ji, Baa-ba Blacksheep Ji and the other guy!
Where is Hargobind, anyone seen Hargobind, one minute he's there the other minute he's gone. where is he where is he where....

Apparently, this is an impression of what was Gurcharan was doing on the beaches of Thailand while I was in London!!!!

Hippy Gurcharan being blessed by the blessed BBC!

Who's more holier than who... who is the disciple and who is the Baba...that is the question! Let the battle begin!

Malaysia - SAMELAN 2007

So, on the 16th of December we arrived from Siam Riep- Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur, and contarary to popular belief there are absolutely no, None, Koala bears here at all, trust me, i looked, all i found was furry looking Singhs, that were more like Grizzlly bears not like the cute fluffy kind found in toy shops.

On first impresions it looked like any other top notch airport, but the visa stamp was the fastest we have ever got, no funny looks, no bribery, nothing. As planned, our lift to the Samelan (sikhi camp) was waiting for us outside, once we got there we were off to Klang on the outskirts of KL and the start to an amazing week.....