Some acquaintances are meant to be kept as friends. They are rare and it is wise to keep them.
In a lifetime, if you are lucky, you will only be able to meet a few that you could truly call them your brothers and sisters from different sets of parents.
***
A very Durian Excursion:
3 of us wanted to get Durians as our dinner in Kampar. Well, as a Malaysian, I'm guilty of charge for never having the experience of buying Durian. The idea of choosing Durian is like differentiating the hair style of Rosmah's before and after hair-perm. (Truth to be told, no pun intended). So, we were all set on a journey to get the best Durians we know how.
We had a brilliant plan. As the only Malaysian in the car, I was to get down to negotiate for a good price, then signal the others to get down and look at our potential dinner. The purpose of them getting down later is to hide them from view of the sellers. Well, you may accuse us of our cunning ways, but everyone knows that road side fruit-sellers are popular in proposing sky high price to anybody who couldn't speak their mother tongue. (No wonder, there ain't any price-tag stuck to the fruits!) As the only Malaysian, we were convinced that I could get cheap yet mouth-watering Durians.
Since our nose weren't sensitive enough to trace the Durian's whereabouts, we had to find the Durians stalls with our other senses such as eyes and common sense. As Reza was driving, we past the first Durian stall at the road side. 8 sellers sitting behind the pile of Durians stared at our car. Convinced that no way I could bargain for a good price against 8 brains, we continued. Then we past another stall, from afar we thought it was a Durian stall. Lo & Behold! They were selling Rambutans and smelly beans. And so, we past another one, but it was opposite our side of the road. The journey continues. We reached the tiny town, and stopped at the first Durian we set eyes on.
As our plan slowly begins to unfold, I stepped down from the tinted car and went over to the she-he who was selling. To my surprise, without any hand gloves, she hold the Durians with her bare hands and describe to me the beauty and tastiness of a potential product. She pointed at two piles of Durians,
Me: How much are these? (In broken Cantonese)
She-he: Ah, these are the good ones, I sell them here everyday, if got spoil ones, come back tomorrow, I'll be here. (In similar level of broken Cantonese too).
(Me thinking: Hm...Noticed that she avoided the discussion of $, and tomorrow this time, I will be miles away back in KL!)
Never mind. Round 2:
Me: Ooo, ok, how much is one of these? (Pointing at the nearest Durian at my feet)
She-he: These are good, they went for local Durian competitions.
(Me thinking: Huh? Competition? Is there such a thing as Durian competition?? Wow...culture shock. And me, calling myself a Malaysian)
Round 3. I pointed at another pile of Durians which closely resembled the first pile that I pointed at.
Me: What about these? Any difference?
She-he: Oh yes, those are local Durians. They don't taste as good as these.
(Me thinking: But aren't they all local Durians?)
Alas, Round 4.
Me: Ok, how much if I take 3 of these (Pointing at the nearest Durians again)
She-he: That will be about RM60+. (Smiling at me)
(Me thinking: WHAT? No way!)
Alas, Reza and Xiao Xiao sensed the urgency of their presence and pop up just in time. Still, they could not understand our conversation. In the end, after a very Durian smelling bargain, she-he agreed to sell us 5 Durians, a package of: 1 (Durian that is qualified to go for Durian competition) + 3 (Local Durians that are not qualified for competition) + 1 free Durian (local) for only RM35.
Me, making sure that she-he help us chop the head of the Durian as none of us know how to slice a dangerous looking Durian. She-he is concerned whether we could finish all the Durians, so insisted that we kept one for future meal.
We went home, wondering whether the Durians were worth the penny. On our way into Reza's house, we bumped into his neighbor. Actually, his neighbor's maid to be exact. She appears every time we go in or out from the house and each time she will be smiling at us. We thought, we should give her a Durian as a token for making the effort of smiling and welcoming us these few days. The first Durian was donated away.
After settling down, we were ready for a mouth-watering dinner! Or so we thought. To our dismay, the second Durian was a disaster! Xiao Xiao pried open and saw a worm! Me thinking, it might be her eye-sight plus a very dark porch playing tricks, so I tried to peep into the Durian. To my horror, a worm was wiggling inside. Too bad Reza's pet chickens died and left only 1 survivor that is no mood in consuming a worm. We left the 1 wormy Durian at a very far corner, and continue chopping the other three.
The third Durian was good. Left the fourth and fifth Durians. We couldn't find the openings. Unfortunately the she-he did not chop any openings on them. So begins the Durian chopping session. Reza chopped, Xiao Xiao chopped, I chopped. It took 3 people to chop open a little Durian. One of us nearly chop away our fingers, another got poke by the vicious thorns and bled, and another was busy looking for a cloth to man-handle the life-threatening Durians. It was an ugly, prickly, smelly Durian. The Durian must be wondering so too, how could 3 hungry humans be so interested with an ugly dangerous prickly fruit like itself. It is indeed a mystery to be solved.
After a tiring chopping time, we discovered we have chopped the Durian seeds into half while attempting to open it up.The last Durian was not at its prime time to be eaten. It was hard and not smelly enough. Overall, it took us more than 1 hour to finish our dealings with the Durians. The hard-core Durians live up to their title as Kings of all fruits. Smelly and ugly. Yet tasty...
Our Durian excursion has ended. Or so we thought. Again.The now dead Durians shell was as hard to clean up as the live ones. We couldn't get a plastic bag big enough to fit them all, and 3 of us again tried to squeeze them into 2 narrow bags. It poked us badly. And at last, they went into the bin that were fated to be their coffins!
I believed through the very Durian excursion, 3 Durian musketeers were made in the process. We shall be more experience in future Durian affairs.
