Tuesday, May 22, 2007

The evil that is durian

In Southeast Asia there's a famous fruit named durian. It is a large spiky fruit about the size of a football and it has a terrible smell. We had learned about it in language class, and our teacher always encouraged us to try it when we moved to Indonesia.

The afternoon after we had tried our luck at surfing, Hillary was taken off to a spa by our hostess and Hunter and I returned to their house. While we were hanging out, they offered us some fruit and they asked if we wanted to try durian. We decided that our teacher would appreciate it and it'd be a good cultural experience if we gave it a try. It tastes as bad as it smells!

We only ate a few small pieces of it, but we felt like we'd given it a fair chance. Later, Hillary came back from the spa with a few beers our hostess had bought for us. She gave one to me, which I drank before we went down for dinner. At dinner, Hillary also was talked into trying durian.

Later that night, all hell broke loose in my body. I won't get into the details, but I was incredibly sick. We assumed it must have been a bad beer or something like that the next day because no one else was sick and we'd all eaten the same food. I spent the day recovering. Two days later, Hillary went through the same thing!

We've come to the conclusion that the durian is to blame. We've read all sorts of accounts of how durian mixes with alcohol to cause a chemical reaction that makes you really sick. I got sick that first night because I had a beer after eating durian, but Hillary had her beer an hour or so before she ate durian. The night she got sick, we had gone out to dinner and had a few drinks, so it was the first alcohol she'd had since eating durian. Bottom line. It's an evil fruit!

2 comments:

Jennifer said...

Hi again!
That sounds terrible- the fruit!
I'm so sorry that happened to you both!

I amazed at how well it seems like you are doing, given all the uncertainty in your days, your schedule, your sleeping places, your money, your transportation, yeah, all that. Amazing- for real. Good going, and wow is Hillary a trooper or what?! You both are, but I always look at her pictures (she is a beauty!) and think, you know, she didn't have to be there and yet she is, and she looks so great and she doesn't even look like she's having to try real hard to fake it! Heh. No- she smiles and looks like she's enjoying herself in spite of all the unusual experiences.
You both are gaining a lifetime of memories very fast- how wonderful. What a fantastic way to begin a marriage- very cool!
Hey what can we do for you here? Can I send you some food from the states? Or some beer? Or ANYTHING?
PLEASE tell me, I want to send you something so bad! A care package from Austin- you just tell me where in the world to send it!

We miss you and think of you often!
Take special care of each other, and toast Austin when you can.

Love
Jenn

Jennifer said...

Hi again!

Ooohh that fruit looks and sounds terrible! How awful to not have known! I'm so sorry to hear about that- I'm betting it's not the last time the food over there will mess with your system, but I sure to feel sorry for you!

When you say chinese food, does that mean what we think it means? You know how different Mexican food is in Mexico from Mexican food in the states...

Oh man and what did that one masseuse DO to you?! Geez it looked like you got attacked! But you said no pain? Wow.

Bali looks so beautiful! I wanna go!

You both look just great! Surviving despite so many unknowns, and thriving despite so much uncertainty in your schedule, travel, transportation, lodging, food, WATER, language, money, and a million other things I can't even imagine!

Well we sure do enjoy the blog! And I want to know where to send you a package. PLEASE let me organize a little care package for you and Hill. I'd love to do that, really, it would do me as much good as you!

Well I'll sign off, but take special care of each other, I know you do. And remember all us little people- eh?! Nah- but do toast Austin when you can, and know we're all thinking of you and sending our best vibes for you.

Send a mailing address to our email if you can (let me know if you don't have it- it's the jennandenrique one) and a date range and I'll send you something, any special requests?

Love
Jenn