Durian in KK

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We arrived to KK (Kota Kinabalu, Borneo) and stayed for a couple of nights. It felt like we were sleeping in a parking lot though we changed hostels each night to see if another was quieter. The second night you could'nt hear the street noise but we were serenaded beneath our 3rd floor window by a local performer singing current American pop hits on an outdoor stage til around 1am. We ate at a fantastic Chinese night market the first night and Wendy got to use her Mandarin so we knew exactly what we were eating for once. Apparently there's a large Chinese population in Borneo-well Malaysia in general. In school many of them learn Malay, Chinese and English of varying degrees. At the night market, there were two big trucks loaded with durian fruit and tables set out to sit at. We decided to give durian one more try-it's hard to write off a fruit as terrible and we'd tried it 2 years ago in Thailand and it tasted like rotten socks and smelled even worse. The vendor told us to hold our noses before it got to close and it would taste better so I tried that and I admit it seemed to taste okay for an instant but then the texture was so slimey and the taste hit me. Gross! I ended up burping durian and reliving the flavor for 2 hours afterwards. We figured people preferred to sit outside and eat it rather than stink up their homes. Most hotels and restaurants wont allow you to bring in durian.

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Photos

KK
Necessary clarification at our hostel

KK
Monitor lizard on islands near KK