Kampot Durian – Very Delicious Durian in Asia

Kampot is a province and a small town in Cambodia's far south, close to the Thai Sea and just a couple of kilometers from the Vietnamese border. It's renowned for planting black pepper, being one of the Cambodia's fortresses, and creating a great deal of durian for export to Vietnam. The city is a popular weekend getaway for expats looking to get away from the incessant traffic and heat of Phnom Penh and have an experience in nature.    

The Durian is a tropical natural product with an extremely solid smell and a very different taste, hard to describe. This organic product has hard sharp spikes on the outside, so be cautious when dealing with. At first notice the fruit is quite pungent, yet the taste is sweet. I thought of Jack-fruit when I first tasted it, however perhaps that was the color and not flavor. 

The Kampot city is marked by a tremendous durian statue amidst a traffic circle, which is really not clogged with traffic. A wide blue river meanders along one side of the city, and green mountains rise above the French influenced buildings. Many tour companies offer a wide range of activities, such as going to a pepper plantation, swimming at waterfalls, or taking a boat tour of the canals. However I am durian hunting because I like eating durian. 

The durian growing region is just 9 km on the opposite side of the river from Kampot city. Small stands dotted the road, durian hanging from yellow strings like deflated balloons, with durian trees on either side.    

The small durian orchard of only 2 hectare belonged to Mr. Seng Phearun, 52 years old, who bought the plot upon the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979. When the regime fell, Mr. Phearun acquired this land and promptly started planting durian seeds. His oldest trees are around 30 years of age now. Recently he has planted more trees, of the joined assortment. He said that people don't utilize seeds to plant durian any more. He has around 100 durian trees with bananas mixed around the property. During the dry season in Cambodia, and the soil was like cement covered by thin patches of sickly weeds and completely bare in places. The large artificial pond, burrowed 8 meters profound, was just half full, uncovering a strong mass of grayish white soil. During the monsoon in July and August, the pond loads with water and the family utilizes this water for the rest of the year for drinking, washing, and watering their trees.    

Durians are costly in Cambodia. At $5 a kilogram, a small to medium durian costs an astounding $11. Mr. Phearun's neighbor is a 60-year-old durian farmer named Chan Dara. He planted durian in 1979, and has possessed the capacity to utilize the returns from the durian to build a guesthouse and restaurant by the river in Kampot. Presently a rich businessperson, Mr. Chan Dara was busy watering his durian trees one by one with a hose.    

Kampot durian is famous for its soft flesh, deliciousness, and its sweetness. Kampot durians, which are prized on the local market and already get a higher cost than those imported from neighboring Thailand and Vietnam. In any case, there are worries among producers and the government that imported durians are being passed off as Cambodian and diluting the perceived quality of the Kampot-grown fruit.