Chanthaburi province, Thailand, situated southeast of Bangkok on the Gulf of Thailand near Cambodia, is the durian capital of the world in terms of abundance and production. Thailand grows approximately a million tons of durians annually, the most of any country, and about 57% of that comes from: Chanthaburi province. In season (peaking in April-June and several months thereafter) durians are in evidence everywhere in Chanthaburi, in open-air markets, piled high in pickup trucks, stacked in warehouses, and in food shops in various processed forms like durian chips, paste, frenchfries, and candies.

Every year in May or June, the people of Chanthaburi create a big festival celebrating and promoting and enjoying the bountiful fruit harvest (Chanthaburi also grows huge quantities of other delectable tropical fruits, including mangosteens, rambutans, salak ["snakefruit"], longkong [sweet langsat], jackfruit, mangos, banana, papayas, coconuts, sapodillas, pineapples, and more. As I've shared about elsewhere on this site and the Chanthaburi Fruit Fair site (www.masterworksunlimited.com/Thailand/fruitfair.htm), the most spectacular aspect of the festival is the parade of fruit floats, made of thousands of tropical fruits masterfully artistically designed into incredible patterns, scenes, animals, buddhas, dragons, mandalas, and structures. A beautiful young Thai beauty queen with a sunshading parasol typically rides the float, which is built upon a pickup truck way underneath, amidst all the beautiful fruitful Thai artistic splendor. If you've ever been to the Grand Palace in Bangkok, think Grand Palace on wheels, made of tropical fruits! 

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Chanthaburi Fruit Fair again in 2003 (for the fifth time)...if I'm in this part of the world this time of year, I wouldn't miss it. Ah, such durians in abundance!, and ah, such a charming country Thai town. A beautiful setting with mountains in the background, sea not far away, orchards everywhere. Almost no other Westerners in sight and the majority of people speak only Thai. The fruit float parade was wondrous as ever, see photos below. I set a new digital photo record for myself with 900+ photos taken in one day, it was a very photogenic event! A dozen of my favorites appear via the dropdown menu above. At one point I jumped into the parade and joined in dancing along the street with a group of mostly older Thai farm people who were trailing one of the fruit floats — they just loved it of course, and it was a sensation for the all-Thai crowd :-) . Lotsa exotic & beautiful fun! Just this one festival would be worth a trip to Thailand...highly recommended!

                                                                                                  —Shunyam Nirav