Durian Stories from Nirav 2001 (1)

Aloha!

Welcome to Durian Stories from Nirav 2001! In May-June 2001 I was fortunate to experience six weeks of adventuring in southeast Asia and vicinity that was so overflowing with amazing experiences, spectacular sights, and colossal beauty that I've been moved, touched, and inspired to share it here online with you!

Nirav @ the Rayong Fruit Festival, Thailand 5 May 2001

In early 1999 I posted online what was originally an illustrated HTML e-mail to my sister June (later adapted to the Web for other friends and relatives) sharing about my adventures here in Thailand related to the glorious King of Fruits, the most delicious food on earth, the Durian. It was called Durian Stories from Nirav, and has since been enjoyed by many more than just my immediate friends and relatives. (It's still online, at
http://members.aol.com/nirav3463/durianstories.htm)
Much of it became the current Festivals page in this Durian Palace website, where can be found stories and photos of my first visit to the extraordinary annual tropical fruit fairs in the eastern Thailand provinces of Rayong and Chanthaburi. If you're not acquainted with the passionately praised or reviled durian fruit, by all means explore around here in Durian Palace, which has become the biggest durian site on the Web!

In 2000 I was able to return for the annual fairs, I missed the Rayong fair but made it to Chanthaburi, the Durian Capital of the World, for their entire week-long festival, especially the spectacular opening day parade with its incredible floats traditionally artistically decorated with thousands of tropical fruits (and vegetables too). Truly epic and awesome community folk art!

If you haven't already, feast your eyes on the
Chanthaburi Fruit Fair 2000 Photogallery, at
http://www.masterworksunlimited.com/Thailand/fruitfair.htm!

In 2001 I again returned to eastern Thailand in festival season, and was accompanied this time by beloved Vistara from Australia; organic fruit-farmer friend Oscar from Hawaii (of Fruit Lover's Nursery and www.fruitlovers.com); and Oscar's gracious Thai friend, partner, translator, and guide Kamchai,

Vistara
(with a joyful radiance)
.

Oscar
(with a large jackfruit)
.

Kamchai
(with "Siamese Chips" [yummy fried durian chips])
.

We adventured through the wondrous, spectacular, beautiful tropical fruit festivals, parades and markets in Rayong and Chanthaburi, the durian mecca (yumyumyum) ...

Farmers' Durian Competition, Chanthaburi
.

a most extraordinary durianhead rabbit with eggplant ears,
surrounded by green and red rambutans, leaves carved of watermelon rinds,
braided cords of very long oriental green beans,
and corn and pineapple at the top!
(close-up of one corner of a parade float in Chanthaburi)
.

typical fruit market in Chanthaburi
.

...visited some of Thailand's most spectacular buddhist temple complexes — peaceful meditative oases splendorous with beautiful masterful art and sculpture and the grace of Gautam Buddha:

(one of the sacred temples in the Grand Palace complex, Bangkok)
.

... hung out up close with a lot of friendly elephants and a tiger too at the stupendous botanical and zoological gardens of Nong Nooch in Chonburi province

.
... wandered awestruck through the grand ruins of Ayutthaya, the glorious masterpiece capital of Siam for 500 years until destroyed by the Burmese 235 years ago (and still spectacular even in ruins).

...and more!

Having a digital camera has totally transformed photography for me! There is essentially no further cost to take hundreds or thousands of digital photos. There is no cost for film or developing. There is no more sending film to be developed and picking it up. There are remarkable inexpensive software tools with which you can do amazing artful things with the digital images produced by the camera! (like this website! :-) )

Nirav with Casio QX-2000UX
at Wat Khao Sukim hall of buddhas, Chanthaburi province

So in the process of taking literally thousands of digital photos in southeast Asia and Hawaii the past few years, I've had a great opportunity to advance my art of photography far beyond what ever could have happened using a film camera. Some of these digital photographs I've made along the way are just too good not to be shared! I'm really moved, touched, and inspired by these photos and I think you will be too! So here they are, with love and blessings and a whole lot of fun! Enjoy!

There was a famous and beloved plant explorer and horticulturalist who lived in America in the early twentieth century, named David Fairchild. He traveled the world exploring the plant world in many exotic natural environments and cultures, looking for useful or beautiful plants and trees to introduce to the USA, both for a federal agricultural department job he had and to add to his personal garden collection in south Florida. (Thus began the renowned Fairchild Botanical Garden near Miami).

He wrote several wonderful horticultural travelogue books in the 1930's and 1940's sharing his stories and photos from his extraordinary journeys in exotic lands, at a time when such travel was almost exclusively by sea and truly adventurous. In Garden Islands of the Great East, he tells stories from sailing around the islands of Indonesia in a Chinese junk just before World War II with several friends and associates gathering useful and beautiful plants... just terrific, with black-and-white photos in that classic 1930's book style. You can likely find David Fairchild's books in your local library or online, I highly recommend them!

So Durian Stories from Nirav 2001 is in that spirit of horticultural adventure! Of course, publishing technology has advanced fantastically since David Fairchild's time...so let's see what's possible here! :-)

It's story time! Enjoy!