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| Choose the durian that has already been eaten by animals, especially squirrels. Doc. the author. |
Even in an era of highways, satellites, and global supply chains, Borneo today remains one of the world’s last great rainforest regions.
From the air, it appears as an unbroken green sea, layered with canopy, rivers, and hills, still breathing at its own ancient rhythm.
This living rainforest is not merely a conservation symbol; it is also avast natural orchard that produces an extraordinary diversity of tropical fruits shaping daily life, seasonal rituals, and local economies.
Among these fruits, none commands more attention, debate, and devotion than durian (Durio zibethinus), often called the “King of Fruits.”
In Borneo, durian is not an imported luxury or a curated supermarket item. It is a forest-born fruit**, rooted in ancestral land-use systems, particularly the tembawang, which are traditional agroforestry groves preserved by Indigenous Dayak communities across generations.
Borneo is not only a destination of rivers and rainforests; it is also a destination of taste, seasonality, and living landscapes.
A durian tree standing in a tembawang is as much a travel attraction as a waterfall or a longhouse, because it tells a story of ecological intelligence, cultural continuity, and abundance without exploitation.
The Durian Season: January to March, When Borneo Overflows
Every year, as the calendar turns from January to March, something remarkable happens across rural Borneo.
The forest begins to give generously, almost extravagantly. This is durian season, a time when villages awaken to the sound of falling fruit hitting leaf-covered ground in the early hours of the morning.
In areas where tembawang still thrive, durian abundance reshapes daily routines. Families rise before dawn to collect fruit. Roadsides turn into informal markets.
Conversations shift from prices and politics to aroma, texture, and levels of bitterness. For visitors, this season offers an experience that cannot be replicated elsewhere.
In many villages, IDR 100,000, roughly USD 6 to 7, is enough to purchase five large, Grade A durians, freshly fallen, naturally ripened, and untouched by chemicals or cold storage. Such prices are almost unthinkable in urban Southeast Asia, where durian is often treated as a premium commodity.
This abundance reflects more than market conditions; it reflects a non-extractive relationship with nature. Tembawang systems allow fruit trees to mature over decades, sometimes centuries. They are not monoculture plantations but multi-species forests where durian grows alongside rambutan, langsat, mangosteen, and medicinal plants.
For Borneo Tour and Travel, this season represents a golden window for experiential tourism. Visitors are not merely consuming fruit; they are participating in a seasonal ecology by staying in villages, learning when fruit falls, and understanding why scarcity and abundance are accepted as natural cycles rather than problems to be engineered away.
How to Choose the Best Durian: Wisdom from the Forest
Choosing a durian is often portrayed as a game of tapping, shaking, or sniffing. Yet in Borneo’s villages, the most trusted method comes not from technique but from *observation and humility toward nature.
Elders often say, “Choose the durian that has already been eaten by animals, especially squirrels.”
The logic is simple and profound. Forest animals are expert selectors. A squirrel will not waste energy breaking into a durian that is underripe, bitter, or bland. If an animal has gnawed through the husk, it is a sign that the fruit has reached perfect maturity, with balanced sweetness, rich fat content, and a complex aroma.
This method reflects an ecological partnership rather than human dominance. Humans read the forest instead of forcing it to comply with artificial standards. In contrast to commercial grading systems, which are based on uniformity, size, and visual perfection, this wisdom prioritizes taste, nutrition, and ripeness.
For travelers, learning this approach becomes part of the journey. It reframes durian tasting as an act of listening rather than choosing and reinforces the message that Borneo’s food culture is inseparable from its wildlife and forest health.
As a storytelling platform, Borneo Tour and Travel can elevate such knowledge, not as folklore, but as practical ecological intelligence. These are the insights modern travelers increasingly seek: authentic, place-based wisdom that cannot be downloaded or mass-produced.
Borneo’s Future: Fruit Tourism and Agroforestry as a Destination Model
Borneo holds immense potential to emerge as a global destination for fruit tourism and agroforestry-based travel. This is not mass tourism built on resorts and spectacle. It is slow, seasonal, and educational travel rooted in living landscapes.
Fruit tourism encourages visitors to plan trips around harvest cycles rather than fixed attractions. Agroforestry tourism invites them to walk through tembawang groves, learn how fruit trees coexist with forest species, and understand how land can remain productive without being destroyed.
This model aligns naturally with global travel trends such as sustainability, authenticity, food-based exploration, and Indigenous-led experiences. It also offers an alternative to extractive development models that have long threatened Borneo’s forests.
For a media outlet with the vision of Borneo Tour and Travel, the role is not merely promotional; it is interpretive and ethical. The platform becomes a bridge between travelers and local knowledge, ensuring that tourism supports forest preservation, community livelihoods, and cultural dignity.
Durian, in this context, is more than a fruit. It serves as an ambassador of a worldview in which forests are gardens, seasons are teachers, and abundance grows from restraint rather than excess.
If told with care and consistency, this story can reposition Borneo beyond the image of a threatened wilderness. It presents Borneo as a living destination of taste, tradition, and tropical intelligence. It invites visitors not to conquer the land, but to understand it.
