The Photography of Dr. Jeffrey P. Harper

It's durian season in Thailand, so why not take a trip out in the hills and visit a durian farm. My wife and I LOVE durian, the King of Fruit!

The location of the farm is here - go to this GoogleMaps link and see where it is:  https://maps.app.goo.gl/G6sEf6i9yKWafgp8A  

We weren't the only ones who decided to visit the durian farm that day. Groups of people came from all directions while we were there.

Picking the right durian requires skill, knowledge, and a bit of luck.

Although we are in the wet season now in Thailand, we took a risk and drove out to the farm anyway.  Fortunately it did not rain while we were there.  It was a very pleasant day out at the hillside durian farm.

One durian tree can produce quite a lot of fruit.  Some of the fruit was supported by pink ribbons to keep them from falling before they were ripe . . . and, I assume, to keep them from falling on visitors.  I would not want to be hit on the head by one of the heavy, sharp durians!

I enjoyed walking around the orchard taking durian portraits.

These looked ready to pick.

Durian portraits are now my favorite subject!  Who knew?

The spikes on a durian are very, very sharp!

Some durians can be picked from ground level, but others require some tree climbing.

Yep, that guy who climbed the tree has to throw the sharp, spiky durians down to his catcher . . . with a burlap bag for protection.  Fascinating.

That's a lot of durians . . . and worth a lot of money . . . durians are expensive, even in Thailand.

You have to know what you are doing to get the pudding-like fruit out of a durian. This is to be left to the professionals.

One of the durian farmers supervising the operation.

Perhaps my favorite portrait: Chair With Durian II

Small slips of foam board were sometimes used between durians to keep them from stabbing each other.  We really enjoyed our day trip to the durian farm.  We ordered about 10 durians (they deliver) to be sent to friends and family . . . and our house, of course.

We took very small roads back to Hua Hin . . . but stopped at a "riverside home stay" we saw on the map that had a coffee shop.  There were some nice views of river rapids, but it was a big commercial development without any "Thai-ness" whatsoever.

We got back to Hua Hin in time to enjoy the sunset over the same hills we had spent the day.