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Thursday 22 January 2015

Borneo Blog :: locals, coconuts and durian

This morning I went out on my bicycle first thing to buy a coconut. It is my current routine to do 10 minutes of oil pulling, whilst I stretch and brush my teeth, drink about 1 litre of filtered water followed by a coconut water and meat and then a whole 3.5kg watermelon for breakfast. 

This sets me up to cleanse my colon, pee clear and rehydrate after a long sleep. I stopped drinking in the middle of the night because it disturbed my sleep and I was told that our mouths contain so much bacteria in the morning that we should do oil pulling without having a drink. So that's what I do. 

I love getting young coconuts that are slightly maturing inside, so the meat is a bit harder and whiter. I find the slimey meat to be just that, too slimey so I opt for the higher fat option. 

I sat in the place where I bought the coconut and drank it with my reusable glass affirmation straw. I bought this in Bali and I love it. The message says "I love who I am and all that I do". Perfect. After I finished I went to the sea front and sat down to eat my watermelon. 

As I was taking some selfies, a local young man walked past. He saw me taking pictures and decided he would come back to ask if he can have a photo too. "Sure" I said. I thought he would just take one but no he climbed over the ledge where I sat, put his arm around me and took a selfie with me. To him this meant it gave him full access to my personal life and his leading question was "so are you single? What is your name?"

There's something that's been grating on me over the last few weeks and that is that the men here all seem to assume that because I'm alone, beautiful and generally always smiling that it gives them a right to hit on me, that I want a boyfriend and that it's OK to ask really personal questions. Well it's not OK, I don't want a boyfriend and I would prefer my own privacy. 

Fair enough I am travelling in their country and yes I do appreciate friendly conversation, but as I found out in Turkey many years ago Muslim men and women cannot be friends, so if you are talking to a Muslim man they generally want something. I have been patient, I have been friendly, but when it's the first question someone asks I will not stand for it. He interrupted my peace so I told him that I would like to eat my breakfast in peace. Thankfully he respected my wishes and left. 

Now I'm not so vain to think I'm the desire of all men, but it certainly feels like it here. To them I'm classed as exotic! I haven't seen many single Western women walking around, but that doesn't mean that I am here to get a husband. I had exactly the same problem in Turkey. People in Bali left me alone for the most part and in Thailand I don't recall having this problem. That's why I enjoyed being in the cinema yesterday, I blended in because it was pitch black! The attention was no longer on me because I'm white, female, blonde and cute! 

Moving on, I decided that the durian here was actually pants, I haven't really been enjoying it, mainly because it costs more than I want to pay so I've been buying the cheaper packaged fruit. Well after my second Ionic Detox Foot Therapy I went to the guy with the cheap packaged durian. I took about 5-10 minutes just looking at the fruit because he has piles of durian stacked on the road, 3-4 fruit for 10 ringgit. This fruit looks really old so I sniff a few, no smell and decide that I don't want to get them in case they sucked! 

I then started opening his 5 ringgit packaged durian and decide it looks a bit battered, so I just asked if I could buy one from his baskets (where he's replenishing the old ones from). He also sells fresh durian too for 12 ringgit /kg but I don't want that. The one I picked was mediocre, nothing to write home about. Then one of the guys picks out a small one and it is the sweetest and creamiest durian I've had since Bali. Oh sweet heavens you answered my prayers! Then I got the taste for more and so I got another durian and it too was so creamy. I wanted it to last forever... The best thing about eating durian is the leftovers on your fingers. I licked them clean hahaha

So now I'm sat on my bed writing this blog, feeling super full from 3 durian and day dreaming about how good is tasted. So much for giving up durian... I might go back tomorrow. 

*passes out from durian coma*

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