Fruits of Malaysia

Durian, Rambutan, Pomelo, Langsat, Mangosteen, Pitaya

FRUITS! Fruits that I had never seen before.(Mangosteen - yes, but all the other fruits were new and strange)

Strange? you may wonder..
If you thought jackfruit and pineapple had a weird epicarp, wait until you see Rambutan(frizzy, fuzzy) and the dragonfruit (lotus ball like)

If you think you have seen a big grapefruit, wait until you see Pomelo(the XXL)

The best of 'em all, the biggest surprise..
If you thought you knew how 10 spoilt onions put in a sock which was continuously worn for 30 days by a soccer player would smell, wait until you smell a durian.
It is the national fruit of Malaysia - very, very unique and interesting! Many public places and hotels had the sign 'No Durians Allowed'. In fact, this fruit was featured in 'Bizarre Foods of Asia by Andrew Zimmern and I saw that episode a few weeks before my visit.
But, I did not know that it was widely available and widely consumed!

I missed the opportunity of tasting any of them, during this short stay, but I am sure, I will try all of 'em during my next trip.

For pictures of these unique fruits,checkout http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/tropical-fruits.html

On a different note, I(O) wonder that, when a small tropical country had about 6 native fruits,so distinct, why do we widely see only apples, oranges and grapes in our fruit stalls in India?

What happened to our own fruits? did we have any? What happened to elandhai pazham, vilaam pazham, etc?