High Elevation Durian in Dombu, Sulawesi

It was a chilly morning when I climbed down the wooden ladder of the main house. The room we’d slept in was located right above the kitchen and wood smoke was wafting through cracks in floor. Someone was making breakfast.

Cradling a cup of hot coffee, I stood by the dining table under the house and looked out at the view. The misty sky was almost white without texture over a panorama of mountains. We were high above sea level. How high I wasn’t sure yet. But there, next to the chicken coop was a scraggly durian tree with small baby durians larger than a tennis ball.

This was very high elevation durians.

Sulawesi Coffee and Durian in Dombu

Richard’s twin flames for durian and coffee demanded that we search for some of Sulawesi’s famous coffee farms. I didn’t really think that the two crops were compatible – fine arabica coffee usually grows at much higher elevation than durians.

But while staying at Dodoha Mosintuwu on Lake Poso, we had made connection with Pak Ade, a coffee enthusiast and consultant who was working with a community in Dombu to produce premium coffee.

Together, they had formed a coffee cooperative called Kamanuru, which roughly translates as “a miracle” in the local Kaili Da’a language.

The cooperative has about 30 members, all of them of the Kaili Da’a ethnicity.

The two-story house where we were staying also served as the cooperative meeting house and the night before several members of the community came over to meet us and then talk late into the night about durians and coffee.

About 10 years ago, they had started interplanting durian into their cacao farms. Coffee came later.

They wanted to know what the future looked like for durian, and what we had seen on our Central Sulawesi Durian Journey through Parigi, Tolai, Tentena Poso and Pendolo.

Although their own farms had small durians hanging on the trees, the fruits wouldn’t be ripe for another 3 months.

So they had kindly purchased durian for us from a lower region on the other side of the Gawalise Mountains – a place about 1.5 hours distant called Wugaga. I asked if we could go there, and they laughed.

“Not with your rental car,” they said. From Dombu, there were no roads passable by car to Wugaga. The roads were only wide enough for motorbikes.

We’d have to plan a trip up and over the mountain to Wugaga next season.

Bubur Kacang Hijau Durian

That night they cooked the durian into a porridge with green mung beans, brown sugar and coconut milk, simmering it down over a wood fire into a thickened soup with bobbing durian pieces.

Bubur Kacang Hijau is one of my favorite Malaysian/Indonesian desserts, and I was excited to nurse a hot cup of something sweet on a cold night by the fire. But this Bubur Kacang Hijau caught me by surprise.

It was so much more complex. There was the smokiness from the fire – but there was also warming spices. The group nodded. They had added cinnamon, and cloves, and also pandan leaves. It was one of the most exotic tasting Bubur Kacang Hijau I had ever tasted, and very delicious.

In the morning the family re-heated the Bubur Kacang for breakfast, serving it alongside their own coffee and more of the leftover durians.

It was the best durian-coffee fusion to start the day!

Dombu Durian and Coffee Farms

After breakfast, we borrowed a motorbike and followed our host to the closest community farm, a one hectare plot belonging to Mr. Norfen.

He had inherited the plot and several others from his ancestors, and previously planted red beans, cacao, and a few other things. Around 10-years ago, he added avocado and durians.

Around 3 years ago, he added coffee.

That’s when he joined the coffee collective.

The coffee trees were still interplanted among the cacao, clustered around the durian trees as an understory crop. Despite this high elevation, they said the durian trees had already been producing fruit for a few years.

The views down the valley here were amazing, but the land was so steep it was difficult to walk down. I couldn’t imagine what would happen if one of those durians fell off the tree and rolled!

Kamanuru Coffee Processing

The group was most proud of drying and processing their own coffee beans. Before we headed out, they gave us a quick tour of the greenhouse here the beans dried for 30 days before being shelled. Here they only produce Natural wash coffee, which means they leave the sweet red cherries on the fruits to give some sweetness and flavor to the coffee as it dries.

Richard being Richard, we of course stocked up on some coffee.

Then it was time to drive down the mountain back toward Palu City.

Driving Down from Dombu

The road down to Palu was one of the most dangerous roads I’ve ever driven on. The hills were steep and the switchbacks tight. I cranked the steering wheel fully left, and then full right, honking as we rounded turn to warn anyone cutting the corners on the way up.

There were land-slides around every turn, the steep hill sides sinking down onto the road and obscuring the white lines.

It was like the hillside was devouring the road from both above and below, either slipping on top of it or swallowing it from below.

In many areas, half a tire off the pavement would send the car soaring into a mountain crevasse.

We hadn’t made it more than 10 minutes down the mountain when we screeched to a halt for durians.

Durians with a view? Yes please.

Wugaga Durian Delivery

These guys were busy re-organizing their motorbikes. The durians were in a big pile along the road when we first arrived.

Looking down the hill a bit, I could see durian trees. I asked them if the durians were coming from this farm just off the road.

No, they said. The durians had come from Wugaga – the same region the coffee collective had bought their durian.

It looked like this might be a durian tag-team station, where one motorbike from Wugaga was passing off the durians to another motorbike headed down into Palu City.

The durians were super super fresh and smelled fab. I asked if we could buy some, and the guys said sure.

We took 3.

We continued down and down, and down, and more down, snaking our way into the foothills above Palu City.

Warung Makan Ibu Nurfiah

As we hit the first village since the coffee collective, we saw a whole gaggle of durian motorbikes parked outside of a shack-like restaurant.

We parked the car, got out to investigate, and immediately recognized our friend from earlier, who had sold us durian on the side of the road. He was sitting in the shade having a smoke. He immediately recognized us too and gave us a big grin.

I would have expected him to recognize us – after all how many white people are driving around this hill looking for durian – but the smile felt really nice.

He picked out a durian for us and cracked it open without us saying anything.

We sat down along the wall with the durian drivers to investigate it, while the elderly owner of the restaurant sat down on a green stool to investigate us.

She had painted her face with a yellow dust believed to help keep you cool on a hot day. She told us that this was a pick-up point for durian sellers in Palu City, and that all these guys were waiting for a truck to come and take away the durians.

If we’d come any later, there’d be no more durians here.

Finishing the durian gift, we said goodbye and continued down the mountain to Palu City.

It was getting late, and we had a plane to catch.

Finding Durians around Palu City and Central Sulawesi

Below you’ll find the Google Map pin for the durian Pick-Up Point in front of Ibu Nurfiah’s retaurant.

Driving as far as this restaurant is safe and easy, but if you go beyond – take care. Landslides are common.