If you’ve found yourself addicted to the wily, mysteriously ambrosial custard called King of Fruits, don’t worry. You are not alone.

This website is where you’ll find your posse of durian fanatics, fruit geeks, horticultural hobbyists, and travelers who love exploring the world through the hunt for durian. Like us.

Durian is another window to the world. An epic window!

That pretty much sums up this website 🤷

How Lindsay Started Traveling Full Time For Durian

How I Discovered Durian:

I discovered durian in 2009 at a Vegan Festival in my hometown in Oregon. I’ve been vegan since 2007.

I kept smelling something weird, but couldn’t identify it. Finally someone told me it was durian, and described it to me as better than marijuana, ayahuasca, magic mushrooms, and ice cream combined.

Sounded interesting.

When I went home from the Vegan Festival I went to an Asian Grocery Shop. This was also my first Asian Grocery experience. I think I was in there for an hour.

I found a whole durian, in shell, brought it home, hacked it open like a turkey, and tasted it. I thought it tasted like French Vanilla Ice Cream. Except it was a fruit, and technically healthy.

If I could eat ice cream for my 5-a-day I was sold. I loved durian first bite.

How Lindsay started Project Year of the Durian

In 2012, I started an adventure I thought would last 1 year before I grew up and got a real job and a lease.

I was 20 years old and to be honest, pretty lost. I was married, but not happily. I’d left college early, without pursuing my dream of Journalism Degree and badass National Geographic article-writer.

I was also relatively broke, which is a super smart way to start traveling full time. Haha. Hahahaha.

I didn’t even have money for a camera. All I had was a point-and-shoot Fuji which, my Now-Ex informed me, was too low quality to ever publish anything in anything, especially not my dream magazine.

I took photos anyway and wrote my first blog post on Chinese New Year, 2012, which was The Year of the Rabbit.

“It’s not the Year of the Rabbit for me,” I thought. “It’s my Year of the Durian.”

I thought I was so clever. And a very ugly blogspot blog with a confusing name was born.

Strangely, you guys liked it, and within a month over a 1,000 people had visited my ugly blog with the strange title.

How I support myself as a Digital Nomad

Leaving home without much money in the bank is not smart.

But it is a great kick in the pants to Figure Things Out.

I soon discovered that it was easy to do boring menial online tasks using Fiverr.com

Better yet, I could write articles for other websites and they paid me to do it.

From Fiverr, I suddenly had a resume and was able to start writing for Real Magazines like The Heirloom Gardener, Roads and Kingdoms, and once, to my great delight, an explainer piece with an episode of Anthony Bourdain’s Part’s Unknown.

From 2018, Year of the Durian Tours & the Durian-Tour-In-A-Box have taken my full time.

The Durian Tours

Since the beginning, this website is designed to assist fellow durian-tourists with visiting out-of-the-way places in the countryside to connect with farmers and communities that don’t normally see a lot of tourists.

This is the human-to-human connection that I was searching for in my lost and lonely First Year, and it’s been amazing and rewarding to see how much friendship, community, and learning everyone get out of the experience.

Since 2014, we organize several group durian tours per year in Malaysia, Borneo, Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia.

Note: All Tours are currently suspended until the current world situation settles down.

Richard’s Durian Story

The first time I heard about durian was in 2016. I had not yet been to Southeast Asia.

I’d heard only good things about durian. I’d heard it was magical. I suppose that is not the first thing you expect to hear about durian. But for me it was. Somehow I guess the universe filtered out the bad reviews to keep me excited.

So I went to Thailand 2017 clueless about seasons or where durian grows. It could have been a total failure, but I was lucky and there was durian in the market. My first taste of durian was a cut Monthong ripened with agent. I loved it. It was the best thing.

Another Swedish guy who I had chatted with online efore the trip and met in Thailand (and who is now a good friend) helped me pick that durian in the market. He had read all about how to pick durian on some blog called Year of the Durian. He followed Lindsay’s directions in the market and we ended up with a really good durian.

He is the first friend durian brought me. Durian brings cool people into your life, it’s one of durian’s magical properties I have learned. I left Thailand after a month and three durian varieties richer.

I knew I would come back for durian, I didn’t know I would return to Asia for a new life.

I met Lindsay a year later, she couldn’t figure out if I liked her or the durians. I think she has figured it out by now.

Why durian?
It’s hard to describe. There are flavors and sensations you may never ever get to experience in your life if not through durian. It’s not just eating something really good, it’s like the fruit is communicating with you when it’s exceptional.

Generations of people, who knows how far back has been seated around durian trees and had the same experience, it’s a feeling of connectiveness & generational gratitude.

What is Year of the Durian Now?

It turns out the Year of the Durian was not such a bad name after all.

Because you can experience a Year of Durian. In fact, Lindsay has had nearly 9 Years of Durian now and Richard is on his 3rd.

We have no plans to stop.

The Durian Season is connected to the monsoon season, which means that it changes from year to year and from place to place.

If you’re willing to hop countries, you can stay in Peak Durian Season all year long.

The hard part is figuring out where to go when, since the rain patterns are increasingly unpredictable thanks to Climate Change.

That’s why Richard created the Year of the Durian App to help you plan and schedule your trips around durian season.

Mail Order Durian-Tour-in-A-Box

And if you’re stuck at home for 2020, we are happy to be able to offer you a durian adventure from the safety of your kitchen table.

In 2019, we realized that committing to a 10-Day Durian Heavy Tour is a big commitment. So we wanted people to be able to get a little taste of the experience before diving into Durian.

That’s why we created these Durian Sampler Boxes, direct from the farmers to you.

Press:

A lot of news media in Asia apparently finds this website and concept of white people hunting durian interesting, so we’ve been in the news!

• A Date with Durian on Koh Phangan. 2020. Phanganist.
• Meet the American woman hunting for Asia’s best durians. 2018. CNN.
• American publishes book on Penang’s durians. 2018. The Star.
• International Durian Lovers Gather at Bao Sheng Durian Festival. 2015. Malay Mail Online.
• On The Trail of the Durian: Southeast Asia’s Creme Brulee on a tree. 2014. NPR’s The Salt.
• Seven Questions with Oregon Native Lindsay Gasik. 2013. Phnom Penh Post
• Durian Hunters. 2014. The New Paper
• Sweet Scent of Durian Draws American Couple. 2014. The Star.
• Durian Hunters. 2013. Mail Tribune
• Faces from Afar: Two Oregonians on the Hunt For Exotic Durians. 2012. The Smithsonian

Interviews:

Radio

• Durian Adventures. 2015. BFM Malaysia
• Durian Addiction Takes Married Couple Around The World. 2014. ABC Australia.
• Careers Unusual: The Durian Connoisseur. 2014. BFM Malaysia

Want know more but don’t know where to begin? Click here to get started.