Raub Musang King Durian

Musang King, or Mao Shan Wang, is the durian cultivar that turned a regional fruit into an export commodity: deep yellow, dense, bitter as much as sweet, with a small seed and a distinctive five-pointed star on the base of the husk, and the orchards around Raub in the Pahang hills are the ones whose fruit commands the highest prices. Demand from China, where whole-fruit imports were opened in stages, pushed prices to levels that made durian land more valuable than anything else in the district and produced a long-running dispute between smallholders and the state over land titles and a concession, which has been through the courts. The fruit is sold at orchard stalls and roadside shops in season, opened in front of you and eaten on the spot.

What you actually see

• Musang King - deep yellow flesh, bitter and sweet, with the star on the husk.
• Orchard stalls - fruit opened and eaten on the spot in season.
• Hill orchards - the Raub plantings the cultivar's reputation rests on.
• Export-driven prices - the demand that reshaped land values in the district.

When to go

Roughly June to August, with a smaller season around December. A meal.

Honest expectations

Prices are high and vary daily; buy where the fruit is opened in front of you. Durian is banned in most hotels and on public transport. The smell is genuinely divisive.

Nearby

Bentong is south; Fraser's Hill and the Titiwangsa range are west.