Have you ever been there when durian fruit was cut open? Did you faint? Or did you salivate immediately hoping for a taste of the scrumptious fruit? Or maybe you ran out of the room? All these reactions are to be expected. This infamous fruit is omnipresent throughout southeast Asia. When the fruit is cut open the stench can be best compared to human vomit. It permeates everything nearby. It's so strong that the practice in Phnom Penh upscale hotels is to forbid it entirely. At the same time the fruit in pods esconced inside the hull is sweet, scrumptious and nearly sinful. In fact, durian can be the best metaphor for Christian sin here. The spikes on the skin should warn any thinking soul, but the temptation of the sticky, sweet fruit entices even the most thoughtful. And then the stench should further warn, but NO, fanatics must wade on to grasp the sticky pods in their own hands and down them despite ruining their clothes with the juicy odor.

If you were riding a bike in the streets of Phnom Penh and you saw this wouldn't you do anything you could to get a shot of it? Damn the SUV that you've stopped on a dime by riding in front of it. Damn the parking blocks where your tires wedge. Damn the dropped iPhone. Stop this woman let me take a picture of her offering, hudnreds of wild sparrows for sale to any taker.