That was what 18 foreign tourists did at a durian-eating contest organised for them at the Penang Fruits and Food Festival at the Pesta Site here today.

Contest organiser Akbarudin Nasurdin said the contest had to be cancelled because the "contestants" could not bear the strong smell of the Malaysian king of fruits.

The 18 tourists had arrived at the Cultural House, where the contest was to have been held at 11am.

Just as they got into the hall, they took a whiff of the fruit and refused to go any further. They only agreed to look at the thorny fruit from a distance.

"The tourists were brought by our bus from various hotels in Batu Feringghi for the contest but maybe because they cannot bear the strong smell, they asked to opt out," Akbarudin said.

"We have to respect their decision on health reasons as most of them are over 50 years old and we were forced to cancel the programme."

He said a similar contest for foreign tourists was a huge attraction when it was held a couple of years ago at Komtar.

"We wanted to bring back the contest due to popular demand," he said."Next time, we might have to consider taking in younger tourists."

Akbarudin heads Penang's division of the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (Fama).