According to my durian-eating Malaysian-Chinese auntie, the best way to rid yourself of the durian smell is to fill the empty half-shell of a durian with water, slosh it about a bit, wash your hands in it then use the water as a mouthwash. Of course, this requires that you can stand the smell for long enough to do so. My first experience of eating durian was a year ago, when my Mum (also Malaysian Chinese) gave me a large lump of durian flesh to eat. I popped the thing in my mouth, chewed once, nearly gagged, spat it out, and ran to wash out my mouth. I didn't stay around for the durian-flavored mouthwash.

The smell of durian is amazingly hard to get rid of. Soap doesn't help very much. The taste stays in your mouth for a long time and is only temporarily masked by toothpaste or mouthwash. If you happen to be attending a roughly twenty-person family reunion where you are one of four people who can't stand durian, and someone brings out a couple of bags of the dread fruit, the safest strategy is to stay in the house and lock the door. Durian breath is not pleasant.

I'm not sure whether the taste for durian is something one is born with, or whether it can be acquired. Whether one is willing to eat enough of a fruit that tastes like a cross between banana, garlic and something you'd drag out of a garbage can to get a taste for it is a different question.