Weird fruit in Miri, Sarawak

Miri, Sarawak. Hot, muggy, tropical. I’m only here as a gateway to Gunung Mulu National Park, and a place to catch up on some sleep. I fail to find impressive meals – though I did have some amazing roti – but I’m not looking terrible hard to be honest. Wandering the hot, sleepy streets I notice shops selling fruit and vegetables out the front. An electronics shop, tv’s in pieces, with a sweetcorn stand attached, jackfruit and small durians dot the paths in front of bathroom supply centres, clothes shops. But everywhere there are rambutans. I notice tree’s heavy with the spiny red fruit on my way into town, people sitting in eateries shaking ants off bunched specimens, attractive piles of the fruit for sale all over town. But rambutans are commonplace, I can buy them in ex-home Marrickville, not worth travelling to the jungle for.

These things, however, these things are different, so much so that I don’t even know that they’re called. The woman running the hardware store said she has a tree in her backyard, and they are cross between a lychee and a rambutan. Her companion opens one up for me to try, finding the magic pressure point that enables the easy opening of these inhospitable fruits. It is sweet but not as sickly as lychees, and somehow fragrant, better than any rambutan I’ve tasted. The tender flesh was plentiful and wonderfully string-free.

I wandered away, seeking out the air conditioning and cold water of a nearby supermarket, soon after wishing I’d bought a bag of these hybrid fruits.
Has anyone ever seen them before? What are they called?