Sabah Bah – History and Culture Learning (Monsopiad Cultural Village, Sabah Museum)

While we were in Kota Kinabalu, besides hanging around at the market, we even planned to visit some of the history and cultural interesting spot there. Just to get hold a lil’ bit of knowledge of the rich and long history of the local culture, we decided to settle with one of the cultural village and the state museum. It was not easy to make the decision as there are two cultural village available in Kota Kinabalu itself. We finally settled with the cheaper version (not that cheap either!) of Monsopiad Cultural Village instead of the brand new Mari Mari Cultural Village.

Monsopiad Cultural Village
This village is tucked 16km or about half an hour away from the Kota Kinabalu town which it is located at Kampung Kuai Kadazan, Penampang. Basically, the Cultural Village is only a short drive away from the town. You can get there using the local bus, taxi or even the village shuttle services offered by them.

We stepped into the Cultural Village making way to the ticket counter. A quick observation of the place – it looks like the condition are a little bit run down and very quiet as there’s no one around except the receptionist. At one point, we can even heard the sounds of insects and birds chirping. We were looking at each other whether we have made a wise decision to take a tour around of the place. Sigh! FF’s already making his frowny face but then after a short pause, he and mum’s made up a decision that no harm trying.  We paid an amount of money (at a reasonable price) which includes a cultural dance show and our very own guide.

Our guide was very informative, showed us around the village and able to answer to many of our questions. Sorry brother, we can’t remembered your name. He even demonstrated to us on how to start a fire using just a bamboo stick, on how to use the tools, weapons and many others.

We started the tour by visiting the Siou Do Mohoing or the House of Skulls. This is where all the 42 trophies (powerful warriors heads) of Monsopiad hang from the rafters. And who is this Monsopiad? Let’s do some recap of the history boys and girls. Monsopiad, is a great warrior or head hunters of the Kadazan Dusun people who protect his village from their enemies and  lived 300 years ago.

A demonstration on how to start a fire by using just a bamboo stick, in a very traditional way.

Sago worms (ulat sago) may look scary to many but this is what some people eat and they tends to enjoy it much! Ewwwww! Don’t talk about eating it, we can’t even hold to it just for a second. 😀 This live sago worm are a delicacy among native tribes in Borneo which covered Sabah and Sarawak too. To those who have experienced eating it, they claimed that it is creamy when it’s raw and taste like meat when it’s cooked.

We even watched and took part in the cultural show. Be mesmerized with the beauty and graceful steps of Sumazau dance and other traditional dance of Sabah tribe.

Right after the Cultural Show, we walked to the other side of the cultural village exploring the suspension bridge crossing the river. It’s no extraordinary kind of suspension bridge but we always find it interesting everytime we saw one. Yes, most of the time.

FF’s trying the local traditional game but just couldn’t do it!

And last but not least, the picture of us right in front of the entrance. At first, we expected it to be so dry and boring but we are wrong. The pace was nice and we enjoyed the cultural show and performance too. But, it really needs a major refurbishment to make it in line with other living museum and showcase the local culture and become a unique attraction to all travellers in Sabah.

Sabah Museum (Muzium Sabah)
Visiting Sabah Museum is like going through a time machine or a time tunnel. You are then welcomed with a huge whale skeleton of 18.6 meters in length and it was claimed as the biggest whale skeleton exhibit in Malaysia by The Malaysia Book of Records. In overall, it has great numbers of photographs, documentation and even artefacts even it isn’t as big and modern as other state museum that we have visited before. 4 of us got separated and go on our own way getting lost in the Borneo history for about 2 hours plus.

No photo taking in the galleries except with the written permission of the Museum Director. Hence, that answer the question why there’s no photos here. 😀

Simply us,
Zara AB & FF
ZaraAB Travel #zaraabtravel
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