I read the post at Wei Chuen’s blog. Though it’s not my car and I don’t want to get involved in someone else argument, I feel panas reading this. I really hate this kind of people.

Think that nobody else knows what you had done and you can easily get away with this? You are probably wrong…

This is the 4th time I go to Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) grand finale, which is held annually in Hongkod Koisaan (KDCA Penampang) from May 30 to 31. Just love it. It’s the best time for us to understand why everyone says Sabah is a melting pot of different cultures. We have over 30 indigenous groups in Sabah and each of them can look so different (traditional costumes) to one another.

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Last year they had “cute” theme. This year I guessed they had “hat” theme. Only the hood alone, you already could find four types on that day. The weather was so hot on first day, I should have wore a hat. In 2 days only, I saw almost all the photographers I knew in KK.

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The Ganna girls from Keningau got the most colourful headgear (see photo below). Their booth was the most crowded. Many tourists wanted to take their photos. They are also very sociable and invite the guess to minum-minum (drinking local wine). Sadly, the culture of Ganna is phasing out quickly due to modernisation. For example, the Ganna men used the fur of “Harimau Bintang” (a wild cat that likes to eat Durian. Believe me) as clothing. Now they can’t do it anymore coz this cat is a protected species by law.

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Even men have interesting headgears, some made of feathers, some look like horn. Most of them are hand-made. If you think hand-made item is cheap, you are wrong. Bcoz it is quite labor intensive and time consuming to make, a full set of traditional costume with complete accessories can cost a few thousands dollars.

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Some even plant something on their hat? Since I don’t like to wash hair, my head should be “fertile” enough to grow paddy. As there is food shortage everywhere, I don’t mind to plant some, just don’t harvest my head.

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Look at the headgears below and see whether you can tell which ethnic groups they belong to.

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Photos of Unduk Ngadau? Oh ya, almost forgotten. Here you go. Below are the photos of Unduk Ngadau from Nescafe and Maggi districts. OK, Job Done.

Just kidding. I had done too many coverage on Unduk Ngadau in year 2006 and 2007. This year I decided to skip them and focused more on beautiful traditional costumes. If you want to look at the good photos of Unduk Ngadau, please go here (Thanks to George for sharing his excellent photos).

Photos taken in Penampang, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Related Photo Galleries:
Pesta Kaamatan 2007
Pesta Kaamatan 2006
Pesta Kaamatan 2005

This frog has been enjoying free buffet there for 3 days. Every evening, he always comes to the same spot on time, eating all the ants passing in front of him. The ants only discovered their friends disappeared next to them, one by one in split second. When they looked around for the enemy, they only saw something liked a pile of lifeless brown shit.

Their sixth-sense told them that there was something seriously wrong, but they could not figure out why. So more and more ants gathering and wandering nearby the suspicious spot. This only made the frog even happier. Isn’t it a thrill to do bad thing without being detected? Haha… evil me..

Happily, the frog eats more and more…

More and more…

And more and more… until it is nearly exploded.

Without doubt, tomorrow he will come back again for more. lol…

This is quite a common frog in Sabah I don’t know its name). After heavy rain at night, you can hear them crying loud “Hong… Hong…” in the drain. They are very easy to catch by hand coz they are fat and slow. I would say their jumping skill is the worst among all the frog species. To survive, they have two “techniques”. First, stay motionless so the predators can’t “see” it. There are many animals are as stupid as ants. That’s why this frog won’t extinct. If this method fails, it will inflate its body to make itself looks really big, to scare the enemy away. So cute…

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Everything in Pitas seems to have something to do with fish. Along the road next to the sea, almost every seaside village gets a very long wooden boardwalk, extends a few hundreds Metres to the sea. Naturally, the boardwalk becomes a favourite fishing spot of the locals.

When we take a walk around there, the boats, fishing net and stilt houses speak loudly we are in a fishing village. Together with a group of “city tourists”, we “inspected” what those people caught at boardwalk.

Very soon those locals found that the silence was totally broken by a bunch of lunatic from the city. Whenever they got a fish, even if it is smaller than a longkang (drain) fish. they were surrounded by overexcited tourists, interviewing them how they did it, then blinded by dozens of flashes from our cameras, as if he caught a shark or something. Before he pulled himself together, we already took his fishing rod and fish for photo-taking.

Growing up in a fishing village since young, I guess these born fishermen would also have problem to understand why the kids nowadays are so afraid of live fishes. Why ah? Probably their teachers tell them they will get mad chicken or fish flu disease for touching these animals?

After the fish appreciation, we had our seafood dinner at a restaurant nearby. The sunset is so beautiful. One of the best in Sabah.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to fish, Pitas got lot of fish product for sale.

Fishing is a “free” hobby in Malaysia. We are so lucky? In US, you need to pay for a fishing license, even for recreational fishing. When the word “SUSTAINABILITY” becomes so important to the world on the use of natural resources now, it is a wise measure. But in Sabah, many people are fishing for FOOD, not fishing for fun. Well, still think we got unlimited supply of fishes? Read this. This is what happens when we only know to take take take and never give. Correction… we do give. Every year we contribute tons of plastic bags and waste to kill the corals, where the fishes live and breed.

Photos taken in Pitas, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Anyone knows where is Pitas? Many may have forgotten this little small town on Sabah map. Since I started my blog, this place was always a big question mark to me. There is nearly no information about Pitas on the Net, and I didn’t know what attraction it got, otherwise I could find an “excuse” to visit it.

Finally the Pesta Bengkoka (fishermen festival) last week gave me the chance to come to Pitas the first time. The event was held in Mempakad Beach. The first thing that caught my attenton was the hut-like structure a few KM away from the shore. I spotted more than 10 of them. At first I thought it was a fish nursery farm.

When I looked closer, each platform has a small hut on it, and it got light at night. In the following day, in a fishery exhibition, I was told that this was “Bagang,” a traditional fishing device used by Pitas fishermen since 1980. They place a big fishing net in the sea bottom, using light to attract the fishes gathering above the net. When thing looks promising, they just lift the net and collect all the fishes trapped inside the net.

Though the mechanism of Bagang looks simple, each of them costs about RM15,000 (nearly USD5,000) to build, mainly because of the use of expensive wood, which is resistant to sea water. Sadly, with that amount of money, they don’t get something like floating chalet. But they are trying to market it as an attraction. You can arrange a visit to Bagang, to see how they catch the fishes. Sound like a cool experience.

Imagine you are fishing and watching sunset on Bagang. So now you see the first promotion to Pitas on the Net. Pitas is one of the poorest district of Sabah. Hopefully tourism can bring more income to improve their living. My interest of further exploring this place is still strong after the first visit. Will tell you more if I come again.

The Marudu Bay is between the “ears” of Sabah and near to Pitas too. Probably due to lack of pollution by industralisation, the sea water is clean and suitable for oyster farming.

Picture below is a sea cucmber checking out the oysters. Some call these oyster as “Peacock Oyster” coz of its colours.

Ikan Billis (Billis Fish) is the famous product of Pitas. Besides being used as a ingredient for many local food, they are also made a good snack. My mouth watering already…

Photos taken in Pitas, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo