Sodop Unduk Ngadau (Gala Night)

Now I am the fan of Unduk Ngadau (Miss Harvest Festival), so of course I would not miss out the 47th Sodop Unduk Ngadau (a.k.a. Unduk Ngadau Gala Night) on May 28 in Penampang KDCA. It was like a annual fund-raising dinner (7pm – 10:30pm) and a warm-up for the State-Level Unduk Ngadau competition on May 31. I already asked for the ticket in early May but unfortunately they sold the tickets by table (10 seats). Luckily they managed to reserve one for me later.

It was quite an enjoyable dinner. Even though I was sitting 50 feet away from the stage, there were two big screens which projected what was happening on the stage. My initial plan was to take the pictures of those Unduk Ngadau. After seeing the food, I became lazy to move already. Anyway, I just remained seated and took some pictures using my 12x optical zoom camera, with my mouth full. Most of the photos were blur, but I still able to capture a few OK pictures of top 3 winners of Unduk Ngadau 2006 (Sabah State Level) in their evening gown.

Besides eating, there were some shows going on. They displayed a few videos:
1) Sabah State Unduk Ngadau since year 1960
2) Introduction of 45 Unduk Ngadau finalists this year
3) Report on past activities of Unduk Ngadau 2005

Madelynn, the Unduk Ngadau 2005, also came on stage to share her experience as a beauty queen. It was a touching moment. From her expression, could see that she missed the days a lot. Guess a lot of thought went through her mind that night.

I also got a chance to see the beauties dressed in evening gown. Well, to be frank lah, the Unduk Ngadau bulky classic hairstyle and heavy make-up make those girls look like aunties. Come on… they are only 17 to 25 years old. So it was good to see them dressed up more “naturally”. FYI, there were Unduk Ngadau represented Kuala Lumpur (Klang Valley) and Labuan too.

Many may not know that there are also two subsidiary titles for Unduk Ngadau, namely Miss Photogenic and Miss Friendship, and both titles were awarded to Unduk Ngadau Petagas and Tamparuli respectively. I noticed that they used certain district names interchangeeably, for example, Klias = Beaufort, Balung = Tawau, Tanjung Papat = Elopura, Tenom = Kemabong, Kinabatangan = Sukau. Not a big issue. It just confused me a bit while I was trying to organise and name their photos.

At the end of the dinner, due to the requests from many photographers, the organiser agreed to let us to take the group photo of Unduk Ngadau. It was only a few minutes. I share some of the photos below. Just click them to view the bigger version. Happy lah you… Kesian me paid RM100 for the ticket. You didn’t buy the ticket so don’t complain too much ok.