After their Semi-Final competition on May 23, they had the Final contest on Jun 1. It was also a joyful night, with even more people coming. Before that, the 16 contestants also had a fashion show at Asia City Complex. I think they also had promotion activity at Gaya Street and other shopping malls too. Goodness… May is really a Beauty Pageant month. We had Miss Sabah 2007, Model Search, and Unduk Ngadau 2007, etc. all in one month. The coming ones are Miss Tourism, Miss Pearl Oriental, Miss Hakka… Sabah got so many Miss…
Seem like all my personal favourites have won something in final. To find out who are the winners, check out the photo album.
After doing the extensive photo coverage for Miss Sabah 2007 in early May, I didn’t plan to make any big photo album for Unduk Ngadau 2007 this year. Somehow I was involved coz they needed someone to document their activities and happening. It is silly to decline such a great opportunity to get closer to 36 beauties (Unduk Ngadau) from all over Sabah, so… why not? Lucky lah you, this year can see them in 3D (= casual Dress + evening Dress + traditional Dress), 288 photos of both their classic and modern look.
Unduk Ngadau (Harvest Queen) pageant is one of the most important highlight of Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival). Starting from early May every year, over 30 Sabah districts will organise their local Unduk Ngadau pageant to choose their beauties to compete again in State-Level Unduk Ngadau pageant, which is usually held annually on May 31 at HK (“Hongkod Koisaan” of KDCA Penampang, not Hong Kong lah). After 40 years (since 1967), this competition has become a KadazanDusun + Murut cultural heritage, as well as tourism event. This year they have 36 contestants (there should be more coz they disqualified those who are under 18 or over 25 years old). To help you to see which region they come from, I create the map below. The numbering order is based on the number of the contestants. Pagalungan (No.12) is the new region this year. I have travelled whole Sabah for years, but still never hear some of the names on the list.
The coolest thing about Unduk Ngadau pageant is that the contestants will dress in traditional costumes such as KadazanDusun, Murut, and Rungus, which usually represents the main ethnic group of their region. The ladies will be judged on their beauty, presentation, costume and intelligence. 1st Round is the introduction round. 2nd round is the catwalk (minus the vigorous butt-shaking like fashion models). Then 15 finalists will be selected to enter the 3rd round, IQ test. Lastly, top 7 will be decided.
Hearing the big cheer and applause from the crowd, everyone knew that Jo-Anna Sue Henley Rampas (Tuaran) would win the queen title this year. Her father is a British, so she looks like orang putih. In the IQ test, she was nervous at first, but the audiences just cheered at every word she said, so she became brave and gave a long speech that impressed the judges. Poor girl… why try so hard? Actually I am sure that she still could win, as long as she didn’t say the wrong thing or say nothing in this round. Haha… If I am not mistaken, the BIG crown on her head was ordered from Thailand. Below is the final result, same as the one I posted in my last blog. It was so hard to get the shoot, hundreds of people were totally out of control and pushed around to take their photos. Aiya come on lah, those with stupid handphone camera step aside please…
1st Runner-Up (left): Brenda Mellonie Johnny Takom (Putatan) Unduk Ngadau 2007 (middle): Jo-Anna Sue Henley Rampas (Tuaran) 2nd Runner-Up (right): Cherylanne Chok Binti Chok Kui Eng (Beluran)
3rd Runner-Up: Dorina Darick (KK City)
4th Runner-Up: Viola Fidilis (Inanam)
5th Runner-Up: Cassey V. Pilos (Tawau)
6th Runner-Up: Jaslinder Kaur A/P Harjit Singh (Klang Valley of Peninsular Malaysia)
Subsidiary Titles Miss Popular (by SMS Voting): Cassey V. Pilos (Tawau) Miss Friendly (Tati Tosuau): Viola Fidilis (Inanam) Miss Natural Beauty (Tati Topiodo): Jo-Anna Sue Henley Rampas (Tuaran)
The Miss Friendly and Miss Natural Beauty were awarded in Sedap Unduk Ngadau night. No, sorry… I mean Sodop Unduk Ngadau (Gala Night) on May 29. The Miss Popular by SMS voting is something new this year, to make the telco rich. I was so tired, after following them and taking their photos for 3 days, so I accidentally deleted 100 images, which haven’t been downloaded, from a memory card (banging my head to the wall). Fortunately, those are not very important pictures. Otherwise I would have jumped out of the window.
I don’t know what happened to May coz there were so many beauty pageants going on. I don’t want the readers got bored of my too-much-blogging on liang moi (pretty girls). My hormone level went wrong that evening, so I went to see the Ratu Kaamatan (Kaamatan Beauty Queen) 2007 Semi-Final at Razz Ma Tazz on May 23, as if there is a devil living inside me…
Just joking lah. Anyway, enjoy lah now, who knows next time I would not take such photos. Compared to Ratu Kaamatan 2006, there are more (and better) contestants this year. They have 20 contestants, but No. 5, 6 and 8 absent that night. I also looked at their preview at Asia City Complex last week. The “mixture” of their look is good. You can find mature, sexy, cute, slim, juicy, sporty, etc. types of girl among them.
All girls competed in 3 rounds, namely, (1) Casual wear and introduction, (2) Evening dress, and (3) Swimwear (Oh Yeah~!) + Hot dance. In swimwear round, the girl could either dance alone, or she can choose a male audience to dance with her. Therefore, some “unlucky” male audiences were “forced” by their friends (sigh~ why nobody forced me leh?) to go on stage dancing with the sexy contestants. WOW… sometimes the lady danced so hot and daring that her male partner also cannot “tahan”, became shy and stepped aside.
My personal favourites are No.9 (Wiwi), No.16 (Joanne) and No.20 (Emily). No.7 (Anne) is the sexiest among them, making my nose bleeding. No.19 (Aine) received the most votes and became Miss Popular. At the end, the organiser was so happy with the girls that ALL of them will enter the Final tonight (June 1). I wonder what the judges were doing there. Nevermind lah, everyone is happy about it.
If you want to see 200+ photos of State-Level Unduk Ngadau 2007 (Harvest Queen) Beauty Pageant, please come back to check later. Now I publish the result first.
Winners of State-Level Unduk Ngadau 2007 (From left to right) 1st Runner-Up: Brenda Mellonie Johnny Takom (Putatan) Unduk Ngadau 2007: Jo-anna Sue Henley Rampas (Tuaran) 2nd Runner-Up: Cherylanne Chok Binti Chok Kui Eng (Beluran)
Others who have entered Top 7
3rd Runner-Up (left 1): Dorina Darick (KK City)
4th Runner-Up (left 2): Viola Fidilis (Inanam)
5th Runner-Up (left 3): Cassey V. Pilos (Tawau)
6th Runner-Up (left 4): Jaslinder Kaur A/P Harjit Singh (Klang Valley of Peninsular Malaysia)
Winners of Subsidiary Titles (From left to right) Miss Friendly (Tati Tosuau): Viola Fidilis (Inanam) Miss Natural Beauty (Tati Topiodo): Jo-anna Sue Henley Rampas (Tuaran) Miss Popular (by SMS Voting): Cassey V. Pilos (Tawau)
Congratulations to Jo-anna!
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
The Female Model Search comes back again this year. To check out the quality of the girls, I went to their 1st Heat (May 7) and 2nd Heat (May 21) in BED Waterfront. They only showed 10 models in each heat, so I had to go to both 1st and 2nd heat to see all 20 models. Some girls will amaze you, some will impress you, and some will even make you laug… hmm… smile. There were 3 rounds: (1) Casual wear, (2) Beach wear / Sport wear, and (3) Jean wear. In 3rd round, they needed to pose with a chair on the stage.
Looking at all the comments posted at my previous blog – Female Model Search Semi-Final 2006, it seems like many people have a wrong idea why these beauties go on stage. This is not really a beauty pageant. The girls don’t go there to show off their pretty faces and sexy figures. Good look is important, but this contest is more about style, fashion, modeling and even creativity. Most of the contestants are part-time or full-time models. Participating in such contest is a natural and sensible choice, as they need better profile and exposure to advance their modeling career. Unlike overseas models who can charge $ by minute, modeling job is not a gold rice bowl in Sabah, so they have to grab any opportunity.
Shannel, Miss Oriental Malaysia 2006, was also there as a guest in 1st Heat of Female Model Search. She took part in this competition last year. In an interview with Yobe magazine, she mentioned that other Miss Oriental Malaysia contestants sneezed at her, saying something like “What the heck, Sabah is so shang-ba (kampung), where got beauty one?” I am glad that finally she won the queen title and made us proud.
Compared to last year, this year I think I took better photos. However, the inherited slow flash re-charge (5-6 second waiting before next shoot) of non-professional camera remains a hardware barrier that can’t be overcome by skill. When SLR photographers can shoot 5 or more pictures in 10 seconds, I can shoot only 2. Anyway, still enough photos to show you what was going on.
Wedding with Smoke Head is the BIGGEST dream of every girl. To create her Most Beautiful Moment in life, there are a lot of things to do, from head to feet, such as hair, make-up, skin care, studio photo-shooting. Last week there was a wedding fair in Asia City Complex. Of course I wouldn’t miss the chance to see the pretty models in their most beautiful moment. For this, I cancelled my trip to see Unduk Ngadau contest in Beaufort and Penampang. The fair started with the hair styling demo, the hair styler “Sifu” looked so serious and professional.
Wedding Dress and Evening Gown are the most important items. They work like a fascinating gift wrapping paper, which makes everyone wants to tear it and see what is inside. White is the traditional color of wedding dress for hundreds of year, but personally I would be delighted to see it in red hot, soft pink, cute yellow colors, etc., which are more creative, unique and special, not something like a uniform. I have captured ALL the wedding dress and evening gown in 3 days of bridal show. You can see them all in my photo album.
The bridal shows were very well done. The conclusion is – if you are pretty, whatever you wear, you will still look beautiful, the opposite is also true. In the catwalk, there was one gorgeous and elegant model, who was always followed by storm of camera flashes, wherever she walked (her pictures below). She is a new face to me. When she wore the deep-V evening dress (note: without under oh), I heard lot of WOW-WOW WAH-WAH from the crowd. She was a bit shy about it too, as the dress was really “exposing” and sexy. She also wore other special dresses. I will let you look for more photos of her in the album.
Besides the dresses, accessories, slimming solution, and skin care, studio photo packages were also available in the wedding fair. Honestly, I believe most guys do not like the idea of taking photos of him in silly Samurai costum, playing chasing bride on the beach… For me, it is ok if both dress in doctor + nurse, stewardess + captain… more straight forward, hahaha… They tried to convince me to take studio photos with my girl friends. Taking studio photos with my little Mrs Five? No lah, if people see the album, they will not dare to shake hand with me again.
Until now I am still a single. Wonder if I can’t find other half… My requirements are very low mah, she has to be pretty, sexy (with G-cup), rich, 20 years younger than me, considerate, service-oriented, healthy, and a VIRGIN (not the artificial one). Today our society is quite open-minded and does not require a license to have sex, so the last requirement is probably the hardest one. Therefore, most men had changed the requirement from “being a virgin” to “willing to do blowjob”, “willing to do it in doggy style” (still more like a wish though). Consider many are married around age of 30 nowadays, I can’t imagine if I hear something like: “Take me, Smoke Head, I have been keeping ‘this’ 30 years, just for you…”, sound like something… OK lah, I am just joking, don’t get offended alright.
Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
This event started in morning of May 13. Like other Harvest Festival celebration, they had Unduk Ngadau (Harvest Festival Queen) beauty pageant for N.16 Luyang district, cooking contest, Sugandoi (KadazanDusun song) competition, cultural dance performance, traditional sport, lucky draw, etc. One interesting programme (to Uncle Gold Fish) is the kid fashion competition, though most of them dressed in traditional costumes actually. They were totally lost, when the adult asked them to do “catwalk” on the stage, they ran instead. So cute…
Normally, two stars would be born for such event. One is Sugandoi champion singer, and another is Unduk Ngadau, for that district. Both of them will be sent to compete in State-Level later. Usually these competition are open to KadazanDusun and Murut communities. Sino can join too, if they know the language. Click Here to see more photos of Luyang Kaamatan >>
This is probably the smallest Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant that I’ve ever seen, only six contestants! That means half of them can win a title (Queen, 1st Runner-Up and 2nd Runner-Up). One of the contestants won 1st place in Sugandoi competition and 2nd Runner-Up in Unduk Ngadau. Heck… I used to see so many liang moi in Luyang, where have they gone huh? Click Here to see more photos of Luyang Kaamatan >>
Every start should have an end. After months of exhausting work, at last everyone (finalists, sponsors, organisers, partners) could have a relaxing moment to truly enjoy a dinner at Tai Thong Restaurant in D-Junction, on May 11. Madelyne (Miss Sabah 2007), Cathress (1st Runner-Up + Miss Popular Online) and Stella didn’t show up coz they were not in KK. But the presence of 13 Miss Sabah 2007 pretty finalists were already more than enough to generate some excitement among the customers in the restaurant.
Emily (Ng Yin Yin), the Miss Photogenic of Miss Sabah 2007, is crowned as the Diriwan (Lotto88) Ambassador that evening, to promote the charity activity. FYI, Madelyne (Miss Sabah 2007) was also appointed as Miss KAC (Kompleks Asia City) on May 6. Wah… why nobody choose me as an Ambassador for something too, I ask for RM10,000 per month only, haha… Nevermind lah, at least MySabah.com could get some exclusive photos. I was surprised that they found their photos in my blog so soon, which I posted only 30 hours before the dinner. They also felt ‘hurt’ that some blog made fun of them (not me ah).
Every beauty received souvenir, CD, poster and gift from the sponsor. What interest me was the 16 individual posters, which were especially designed and printed for each finalist, only 1 copy in Sabah.
BTW, not only me, many were wondering what talent Amanda (Miss Talent) got. The guests were so happy to see the answer shaked and danced in front of them. I got the photos in the photo album. Enjoy, but don’t lick the monitor please.
Being released from heavy stress, these girls were in good mood, started to have fun and act more youthful and playful. All of them was wearing the most beautiful make-up (i.e. lovely and natural smiles). According to them, this is really a once of a lifetime experience, and the first time they were made like a superstar. After the dinner, the next day their life will be back to normal, like the ordinary one you and I live. No matter how others view this event, but undoubtedly, it had created an unforgettable memory to the beauties, the city and the people of Sabah.
