Category Archives: Festivals

Lepa Queen

Regatta Lepa + Water Festival, Semporna

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I was in Semporna from April 14 to 16 coz of the Regatta Lepa. “Lepa” means “boat” in the dialect of east coast Bajau. Semporna’s Regatta Lepa is one of the most popular and colourful annual tourism events. All the hotels there were fully booked and I saw more foreigner tourists than any other events.

The territory of Bajau people is not only limited to the land, as we see in Kota Belud’s Tamu Besar. The Bajau at east coast, someone calls them Sea Bajau or Suluk, is good at sailing too. I consider Bajau got the most colourful culture in Sabah. They like to use bright colours in their costumes, handicrafts and even boat (lepa). In this festival, they decorated their boats with colourful flags, trying to win the first place in Beautiful Lepa Contest.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Regatta Lepa >>

After you see my photo gallery, you will understand that why I was willing to “risk” myself sleeping on the street (coz all hotel room fully booked). It was a fruitful and rewarding trip. I took nearly 700 photos in 2 days. Don’t be shocked. Usually I take multiple pictures of the same object, with different angles, timing, distance, camera setting, etc. At the end, I would only like one (or none) of them.

The Lepa boat has existed for several hundreds years. It was mainly used as a public transport in Semporna district, to transfer passengers and goods from island to island, village to village, between Borneo, Sulawesi and Suluk. Now we usually see lepa in wedding ceremony and special occassions such as National Day, celebrations and festival.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Regatta Lepa >>

There were more than 50 lepa, each represented a village, participated in this regatta. The colourful boat is not the only thing that makes this event so interesting. Every lepa got its own dancers and band. As early as 8 AM, they already played the gongs and drums, the dancers were wearing colourful traditional Bajau costumes and faked long fingernails, performed on the boats. Just imagine 50 boats made loud noise together. It was so grand and lasted until evening. You may check out my video clip (Format: Windows Media Video, Size: 7 MB, Length: 3:30 minutes) to get the idea.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Regatta Lepa >>

Needless to say, I was as excited as a kid, busy taking photos of the lepa and dancers. I particularly like seeing the little girls in their colourful costumes, so adorable and look like doll. I was there for whole day, so I knew they got two set of clothing, one for morning, one for afternoon. They were very cooperative. Everytime I just did a simple eye contact, they would smile and look at my camera.

After the festival was over, the heat was still on. I saw a “Lepa Car” Competition in the stadium when I was on the way leaving the town. So funny… You may check out the photo gallery for more pictures.

Cultural Carnival, Lahad Datu

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I think I am among the very few Sabahans who really appreciate the traditional costumes of indigenous people. Whenever I tried to share the photos of these colourful costumes with my friends, most would answer coldly, “Hmmm, Hmmm… good…” (try to entertain Smoke Head)

Well, I don’t really care if anyone is interested in my hobby. I just enjoy doing it, and that is what motivates me to visit all the local festivals throughout Sabah since last year. After nearly 1 year of photo hunting, I have posted hundreds photos of so many Sabah indigenous people such as Bajau, Suluk, Dusun Tatana, Rungus, Bisaya, Murut, Kadazan Penampang, Kadazan Papar, Lotud, Dusun Segama Subpan, Kimaragang, Dusun Lobou Sook, Dusun Tindal, Kimaragang, Tombonuo, Iranun, Orang Brunei, Lundayeh, Kedayah, Orang Ulu… Hope there are foreigner visitors, who like this stuff, attracted by my photos and come to Sabah. I am looking forward to the Harvest Festival in May. That whole month will be really a harvest time for me.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Cultural Carnival >>

I read the news about Cultural Carnival 2006 in Lahad Datu (Mar 11 – 12). Without hesitation, I went to Lahad Datu excitedly to see it. It is fun to look for pretty models wearing beautiful traditional costumes. They are always happily pose for photo shooting. Not bad lah this trip, coz I got the photos of people in Idahan, Lidu, and Bugis costumes.

The 2-day Cultural Carnival was organised by Sabah Cultural Board. I must say it is very well done. They got cultural performance in the morning and evening. The stage setting, dance performance, costumes… all was excellent. High quality show, a big thumb up. Because of that, my index finger lost control already and kept on pressing the camera shutter, until my 1 GB memory cards all full. You don’t need to travel long distance to see this. Just click the picture below to view the photo gallery.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Cultural Carnival >>

Lion and Dragon Dance Festival

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If you live in Kota Kinabalu, you all know about this annual event at Padang Merdeka already. So nothing new to introduce. Luckily yesterday was a sunny day. The difference this year is that I snapped over 250 photos and add them to my photo collection. It is the best chance to see the lions and dragons of all kinds, gather in one spot on the same day. Just click any picture below to view the photo gallery. Ya… I know the messages below are a bit… Anyway, don’t be so serious and let it gets to you. Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

Click Here to see Photo Gallery of Lion Dance >>

Fook Tet Kung Temple Parade, Donggongon

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I read the news about the parade of celebrating the consecratel of new Fook Tet Kung Temple in Penampang Donggongon. (Please pardon my poor English in describing the event coz there are too many religion terms that I don’t know.)

The main highlight was the parade on Jan 2, 2006. You could see the colourful event formed by various lions, dragon, god statues, flags… from over 20 temples from Sabah (Sipitang, Kudat, Tuaran, Kinarut, Papar, Labuan…). It is not too much to say that it is one of the most colourful (also the strangest) events that I ever saw.

To make sure I didn’t miss a thing, I was already at the temple at 7:30 AM. There were two sessions that day. In the morning, all the god statues from different temples arrived Fook Tet Kung one by one. The comers didn’t walk in directly to the temple. It seemed like they followed a protocol. If the visitor lions came, the temple would send the lions to welcome them at the entrance. If the visitor was a dragon, then it would be welcomed by the dragon from the host temple.


Picture 1 & 2: Anyone knows the names of these dragons?
Picture 3: Visiting dragon was welcomed by the dragon from host temple
Picture 4: Long line of parade in Donggongon town
Picture 5: Kids love these stilt men who also gave candy
Picture 6: Dragon: “It is a rainy day lah.”
Picture 7: Charge!!!

The 2-hour parade started at 1:30 PM and passed by all the shops in Donggongon town. Many Chinese shops prepared the table with burning joss-sticks, candles, fruits and food to welcome the blessing from the gods, lions and dragons. The loud gongs, drums, dancing lions + dragons, and hundreds of people made a really noisy opening for the new year 2006. This was the first time I seeing such religion parade, and I thought I was in a China town. It rained heavily at 3 PM but everyone’s spirit was still high. Quite an unforgettable and exciting experience… at least this is something new to me. For those of you who never see such event, I post 70+ more photos here for your enjoyment.

Click Here to get more Culture Shock >>

Gaya Street Christmas Carnival

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Yesterday I didn’t blog coz I was not at home until 11:30 PM. I went to the Gaya Christmas Carnival (Dec 19 – 23) at Gaya Street. I got there around 7:30 PM and the traffic started to jam. More and more cars coming in. Luckily I was not too late to find a parking nearby. Later the street was crowded.

There were a number of stalls along the street, just like the Sunday Gaya Street. But the difference was that everyone’s face was full of smile and look so happy. I am glad that our country is still a “worry-free” zone to travel. No big natural disaster, no H5N1 bird flu, no terrorist bombing… And people from different cultural background, religion and races could happily celebrate the Christmas together.

The highlight of last night was the Bamboo Orchestra. You could see a group of performers using traditional instruments made of bamboo, to play Christmas songs. For the picture above, in case you wonder, the people at the left were playing Sompoton, a famous bamboo pipe musical instrument in Sabah.

And the big bamboo tubes in the middle is the Bamboo Drum. There was a donation box in front of them, for audiences to donate $ for charity. Though I am jobless, I contributed RM10. Since I am so kind, I won’t be sent to hell, right?

Hehe… I noticed a young girl who played flute among them. She was so focus and concentrated, so that expression was really nice. Plus – her sweet look made her look like a little “angel”. I tried to take a few of her pictures to capture that moment (see the left). FYI, tonight (Friday) they got firework for the closing of Gaya Christmas Carnival. Do not miss it if you haven’t been there.

Click Here to see more photos >>

Photos taken in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Pesta Nelayan, Menumbok

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Last Saturday (Nov 26) there was a Pesta Nelayan (Fishermen’s Fest) in Menumbok. I took a bus and got there in 3 hours. Usually long distance bus only goes to populated area, so I thought Menumbok was a big town. Actually Menumbok is only a kampung (village). As you can see in the picture below, there are more cars than the houses. At the end of this kampung is the Menumbok Ferry Terminal, where you can take a ferry or small boats to Labuan, which is only 8 KM away. The ticket costs about RM10. Or you can swim across the sea.

Later I found from the locals that the Pesta Nelayan was held at Mempakul Beach. They said it was very near so I decided to walk there. Then I saw the signboard “Mempakul 2.6 KM.” Gee… probably they thought I went by car. Luckily there was a mini bus going there. The people there are very friendly, and they approached me and talked to me. If this event was in city, nobody would bother about my existence.

There were cultural dance performance, silat demo, exhibition, games and sports going on. I tried some local food. I liked the Sambal Fish Cake. It is made of fish meat and taste a bit salty and sweet. But the thing that interested me the most was the beach. I walked around and took some pictures of the beach, fishing boats and village. Mempakul is the intersection point of river and sea, so the “sea” water is in funny red tea color.

Mempakul beach is one of the greatest spot to shoot sunset photos, I believe. I wish to stay overnight but there is no hotel in the village. I wanted to tumpang the government resthouse nearby but it was all full. The only choice is to take a boat to Labuan for accommodation. But I have to take the boat before 5 PM, which is too early. So troublesome, therefore I went back to KK in the afternoon. The photo on top of this page is the fishing village of Menumbok. Hope you like it. It is really a beautiful place. I was lucky to get this shot. The cloudy sky, green trees and blue sea water were so fascinating…

Click Here to see the photo gallery of Pesta Nelayan >>

Photos taken in Menumbok, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Maize Fest (Pesta Jagung), Kota Marudu (Nov 12-13)

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Finally I went to Kota Marudu, my first time being there. Before I departed, I asked my friends and family what are the places of interest in Kota Marudu. All of them looked at me with blank face. Ok then.. I took a mini-bus, after 2 hours, I arrived Kota Marudu. Gee.. there was a power blackout. Luckily the electricity was back after 15 minutes.

Kota Marudu is a small town with some blocks of shop houses, and surrounded by sea of coconut trees. At first I saw nothing unique about this town. But in the evening of second day, around 6 PM, the view shocked me. I was walking to the venue of Pesta Jagung, and I saw thousands of birds all over the sky and wires, making hell lot of noise. Seem like there are more birds in this town than people. I didn’t bring my cap so I ran as quick as possible to avoid being bombard by bird sh*ts. Just check out the photos below.

There were some games in the first day of Pesta Jagung. I participated in the blowpipe competition. Using a blowpipe to hit a corn 20 feet away is easier to say than do, and it was windy that day. I got 3 darts but missed it totally. In fact, after 3 rounds by 20 participants (each with 3 chances), we hit the corn the 3rd time. I won nothing but taste the saliva of 20 other participants left on blowpipe. Goodness, I kissed 20 guys indirectly…

Photo Gallery 1: Activities in Maize Fest

Click Here to see the photo gallery on how we eat, play and decorate with maize >>

Guys, you should thank Smoke Head again for bringing you more photos of Sabah beauties. The Maize Beauty Fashion Queen Pageant is the highlight of Maize Fest. This is the 5th time this event is organized but probably the first time you can see these online. If you look at the photos closely, you will find that the pretty ladies were wearing “jewellery” made of corn leaves and seed.

Photo Gallery 2: Maize Beauty Queen Competition

Click Here to see over 60 photos of Maize Beauties >>

Photos taken in Kota Marudu, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo

Tamu Besar, Kota Belud

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I went to the Tamu Besar (Big Native Market) of Kota Belud on last Saturday and Sunday (Sep 24-25). Actually I have been waiting for this annual grand event since May. The Tamu Besar is one of the most popular festivals in Sabah. After the visit for 2 days, the 1GB memory card of my digital camera went full. No kidding, my digicam was so busy working that it almost melted (Go ahead, so I will have an excuse to buy a DSLR). I was really glad I went there. Next year I will come again.

For those of you who don’t know “Tamu”, it is a weekly local market, where all the local farmers, fishermen and vendors sell their products such as vegetables, fruits, fish, shrimps, livestocks, traditional medicines, food, drink, cloth, shoes, handicrafts and almost every daily-use items. A truly village type setting. You are not only seeing the Tamu, you can smell the Tamu. The Tamu Ground of Kota Belud is the biggest Tamu in Sabah and open on every Sunday. Kota Belud is just northeast 70KM away from Kota Kinabalu. Due to the good road condition, you can get there by car in only an hour.

I can only use three words to describe this festival: Colorful, Interesting and Fun. “Tamu Besar” is the name of the festival that is more than just a Tamu. Bajau people is the second largest indigenous group in Sabah (first is KadazanDusun, third is Murut) and they are very popular on their colorful costumes, horsemanship and handicrafts. Tamu Besar is a 2-day event that let you see all these.


There are 5 things that you must check out during the Tamu Besar:

  1. Bajau Horsemen: See 100 Bajau horsemen in action then you know they are also known as the Cowboys of the East. Each horse is decorated with color mat and different design. It is an exciting day for the horsemen, tourists and horses.
  2. Bajau Beauty Queen Pageant: Beautiful Bajau and Iranun ladies, with unique and ornate costumes, line up for contest.
  3. Animals Sport: The buffalo racing and game with horses are really eye opener and make you laugh out loud.
  4. Tamu Ground: The biggest local market with lot of interesting stuffs not found in shopping mall.
  5. Performance: The colorful traditional dance performance by local Bajau, Iranun, Dusun, Malay and Chinese people.

If you miss the event, don’t worry. I have shared over 200 photos and 7 video clips in this web site for your viewing pleasure. My Streamyx broadband is not quite stable recently. It took me 4 hours to upload only 35MB of files. Such a pain… It always happens a few days every month, as if it got PMS. Anyway… here you go:

Check out the Photo Gallery of Tamu Besar

Photos taken in Kota Belud, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo