I didn’t know there was a Unduk Ngadau Competition in Monsopiad Village on May 14, until a friend who worked there informed me earlier that they got such activity as part of the 10 year celebration of their village. Actually my initial plan was to go to the Unduk Ngadau Competition in Kota Belud. Somehow my friend managed to convince me to go to their function.
The Unduk Ngadau competition started by 22 contestants crossing the suspension bridge at 2 PM. I was glad that I was there coz most of them seemed to be quite “high quality” (as my wife, hahaha…). Most of them are from Penampang. It was quite true many told me that Penampang is the best place in “making” Unduk Ngadau. Another nice thing is that there were not many “arrogant” Nikon-SLR photographers around.
The hall was quite small, so I could stand very near to the stage, only a few feet away to take the photos of the contestants. This eliminated the need to use high optical zoom level, as it would make the photos look grainy and blur. Again, I shot 100+ photos so you could see each of them from side, front, figure and up-close. I think the overall outcome is quite ok.
Being selected as the beauty queen is probably one of the happiest moment in girl’s life. But I never used my camera to capture the expression of their faces at that moment, a mixed feeling of happy, excitement, joy, surprise. Sigh… only now I realise that I miss a lot of precious moment.
Last Sunday there was a Mr. Warrior Competition at Penampang Monsopiad Village. It was organised in conjunction with Unduk Ngadau. A long time ago in Sabah, to become a warrior, all you needed to do was to cut off enemies’ head and hanged them as trophies in your house. Today headhunting is a murder so it is illegal.
To be a modern warrior, there are more talent required. I am not sure whether they were having the competition just for fun, but the men were seriously finishing every challenges such as dancing, using blowpipe, walking on bamboo stilts, and other skill tests. I use my imagination to create a storyboard below. Hope you like it. At last I got some eye candy for my female readers.
Kudat is probably the cleanest town in Sabah. I think it won the Cleanest Sabah Area two years in a roll. It is a peaceful town and the famous Esplanad Sidek is just nearby. If I was in Kudat, I would take a leisure walk there everytime. But I have no idea why it is featured as one of the tourist spots of Kudat.
If you are from Kota Kinabalu, you should concern about this Unduk Ngadau Competition (May 12, Dewan Masyarakat Menggatal) coz it was selecting the Unduk Ngadau to represent KK City. The contestants were beauties from Inanam, Api-Api, Luyang, Telipok, Sepangar, and Menggatal. In the end of May, more than 40 Unduk Ngadau, sent by different district from all over Sabah, will compete for the best of the best in the grand final.
For knowledge test, the candidates will be tested on their knowledge on Kaamatan. Below are some of the most popular questions:
1) What is the meaning of Kaamatan?
2) What makes a good Unduk Ngadau?
3) What is the name of the paddy spirit?
4) What is the purpose of Magavau?
5) What are the jobs of Bobohizans?
6) Which ethnic group celebrates Kaamatan?
7) Name 3 traditional dances / musical instruments of KadazanDusun.
If you find that your favourite face can’t make it to the top 3, very likely that they may have screwed up in the knowledge test. The judges are not blind ok.
Final Result of Unduk Ngadau Competition (Kota Kinabalu City):
Unduk Ngadau 2006 (middle): Jacelyn Joyce Apun(No. 2)
1st Runner-Up (left): Kay Maryln Josune (No. 7)
2nd Runner-Up (right): Devenna Jaikob (No. ‘8’)
The web traffic of MySabah.com has increased a lot lately. Guess some of you may be crazy downloading the pictures of Unduk Ngadau. I was so dedicated taking photos on the spot that everytime there was someone gave me his namecard and said he wanted to buy my photos. This is the 4th Unduk Ngadau photo gallery I share online, free for everyone to see, and they are more later. Lucky lor you. I have been shooting the photos of beauty pageant around Sabah for nearly a year. It is not an easy job. You can check out the FIRST beauty pageant photos taken by Smoke Head, very bad job, isn’t it?
I find this huge sign, which reads “Let’s United to fight the enemies of our country,” is quite amusing coz it does not say who is our enemy. In short, it is meaningless and create no awareness. It is same as posting a notice saying “Please buy our product” but not telling you what product it is. Probably Jabatan “Penerangan” can menerangkan (explain) a bit what it is about.
Besides the Unduk Ngadau beauty pageant, the Sugandoi Competition (means Singing Competition) is also one of the popular activities of Kaamatan celebration. The contestants usually dress in KadazanDusun or Murut costume, which is counted as part of the score, and sing the popular KadazanDusun songs. The winner will be invited to perform in district Kaamatan celebration.
I was taking a bus to Kudat last week. It was a 3 hour trip. A pretty girl, sitting next to me, fell in sleep and leaned on my shoulder for hour. She gave me a sweet smile when she got down the bus. I saw she was heading to the Kudat / Banggi Ferry Terminal, so I was curious if there were more pretty girls like her on Banggi Island.
Pic: Ferry to Banggi Island from Kudat’s jetty
Banggi Island (Pulau Banggi) is the biggest island of Sabah. Before I went there, I only knew this island was a BIG dot on the Sabah map. That’s all. I never heard anything about it.
How to go to Banggi Island
To go to Banggi Island, you can take a ferry at the jetty of Kudat town (see schedule below). There are a few companies offers ferry transfer back and forth Kudat and Banggi. You better wait there earlier than departure time b’coz they may move a few minutes sooner.
Company
Kudat → Banggi
Banggi → Kudat
Banggi Express
9:00am
2:00pm
Sri Labuan Lima
2:30pm
8:00am
Pelican Express
2:30pm
8:00am
Labuan Express Tujuh
9:00am
2:00pm
*updated: 21 Feb 2014
In general, the Business Class ticket costs RM25 (≈USD7.58) per way (has air-conditioning), First Class ticket costs RM18 (≈USD5.45), Economy Class costs RM15 (≈USD4.55). For enquiry, you may call +60 19-8614006 or +60 14-8579480 (Vivie). Below is the location of the jetty: View My Sabah Map in a larger map
There were a lot of 3-feet jelly fishes swam in the sea next to the terminal. I heard that a blogger fell (with his camera) into this sea before. Scary… they look very poisonous.
The ferry took one hour to reach Banggi Island. I was standing on the jetty and looked around. Hmmm… this island does not look anything like a tourist site. It is just an island, with some villages and building. The locals also looked at me, with the phrase “what is he doing here?” written on their faces. My 016 mobile line got no signal here. The fried banana is quite cheap though. Only RM1 (USD0.25) for 12 pieces, eat until I puke. The locals said I could rent a car to explore the island, and tourists usually went to this island for fishing. You can hire a boat to explore other islands nearby too. I only stayed there for half a day so I didn’t have time to do these.
The local also told me there was a Bonggi Resort on the island. If you don’t know the way, it will be hard to find coz the resort looks more like a house. I post the guide below FYI.
1. Turn right after you leave the jetty. Take the way next to the mosque.
2. Walk til the end, you will see two wooden shoplots.
3. Walk between the shoplots til the end, you will see a school.
4. The Bonggi Resort is a white building behind the school.
To overnight, you have two choices in Bonggi Resort: (1) Take the fan / air-cond room for RM30 / RM45 per night, or (2) Try the wooden hut (Banggi people style) for RM25 per night. Option (1) got bed, attached washroom, cabinet. Option (2) got light and a bed only, washroom is outside. I was not comfortable with the wooden hut coz it got too many “holes”, very little privacy. Just check out the photo gallery to look at both options more closely. But the most interesting thing is the “tree house” I found outside my room. It is built on top of the tree, and tourists like to take a nap or reading book there. I went back to my room and tried to turned on the light. No power. They told me that the resort only got power from 6 PM to 6 AM (huh!~). The room was so warm in the afternoon, so I climbed onto the tree house and slept until 6 PM, at least I could feel the sea breeze on top. I was a Sabahans lived on tree, haha. I didn’t find that pretty girl eventually, but I took a few photos of the island. Now you can see the photos of Sabah’s biggest island.
There were 13 girls competed in the Unduk Ngadau Beauty Pageant in Kudat district on May 9, 2006. This time the organiser also displayed the biodata of the contestants, so I got a copy from them. You can see their height, figure, hobby… at the bottom of each photo. Quite a number of them are Rungus girls (most Rungus lives in Kudat area).
Actually some of them are very pretty, but it happened that they chose the wrong hairstyle and make-up, causing them looked less “presentable”. Usually I am very kind and don’t post any negative comment about beauty pageant contestants. After all, people took courage to participate to make the event successful and we should encourage that. So just let them have a good memory.
There will be more photos of Unduk Ngadau coming. I am not being crazy about pretty girls or what. I just think that it is fun to post the photos, so my site got the MOST Unduk Ngadau photos than any other web sites, Muhaha… Who got the most photos of Sabah beauties? I guess now you have NO doubt already.
