Tag Archives: Kota Marudu

Unduk Ngadau, Kota Marudu (Day 3)

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MySabah.com is incomplete without covering the Unduk Ngadau. I have been waiting a year for this traditional beauty pageant of Sabah, which is part of the celebration for Harvest Festival (Kaamatan) of KadazanDusun community. I shot hundreds of photos, until my 1.5 GB memory was full. The weather was bad that the rain and dark condition made my photography harder. I worried that I would miss any important moment so I stayed around the stage from 10 AM to 6 PM, even skipping my lunch.


Click Here to see 114 photos of Unduk Ngadau >>

Unduk Ngadau, is also known as Harvest Festival Beauty Queen Pageant, is carried out annually in different district during May, the Kaamatan month. To celebrate the launching of state-level Kaamatan Festival, Kota Marudu organised an Unduk Ngadau on May 1. There were 28 KadazanDusun ladies participated this year (The last number is No.30, but No.5 and No. 27 never showed up). They all dressed up in traditional costumes such as Kadazan Penampang, Kadazan Papar, Dusun Tuaran, Rungus, Tobilung, Kimaragang, Tindal.


Click Here to see 114 photos of Unduk Ngadau >>

There were only 2 rounds. The first round was a catwalk, followed by a IQ test session for individual. Then 15 ladies were shortlisted for the final round, based on the total score of their look and IQ. From there, top 5 winners would be chosen. I share 114 of their photos here. Satisfaction guaranteed as i didn’t miss out anyone of them. I post at least 3 photos for each beauty, so you can really see them from different angle and up-close. This time I publish the photos at bigger version. Hope you will like them.


Click Here to see 114 photos of Unduk Ngadau >>

Below is the result of Unduk Ngadau for Kota Marudu:
Unduk Ngadau 2006: Kelly Jubin (Contestant No. 19)
1st Runner-Up: Amylia Edmund (Contestant No. 25)
2nd Runner-Up: Dionysia Marius @ Alice (Contestant No. 24)
3rd Runner-Up: Ellyca Paul (Contestant No. 3)
4th Runner-Up: Aheronica Chen (Contestant No. 26)

Copyright Notice

I know some of you are very good in Photoshop, know how to remove the “MySabah.com” copyright stamp in my photo in seconds, then use it as if it is your work. Please note that you are welcome to distribute and use all the photos of MySabah.com for NON-PROFIT purpose, as long as you DO NOT remove the “MySabah.com” wording on the photo, and I will thank you for using my photos. Otherwise, you will get yourself into trouble. You have been warned.

Marudu Bay Carnival, Kota Marudu (Day 2)

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This is to continue the last blog on Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) launching in Kota Marudu. The Marudu Bay Carnival was part of the program of Kaamatan Festival launching. The event was carried out in Tanjung Batu of Marudu Bay, which is more than 20 KM away from Kota Marudu town.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Marudu Bay Carnival >>

The carnival looked more like a fishermen festival for me. They organised some interesting competitions such as oyster shell handicraft, oyster food *drool*, beautiful boat. Let’s look at the pictures and see if you know what they were doing. You can check out the photo gallery for the answers. Hope that will give you a good laugh.

Click Here to see the photo gallery of Marudu Bay Carnival >>

🙂 OK lah, tomorrow I will blog about the Unduk Ngadau, the Miss Harvest Festival Beauty Queen Pageant. I know some of you have been waiting for this. There were about 30 Kadazan Dusun ladies took part, so it will take me some time to pick the photos. I am quite sure MySabah.com is the only place you can see the most complete photo collection of these beauties. Haha… advertise for myself a bit. Please tell your friends about this site.


Click Here to see the photo gallery of Marudu Bay Carnival >>

Tamu Besar, Kota Marudu (Day 1)

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This year the launching of Pesta Kaamatan (Harvest Festival) month was held in Kota Marudu town from April 29 to May 1. I didn’t want to miss anything, so I was already there on the first day. To go to Kota Marudu, you can take the mini bus near the Padang Merdeka (in Kota Kinabalu). The ticket costs RM14 and it takes less than 3 hours to get there.

Most of the events were carried out in the football field of Kota Marudu. The first day was only a “warm-up” day, so the only highlight was the Tamu Besar (big local market), where you could buy some food, drink, fruits, vegetables and handicraft. Besides, there were some exhibition booths of government and a mini fun fair.

The second day was the Marudu Bay Carnival with lot of water sport activities. The BIGGEST attraction was on the third day (May 1), the Unduk Ngadau (Miss Harvest Festival beauty pageant). I will blog about them and upload the photo gallery ASAP. Make sure you come back and check later.

There were lot of handicraft on sale. I think most of them are made by Rungus people, who are skillful weaver live in Kudat and Kota Marudu area nearby. The prices are so cheap, can be up to 50% lower than the price in Kota Kinabalu! One of the booths even offered to weave my name on a bead bracelet, everything for RM5 only. The handicraft sold in the city was marked up really unreasonably high. It is the “tourist price”, I guess.

After shopped around for a while, I decided to buy the ship handicraft below. This 9-inch-tall ship is made of seashells and requires great deal of time and labour work. But it only costs RM10 each, so unbelievable, so I bought two. If you want to get this in city, I am afraid you will have to pay RM20 or more for each? But it was quite a headache to carry these fragile things back, on a bus. Glad I made it. They are in my room now.

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