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.
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.
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.
Click Here to see photos of Banggi Island >>
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.
Click Here to see photos of Banggi Island >>
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.
Click Here to see photos of Banggi 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).
Click Here to see photos of Unduk Ngadau (Kudat) >>
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.
Click Here to see photos of Unduk Ngadau (Kudat) >>
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.
Click Here to see photos of Unduk Ngadau (Kudat) >>
I think many of you had heard about a “ghost” island (known as Pulau Batu Hairan in Malay language) emerged on 15 Apr 1988. This island just rise up from the sea floor, remain above the sea for a short period, then it would sink and disappeared. It is next to the east side of Banggi Island, roughly at latitude 7 degrees and 16 minutes north, and longitude 117 degrees 20 minutes east, about 70 km northeast of Kudat town. The pictures below were taken in May of 1988 (I don’t know the author and source). As you can see, the island is full of corals, very beautiful. Don’t know whether it will come up again. Really want to go there to have a look.
The island was initially small in size, but after a few days gradually grew to approximately the size of a football field. After two weeks, the island was estimated to be about 60-70 metres in diameter. The island is roughly rounded in shape and is about 2-3 metres in height (taking into account the fall and rise of the tide).
According to Dr. Felix Tongkul, a famous geologist, the birth of the new island, so-called Pulau Batu Hairan due to mud volcanism is closely related to the geology of the northern part of Sabah. The island was caused by a mud volcano or mud extrusion, evidence of which is abundant on the island and is a common occurrence on mainland Sabah, especially in the Dent Peninsula.
The book “Sabah Museum And Archives Journal” (1990, Vol 1, No.3), published by Sabah State Museum, also has a 6-page article titled “Pulau Batu Hairan – The Birth of a New Island” that explains the formation of this ghost island in detail with diagrams.
I took the photos of this article and post it below. You can click each of the picture to view it in bigger size:
According to the nearby villagers, this island first appeared as early as 1941 (year of pacific WWII, a bad omen?). If you are lazy to read the long article, FYI, the conclusion by geologists is – this mysterious island was pushed to the surface by mud volcano activity (abrupt explosion of trapped undersea gas).
Before we arrived The Tip of Borneo, the white sand and crystal blue water at Tanjung Simpang Mengayau caught our attention. The beach is so beautiful, clean and pure that I call it the “Perfect” beach, something that would only appears in dream. I was told that we could camp there, and the sunset of The Tip of Borneo is one of the best. I will come back again next time, for longer period. There are also a few longhouses nearby that offer accommodation to tourists.
I don’t want to be wordy on describing the beauty of The Tip of Borneo. Just check out the photo gallery and see it yourself. Actually we are not allowed to go down and walk on the rock. But I just could not resist to get closer to the tip. If you check out my photo gallery later, you will know that it is quite dangerous to stand near the tip coz the strong wave would hit you to the sea.
The nature has done an excellent job to make the Tip a piece of art. I like to check out the rock ponds. You can see fishes, crabs, shrimps and shells trying to hide in the small pond. If I can cook the rock pond, each of them will become a bowl of delicious seafood soup, hahaha…
Click Here to view more photos of The Tip of Borneo >>
The road condition is considered ok overall. When you reach Kota Belud, the famous cowboy town, be extra cautious. Coz you will find many cows roaming on the road. Sometimes they just come out from nowhere. Do not horn them. You will only get two results. The first one is – they ignore you totally. The second response is – they got panic and run like a headless fly, causing accident on another lane. Before you reach Kudat, you would find some wooden stalls by the roadside, where you can stop and buy some local farm products, such as peanuts, coconut, rice cracker, corn… Again, for local yokel like me, I will open my mouth wide and take a nap.
We arrived Kudat around 11 AM, with empty stomach. So we decided to try the famous Kudat Tofu (Soybean cake) Dumpling in Pakka Choon. If you are a muslim, sorry lah, it is not halal coz it contains pork. To get there, if you see the temple below in Kudat (see pictures below), just go straight and you will see a roundabout at the end. Turn to the road that has the sign “Jalan Tomanggong Kurantud”. Follow the main road for roughly 1.5 KM, you will arrive Pakka Choon area, and you would see an old wooden shoplot at your left side. You can see a few yellow signboards such as “Siew Lan Tailor”, “Thart Seng Electrical” there. Hope this info is good enough for you to locate the place.
They offer rich variety of yummy yummy tofu dumpling, e.g. eggplant, mushroom, liver, sausage, curry flavors… I personally like the one with liver. If you are first time trying, you may order a few bowls of different tofu dumpling so you can taste each of them. Each bowl costs around RM4 to 5 (USD1 to 1.25). When I was taking photos of the food, those waitresses hiding behind laughing. Probably they think I am nut. You also can order Ngiu Chap (or U-Chap) there and it tastes quite good.
To recognise and appreciate the significant contribution of coconut, the 9th annual Pesta Kelapa (Coconut Festival) was organised successfully from Sep 8 to 11, 2005 in Kudat town. The event was held in Tomborungus Field, somewhere in the centre of the town, very convenient. If you plan to go to Kudat by bus, you can catch up the 8 AM or 1 PM bus near the bus terminal of Padang Merdeka. The drive will take 3 hours and the ticket costs about RM15 (one way). FYI, the 8AM bus from Kudat to Kota Kinabalu is available in front of the Ria Hotel. For locals, you would prefer to get there with your car as the road condition to Kudat is good.
If you find this event interesting, do not miss it next year. I heard that they would celebrate the 10th Pesta Kelapa (in year 2006) in big scale. The Coconut Fashion Queen Pageant, which had children and adult categories held in different day, is really something unique, creative, and of course, fun. There were over 50 coconut dress designs shown, and you can see the complete collection in this site. Somehow I think I should get a trophy or something. The Pesta Kelapa has been around for 9 years and I guess I am the only one who creates a online photo gallery for the Coconut Fashion Show. 🙂
There were some small-scale sport events and exhibition during daytime. The number of exhibition booths were much lesser than the Sago Festival and GATA Festival. A main thing that was left out was the opportunity to try out different exotic food and dishes made of coconut, like the Sago Festival. I expected to eat a lot of coconut food but ended up having my meals at the restaurants nearby. But overall, the event is well done.
Check out the photo gallery…
Photos taken in Kudat, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
