Starry sky and firefly aren’t part of the childhood of younger generation in Sabah. We can’t relate when our grandparents tell us about the beautiful night of their home villages. Though Sabahans are really proud of their stunning sunset, nobody from Kota Kinabalu City (KK) would stare at the sky after dusk. Because they would only see cloud, faked stars (satellites) and a handful of dim stars. The stars never leave us, they are just blinded by the city light.
“Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there.” ― Christy Evans
What if I tell that you can see the starry sky close to KK? It’s in Sugud of Penampang district and highly accessible by paved road. The stargazing spot is only 27 Kilometres from KK and takes 40 minutes drive one way. This is so convenient because most stargazing sites are more than 100 Km away from cities.
The magical moment with the stars at Sugud
This location is just an open space near Kampung Timpangoh Laut (Kampung means Village) in Sugud and has no name and address. Local stargazers just call it Sugud Milky Way Plain (I’ll just call it Sugud in this article). There is no street light and residential house there.
An abandoned lorry at Sugud covered by crawler vines
Sugud is 352 Metres (1,155 feet) above sea level, so it’s a bit cooling at night. Besides the starry sky, you can see KK city at the west too. In the dark from Sugud, you can see that KK is engulfed by a large “light dome” that can even illuminates the cloud. Due to the light pollution, everyone inside that dome can’t see many stars.
A dozer at Sugud becomes a prop for photo shooting
Once your eyes adapted to the darkness in Sugud, you will find the “childhood companions” of your grandparents high up. Then you understand why their favourite nighttime activity in old day is sky-watching.
The site has nothing (no toilet!) except a small hut and an abandoned lorry. You would find a dozer there. Seem like someone is trying to clear this area to build something. Hope it’ll be a camping ground or lodge that is catered for stargazing. It only takes one lamp post to destroy this special spot.
A dead tree with beautiful branches
You can sit around and chill, enjoy the breeze, contemplating the stars or KK city light. And you should take some photos with the stars. The photos that I show here are not taken during the best time, but still there are plenty of stars. The best months for stargazing in Sabah are between March and September, when the brightest part of Milky Way appears.
City light of Kota Kinabalu City. The excessive light spills everywhere and even reach the cloud.
You might be interested in exploring the place but avoid stepping into the grass area (near lorry). I was bitten by a leech last time. I’m more concern about snakes. Frogs like to hide in the grass after rain and they attract snake. Anyway, you will be totally safe if you stay on the exposed soil ground.
Staring Into the Unknown. The light from KK is visible at the right.
Understanding the stars can be a life-changing skill. In the past, sailors used stars for navigation, and the king would believe every bullshit a prophet said if he claimed he could read the stars to predict the future. Even nowadays, horoscope guru can make good money, and we have Nobel prize winners who prove the existence of black hole. If you can recognise constellations and tell some romantic stories about Greek mythology, you can date any girl LOL.
Tips
For best stargazing experience at Sugud, here are some useful tips for beginners:
Go during new moon phase (moonless night). Without moonlight, you can see far more stars. You can check moon phases of KK online.
You need clear sky and good weather. Even if it rains and cloudy during the day, there is still chance for a cloudless sky. Before the tour, check the hourly weather forecast (of KK).
Bring a torchlight as it’s dark at the site.
Stop looking at your phone, your eyes need to get used to darkness to see more stars.
For safety, don’t go alone.
If you plan to photograph the stars, tripod is a must.
Bring a jacket or windbreaker. It’s quite cooling there at night.
The place is wet and muddy after rain. Don’t wear flip-flop or sandals unless you want to go home with dirty feet.
How to get there
Sugud is 27 KM away from KK. You need to drive about 40 minutes (one way) on paved road in good condition. The GPS coordinates are 5.815098, 116.132176 (See Location Map). You can use Waze or Google Map apps to guide you (set destination as “Sugud Milky Way Plain”).
Road at Sugud stargazing site. You need to walk up to the high ground for stargazing (follow the yellow arrow path).
The last 6 or 7 KM before Sugud is winding and steep uphill road. Fog may present so drive carefully. And watch out for roaming buffaloes and dogs in villages.
View from Sugud stargazing site during daytime. Note my car parked at roadside (yellow pointer).
Once you reach the spot, park your car at roadside and walk a few minutes up to the dreamy high ground.
The dead tree and lorry at Sugud Stargazing Site. The tree is gone and the lorry is covered by grass months later.
Sugud is great but it is considered as the second class stargazing site. You may check out other better stargazing sites in Sabah. Good Luck and Happy Star Hunting! Please share the links to your stargazing photos in comment section below.
Photos taken at Sugud, Penampang, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
When I was on a quest to explore the legend of Supirak, I found myself another wonderful seaside vacation at Malubang Village (Local Name: Kampung Malubang), a remote fishing village in Pitas near the tip of northern Sabah. Spend a few days there and you will experience a simple village life without electricity, Wifi, water heater, air-conditioner, asphalt road, etc.
Malubang Village (Kampung Malubang) in Pitas, north of Sabah
Kampung Malubang (Malubang Village)
Malubang Village is located at a beach in Marudu Bay. Most villagers are Sulu people who mainly work as a fisherman. Every morning you can see their fishing boats depart for fishing trip.
Every house owns a boat in Malubang Village
Malubang is facing Kudat town and Tip of Borneo is clearly visible at the horizon. In fact, Kudat is less than an hour away by boat, and Banggi Island takes about 20 minutes.
A fisherman fixing his fishing net
Some houses are still using well for water supply
Though tourists seldom come here, the friendly villagers are ok with outsiders taking a stroll in the village. They are shy but smile a lot. It’s a small fishing village with about 30 houses. Foreigners would find the fence-less stilt houses there interesting.
A house with colorful hanging clothes
During my visit, there was an open house wedding reception (of Mizrul and Mastura) in the village. They were kind to invite me to have lunch with them and watched them dancing and celebrating.
Married couple Mizrul and Mastura
Group photo with the cute village girls who dressed up for wedding function
This village is a close community, in contrast to city. I confess I don’t know most of my neighbours and never visit their home too. May be it’s not only me.. Nowadays kids in same neighbourhood don’t mix around. In old days, I went cycling, fishing and climbing tree with my young neighbours, so Malubang brings back memory.
I enjoyed every moment in Malubang. The only thing I don’t like is that a lot of rubbishes washed up to the shore there.
Supirak Legend
Supirak Island and its surrounding legendary rocks are the main attractions of Malubang (as well as Pitas district). Legend says Supirak Island was a ship turned into a rock due to a curse by mother to her ungrateful son.
Cruising around Marudu Bay
At Malubang, you can charter a small boat easily (for less than MYR80) to visit these island and rocks around the bay, as every villager owns a boat (life vest may not be provided).
Rocks and wells of Supirak legend
Besides Supirak Island, there are many other places of interest in Pitas, to name a few, traditional fishing platform named Bagang, long-nosed monkey in mangrove forest of Bengkoka River, and Esplanade Bengkoka. Due to limited tourism facilities and lack of promotion, Pitas isn’t a popular destination.
Accommodation
Malubang Homestay is the only accommodation in Malubang Village. At the edge of Malubang, the lodge is a longhouse style accommodation with 6 Rooms. The rate is MYR40 to MYR50 (about USD$10 to 12.50) per room per night. It could be fully booked during peak season such as school holiday.
Malubang Homestay is the blue building under the yellow pointer
Rooms of Malubang Homestay
Each room is big enough to fit a group of 3 to 4 people, and it comes with attached bathroom cum toilet, beds, and fan. You can cook in common kitchen area, but you need to bring your own cooking utensils.
What we ate in Malubang Homestay
Please note there is no restaurant in the village. You can request the lodge to prepare the meals for you (Fee per head: Breakfast MYR4.00, Lunch MYR10.00, High Tea MYR2.00 and Dinner MYR10.00).
Enjoy meals with sea view
Everything in this lodge is basic. Power supply is only available from 6pm to 6am (by power generator), which provide lighting and sufficient electricity to charge your phone and camera.
The view in front of Malubang Homestay
But hey, the nice sea view makes up for it, and beach is less than 20 Meters away. Some beach resorts want guests to pay thousands for such view. The little rocky island at the left is Bum-Bum with a half-completed jetty (lack of fund to finish).
Malubang Homestay and its beach
There was no mosquito net in the room. To prevent mosquitoes eating me, I had to position the standing fan to point to my bed to blow those buggers away.
Malubang Homestay in Pitas
For booking, you can contact Mr. Moktar at cellphone: +60 19-8212597 (Whatsapp available). Moktar is Orang Sungai married with 5 kids. He starts the lodge in 2008. The GPS location of Malubang Homestay is 6.956184, 117.060140 (see Location Map). Moktar also can arrange the tour and boat transfer to visit the attractions nearby.
Seafood feast, a treat by Moktar!
Most guests are families from Pitas and Kota Marudu. Moktar will be happy to receive some international tourists. He understands that his lodge could be better, so he plans to improve his accommodation.
Fat crab with juicy meat
When we were ready to check-out, Moktar was missing in action for nearly an hour. Then he suddenly showed up and brought a covered plate, with mysterious smile on his face. He cooked us a big plate of yummy and steaming fresh crabs. Thank you Moktar! You are such a nice guy.
Sunset
Malubang Homestay is facing west, so you can enjoy watching giant yolk sinks into sea every day. I need not to say more.
Beautiful sunset at Malubang
Magic hour of Pitas
After dusk, the brightest thing at night here is the city light of Kudat at the horizon. Power line hasn’t reached this village yet.
Fishing
You might think that this peaceful fishing village becomes even quieter after nightfall. Wrong. Many villagers, both young and old, are busy fishing at the jetties at night. FYI, Malubang Village is famous for fishing giant squid (Sotong Gergasi), which can weigh up to 6 Kilograms and abundant from Oct to Feb every year. Now I understand why every visitors brought a fishing rod.
Local anglers got busy after sunset
Malubang is so lucky to have 3 jetties that extend a few hundreds Meters to the sea, so the people can fish anytime, even during low tide. I didn’t bring a fishing rod, so I was just busybody and check out what they caught. There were mainly stingray and fishes, some are over 2 Kg, quite big.
Many locals come to Malubang for fishing holiday during weekends
FYI, my Maxis mobile phone got one bar of signal at the end of the jetty, enough for me to check Whatsapps and emails.
Milky Way
It’s quite windy in the evening. I felt so relax laying on the platform of jetty and enjoyed the sea breeze. The sky was full of stars and shooting stars appeared almost every few minutes, some are quite big and last 4 or 5 seconds.
Pitas is a good place for stargazing
That’s crazy that by 7:30pm I already could see Milky Way spanned across the sky like a silver belt. I didn’t know Pitas is an excellent place for stargazing.
Kampung Pansuran
I also walked around Kampung Pansuran (Pansuran Village), a smaller fishing village about a stone’s throw from Malubang Village. Most residents there are Bajau Sama people.
View from Kampung Pansuran Village
Visit the water village of Kampung Pansuran
The villagers there are also equally nice and friendly. They were busy with fish caught and dried some of them under the sun to make dried seafood.
A young fisherman in Kampung Pansuran Village
Dried fishes on boardwalk of Kampung Pansuran Village
They still use traditional fishing methods such as fishing net and fishing line. Pitas is famous for its dried seafood.
Dried stingrays and fishes
Talking about village life, you might visualize I become a shirtless muscle guy playing soccer and laugh with the local kids, a cliche scene common in many movies. No, I didn’t do that, LOL.
Mondou Hill (Bukit Mondou)
To make sure I didn’t miss out any attraction near Malubang Village, Moktar took me to Bukit Mondou, a small hill only a few minutes drive from the village.
Mondou Hill (Bukit Mondou) in Pitas
Though Bukit Mondou is the highest point in Malubang, it is less than 80 Meters high, and it took us less than 30 minutes to reach the top. The trail is mostly flat and not challenging at all.
Climbing Mondou Hill (Bukit Mondou) in Pitas
However, the trail is not tourist-friendly and covered by long grasses. Please don’t go there alone.
You can see Berungus from the top of Mondou Hill (Bukit Mondou)
The view on top of Bukit Mondou is nice, as you can see Supirak Island and have a panoramic view of Malubang and Marudu Bay.
How to get there
From Kota Kinabalu City (KK), you need to drive about 5 hours to reach Malubang Village. The first 3 hours drive from KK to Pitas town is on 140 KM of paved road in good condition. The last 60 KM further north from Pitas to Malubang Village will be a bumpy 2-hour ride on gravel road.
The distance from Pitas town to Malubang Village is about 60 KM
Therefore, you need 4-Wheel Drive to enter this remote place. Though small sedan such as Kancil also can make it, it’ll be a pain to move around the potholes, mud ponds and uneven surface. The GPS Coordinates of Kampung Malubang is 6.956184, 117.060140 (see Location Map).
Gravel road from Pitas town to Malubang Village
It’s advisable you stop by Pitas town to have lunch and fill up the gas tank. For first timer, avoid to drive there at night because there is no street light along the way. Please also note that Uber and GrabCar aren’t available in Pitas district. Internet and mobile phone coverage are limited in most part of the journey.
Moktar pointing at Kudat town
Shopping for dried seafood (e.g. dried shrimps, salty fishes) in Pitas
Btw, one the way home, you may buy some dried seafood from the roadside stalls around Pitas, for great bargain.
“Hey, do you know where to see meteor? I want to make wishes.” At first I was dumbfounded at her question, then I realized that there is no more starry sky in our city. “Lasau Podi,” I replied, “the sky over there is full of stars and it got so many meteors that you can make wishes all night long. Probably next day you would become the prettiest, richest and healthiest person in the world, if these are what you will wish.”
This photo generates a lot of interest in stargazing.
Sky filled with twinkling stars was used to be a everyday thing at my home decades ago. Sadly, due to increasing light and air pollution, one-third of world population can’t see the Milky Way. The night of modern cities such as Singapore and South Korea is vibrant with colorful neon lights, but they have no more scattered diamond dust in the sky. Now children would sing “Twinkle, twinkle, little star… I wonder where you are..”
The Milky Way contains between 100 and 400 billion stars
Stargazing at Lasau Podi
Lasau Podi is discovered by Sabah Stargazers as an excellent location for stargazing. It’s a countryside about 20 KM away from Kota Belud town, and the approximate location where I shot the stars is 6.359675, 116.559431 (see Location Map). 95% of the road from Kota Kinabalu City (KK) to Lasau Podi is paved so it’s very accessible.
Mt. Kinabalu under the stars
Last month I was drooling when my friend showed me the stunning photos of Milky Way that he took in Lasau Podi, so a BIG Yes to him when he asked if I wanted to join him in second trip. We departed at 8pm from KK. After we passed by Kota Belud town and headed to Lasau Podi, we entered the countryside without street light along the road. Our car bumped into herds of cows sleeping on the road. Drive carefully if you go there.
Herd of cows blocking our road
We reached the destination around 11pm, I was mesmerized by the breathtaking view of starry sky, with silhouette of Mount Kinabalu as the backdrop. The number of stars that you can see on a clear night in a total darkness is about 2,000, and I think I saw them all there.
When we got out of our car and saw the starry sky, we went gaga.
After we setup the camping tent, we shot until 4am in the morning. I slept under a blanket of thousands of stars, lovely, but I was also attacked by thousand of mosquitoes.
5-Star Hotel and Thousand-Star Camp, which one you prefer?
Did you know when we look up to the winking stars, we are looking at a scene of the past? Light from a distant star can travel millions of years to reach us, it may be long gone by the time we see it.
Mount Kinabalu in the morning
Second photography session to capture the sunrise view of Mt. Kinabalu
When we waked up in the morning, we could see our surrounding better. We were on a high ground overlooking a plain with Mt. Kinabalu far away. It’s a scenic dawn.
Sunrise lit up part of the hill
Despite sleeping for only 2 hours, we took out our tripod and camera again for second round of crazy clicking. We bagged more beautiful photos, tired but happy.
The misty plain of Lasau Podi in the morning
Anyway, Lasau Podi isn’t a romantic location for dating. There is no toilet and comfortable accommodation. Instead, you can try Tegudon Tourism Village (TTV), which is only 30 minutes away from Lasau Podi and have toilet, camping ground and amenities for visitors.
Behind the Scene (in Lasau Podi): it’s quite a mess lol
Guys slept in open space. It’s me at lower left. I covered my head because of mosquitoes lol
Without any accommodation nearby, camping is the only option at Lasau Podi
Best Locations for Stargazing in Sabah
In Sabah, as long as you are in a countryside far away from city light and air pollution, you will see starry sky. Your best bet is at the beaches and open fields which has nothing that obstructs the star views at the horizon.
I also saw a lot of stars in Kuala Penyu, Beaufort, Keningau, etc.
What’s Milky Way?
Guess you enjoy the movie “Guardian of the Galaxy”? But what does a galaxy look like? You would notice the “star river” in my star photos. It is Milky Way, the galaxy that contains our Solar System (where we live). Below is the disk-shaped structure of Milky Way.
Side view of our galaxy (Milky Way)
The following is the top view of Milky Way, it contains between 100 and 400 billion stars and probably at least 100 billion planets!
Illustration of our galaxy. Note the location of our sun and planets.
