by 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.
hmm…that means to get sabahan handicraft e-store up and running get a contact from Kota Marudu/Kudat; 2 of the sites I saw offering sabahan handicrafts/musical instruments on the web marked up their prices to an incredible level, even after considering p&p.