by What we eat and how we live in city are not the lifestyle of most Sabahans, as there are more Sabahans in country side than those in city and towns. It happened that a few places that I planned to visit were near to a village that had homestay programme, so I decided to join the Misompuru homestay in Kudat region.
The arrangement is easy, just called the coordinator (with the no. listed in their web site) and tell them your arrival time then everyting is set. Some are even reachable via e-mail, and I am currently sorting out detail with another homestay in Long Pasia. The homestay that I joined was 20 KM before Kudat, the mini-bus driver dropped me at Jalan Torongkongan, saying that I only needed to follow the path, take a “short” walk to get there. Well, it ended up was a 1KM distance. Anyway, I found the place.
There are 3 villages (i.e. Kg Lajong, Kg Minyak, Kg Rampai Selatan), with a total of 58 families, in Kudat take part in Misompuru homestay. Usually the coordinator will pick our host on rotating basis, so every provider gets a fair share. A family in Kg Lajong was selected as my host. Misompuru homestay may be not well-known to most locals, but they were already featured by some foreigner media from Asia and Europe. They also have tourists from Australia, New Zealand, UK, Japan, Korea…
After being introduced to my host, Mr Sarumpit and Ms Rusiaw (very friendly Rungus people), we took a walk around the village (Kg Lajong) as a warm up. We saw the “Horn Banana” (Pisang Tanduk) at the roadside. It was so big that it would make girls horny. BTW, my “little brother” is as big as a banana (not Pisang Emas lah).
The house is a typical village wooden house. No air-con but got Astro satellite TV. Besides a room, they also prepared my meal 3 times a day, with food they planted or bought locally. I enjoyed the crabs they caught in mangrove forest. I also like their Kudat maize, though smaller but taste sweeter and softer.
Our first visit is a honey bee farm nearby. The “Beeman” showed us how he harvested the honey. But too bad that time was rainy session, the bees can’t work so they consume the honey. Otherwise I could try the honey. From what they said, the honey is very concentrated and damn sweet, unlike the watery honey we got from the supermarket.
The bees also become more protective and aggressive during bad weather. They said honey is the best cure for bee sting. From what I read from a book about a bee farm, Ajinomoto is the best cure. Which one is the best? Frankly I am not interested in finding out. You can try it yourself.
Look at the photo above. The top portion of the nest should be in gold color, if filled with honey. As you can see, it is quite empty. I forgot the name of the “Beeman” who dressed like Power Ranger. He is an ex-army. He started the honey bee farm coz of hobby and had over 10 years of experience.
After the bee farm, we visited a few other interesting places nearby (we walked nearly 10 KM in a day!), which I will blog about later. Before I went to bed, they decided to dress me in Rungus costume for fun. Cool… since I have been dreaming I am a Rungus guy who shouts, jumps and dances joyfully in Megigol Sumandai, with a long queue of pretty girls follow behind me. Probably I should wear this in city to attract some girls. But it takes a long time to dress up like this. I am gonna be late for work everytime if I have to dress like this every morning.
Overall, it was a wonderful experience though the programme was only 1 day. Actually I didn’t expect that much and I only wanted a tour guide and a place to overnight at first. But they really treated me like a friend and served me like a VIP. I had seen many tour businesses who open their lion mouth to chew tourist’s wallet, trying to get maximum profit with minimum effort, as if they own the mountain and island. You know whom I am talking about. But the homestay people try to get minimum profit with maximum effort. That really touches me.
Photos taken in Kudat, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo
should try my father-in-law’s Kg. Bavanggazo longhouse, where you can mongigol sumundai with sumuni in real…
hi drizad, haha.. that will b cool.
i heard that Kg. Bavanggazo longhouse is doing great. they got over 7,000 visitors last year.
BEST OH! Will try this out when the kids are old enough to walk long distances — if not, instead of getting a holiday, I will get back pain.
Hi D,
I’ve been to Misompuru homestay (infact I was among the committee to help the initial development there). I’m happy to see the new boardwalk to reach the ‘oil pool’ in kg. Minyak. I hope it was designed properly.
Actually Kudat has many more to offer beside the usual long house and beads 😀
Is jeffery still there? He was the coordinator for that area.
TFS
Sindut> actually there are many other relaxing activities you can choose. e.g. fishing, bead making.. so u can have a painless holiday.
DA> yes, jeffery is still the coordinator. i haven’t met him coz we only communicate thru phone. if u have any other interesting least-known places in kudat to introduce, it will b great to know from u. i am quite keen to explore.
wow..I didn’t know there’s real oil at Kg. Minyak. I think as a kid I went there once…I believe they have a nice beach…correct me if I’m wrong.
disney> yes, it is real oil. and yes, you are right that they have nice beaches, which i will blog later.
… i haven’t been to Kudat for quite some time. I remember to hear a lots of best keep secret in Kudat from the local and Jeffery.
We actually stumbled a hidden resort which was never promoted until today. The resort belongs to a private company catering direct customer from Germany, not sure any updates on it.
Have you ever heard a place in Kudat, on a beach area where there is natural pool of fresh water in the middle of the beach sea. The water around it is salty but inside it is fresh water. Jeff know the place.
And also a secret island contains lots of artifacts and burial sites.. I forgot who informed me about this one.
Oh Kudat has the most beautiful beaches in Sabah. that’s for sure. Pantai Kelambu is one of them, but recently I heard a mega development for the beaches from Pantai Kelambu all the way to Simpang Mengayau. It’s gonna be a Bali look like resort. Not sure if you been there otherwise you can google it ..>Kudat riviera
Regards.
DA> wah.. u make me want to go to kudat again. it is true that kudat beaches are so beautiful that many want to get a pieces of it or even “privatize” them.. usually a nice site will end up even the locals can’t afford to enjoy it..
Hello.
May i know how much is the Misompuru homestay in Kudat? What are the activities included?
Is there transport provided from Kundasang to your place, as i may go to Kudat after staying for 1 night in Kundasang.
Hope to hear from you.
Thank you
Mabel> the 2D1N misompuru homestay is about RM180 per person. activities? read my blog please.
for transport, very likely u need to go to KK from kundasang, then take a bus / taxi to kudat.
hallo there..
it seems that many of u hv sum kind of interest with misompuru homestay..
well, i’m one of the acting committee member of Misompuru Homestay..n i’m also one of the guide n traditional musician..
recently, we just came back to kudat from walai tokou homestay, at kg.sinisian, kundasang.
our homestay cultural group joined the Walai Tokou Homestay Hari Raya Carnival..n its was AWESOME!!
Even though it was friggin’ cold, our foster family was very friendly n they gave a warm welcome to us..
But, what make me think, is that there were only 3 homestays get involved in the carnival, Misompuru, Papar n Walai Tokou. Where did the rest of homestays in Sabah go?
There were many foreign media that involved in the carnival and also stayed at their respectively foster families..they were from Taiwan, Nepal, Vietnam, n other more, i can’t remember..hehehe..
It was funny though watching them learning to sumazau..hahaha..
Overall, the Hari Raya carnival was very very very AWESOME!! And I would like to go to sinisian again!! (I forgot to mention their sumuni..very beautiful..hehehe..)
Hi xJRONx, homestay is still something new, so it would take time for it to heat up. sabahans are very laid-back style, probably they can’t see how important is this carnival. what is sumuni? sumandak?
hehe..
yes..
sumuni is sumandak..in rungus language..
FYI..
there are mainly 5 groups in Rungus, each distinguished by their dialects..
-Gandahon
-Pilapazan
-Nuluw
-Gonsomon
-Tanga
n i heard that there are 1 more, Tupak, that maybe referring to Rungus Pitas..
xJRONx> Thnaks for the info. I only know that Rungus has sub-ethnic, and sadly I don’t have any detail… Do they look very different from one another in traditional costumes?
hi there how r u all i hope all very well im interested about rungus language the status, ur attitudes about it ? do u care about it? do u try alwyes to speak it at home ? what efforts u did to improve it ? i really need these answers to know all issues related to rungus language … thank u very much