by Actually I had blogged about Monsopiad Village last year. You may check out the photo gallery and 360 degree virtual tour if you haven’t. In short, Monsopiad Village is a 300-year historical site about the Kadazan legendary hero and headhunter, Monsopiad. You will see 300-year old human skulls, ritual items, long house, handicraft, etc. and also learn about the history, live and culture of Kadazan community. This cultural village is managed by the descendant of Monsopiad.
In fact, I always think that Monsopiad Village is one of the best tourism spots in Kota Kinabalu area. You are not only invited to see the thing, you are also given many chances to experience it if you like to. For example, drinking the Lihing rice wine, playing the traditional games such as blowpipe and walking stick, making handicraft, participate in bamboo dance, and eating the sago worm (if you dare!). In case you are curious, I ate cooked sago worm before in Sago Festival at Kuala Penyu. It tastes like sweet coconut milk but the skin is like rubber, hard to chew.
The reason I visited Monsopiad Village again was because they got a costume exhibition there this month. As usual, they got friendly and knowledgeable guide to show you around and answer all your questions. The weather was bad. But surprisingly, the guide said the rainy day was a good news to them coz it would bring in more visitors. This is because the tourists cannot go to beach and island during rainy day, so they will come to the village. She was totally right. Very soon we saw plenty of foreigner tourists walking in.
Since I was there, I decided to take some photos of their cultural dances before I left. I found that they changed the dance a bit and made it more interactive and exciting. See the pictures below and guess what happened to the girl. Don’t be scared ok. They purposely acted fierce just to speed up your heart beating. They are very friendly people. Nobody was hurt and shocked in the performance. I won’t tell you what did they do. Want to know? Visit the village then.
Lastly, if you want to visit Monsopiad Village, you can find more information in their official web site. The village is open daily from 9 AM to 5 PM. Please note that they got fixed schedule on guided tour and cultural dance performance.
