A visit down to Monsopiad Cultural Village, Penampang

I finally made it to Monsopiad Cultural Village at Penampang, Sabah last month despite being suggested by a fellow local friend last year that a visit down to this place is not worth the travel, it is expensive and boring. Well at least that's what local Sabahan will think off. It is a whole different view, culture and knowledge that I was really looking forward to at this cultural village. It was  something that most Peninsular Malaysian are unaware off that in another part of Malaysia which is Borneo ( Sabah and Sarawak) the people are different in their looks, lifestyle and even the spoken language. However, most importantly they form the large community of various tribes and ethnics, so diverse in culture from the Peninsular people and for the most obvious are more unique than the  melting pot of that typical blend of Malay, Chinese and Indian that we have in the Peninsular. All those reasoning combined, that made a pretty good reason why any Malaysian from the Peninsular will be so excited and eagerly anticipating a visit down at the Monsopiad Cultural Village. Oh well, at least I do!

Getting to Monsopiad Cultural Village was a bit of a challenge if you choose to drive down to Penampang on your own if you don't know where you are going of course, haha. In our case we simply head out to just Monsopiad in mind thinking all the while that it is marked somewhere in the tourist map that we have and of course the local people will most certainly know of this place.However, we later found out in the car that it was not mentioned in the map, even the lady behind our hotel reception desk said it will be difficult to look for the place if we choose to drive there on our own - joining their ridiculously priced tour package is much recommended while a stop at a particular Shell Station got the workers of the station mind boggle and clueless of the cultural village. The girl at the gas station mentioned it was the first time she ever heard of the cultural village. We simply have asked the wrong people at the wrong place then. A few phone calls later, we headed our for Penampang and stopped at a Petronas gas station around Donggongon and from there on it was pretty easy.



So to get to Monsopiad Cultural Village from Kota Kinabalu, simply head on to Penampang ( landmark Queen Elizabeth Hospital) then go straight on passing along the way Donggongon town and keep going until you see the Lok Kawi Wildlife signboard. Follow that sign and after sometime  you have to take a left turn to Penampang entering smaller village area  and be on the eye for Monsopiad signboard  on your left side and a few meters inside the smaller road you will see the cultural village. The address for this place is:

Jln Kg. Kuai Kandazon Penampang or call +6088774337 or visit their website www.monsopiad.com

Since the entrance fee is slightly pricey and will cost more if you are a foreigner, make sure you spend a lot of time at the village by really taking the time to learn and ask on Monsopiad's history and the Sabahan culture, enjoy locally made dishes provided, walk around the whole area, enjoy the rice wine or known as Lihing if you drink and of course the fun part - join in the Sumazau and bamboo dance. We did all that even the dancing even though our legs are killing us thanks to Mount Kinabalu but it sure was fun!

Do enjoy the photos and a video below and Monsopiad Cultural Village is a must visit destination at Sabah provided you are not a local Sabahan or probably Sarawakian.



[caption id="attachment_986" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Choice of rice wine(lihing) or non-alcoholic drinks served at the entrance. Lihing is in the bamboo shot."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_989" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="The headhunters will put all beheaded heads to dry and for public display on the bamboo"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_990" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The greatest warrior- Monsopiad's skulls collection"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_991" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Rice dish by the local -bambangan, ikan masin, some fish meat. Delicous!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_993" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Rice wine/ lihing"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_994" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Us and the cultural dancers at Monsopiad"][/caption]

The video of the dancers doing some cool, fast paced  bamboo dance and later on us struggling to dance along.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ERx1C-jLjU