Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

It's summer break! 1st vacation of summer!

13.06.2017 - 13.06.2017 86 °F

The 2017/2018 year is over! It's been a really rough year, but I made it. And even after the difficult year, and getting paid about 8$ an hour, I made a decision to come back for another year. It's the friends I've made, and the kids, and the opportunity to travel and see the rest of this part of the world. And the first trip is KK.

I booked a bunch of trips last November when they were super cheap, and will end up missing most of them after deciding to go go Europe with my sister Karen. But this trip is happening before I leave for Romania.

I flew out from JB yesterday and arrived in KK late afternoon. Took an uber to the hotel and rested for a bit before heading out for a walk around downtown. It is Ramadan Fasting time, so there is was a huge market nearby with all sorts of food, but I didn't try it. I did head back to the hotel and had dinner with a drink, salad, main dish, and dessert for 23 RM for about 5$. It is cheap to eat local in Malaysia.

Anyway, I had planned to go to the beach today, but got up late and didn't feel like heading to the dock and figuring out how to get over to the islands, so I headed to the mall and did some shopping, and then caught a tour to the Mari Mari Cultural Village. The driver showed up at the hotel and we drove about 30 minutes to the Village.

Then it was touring 5 different villages with the tour guide giving some really fun information about the different tribes.

In one village they are head-hunters. Before a young man can be married they must chop someone's head off. And they store them above the kitchen stove to keep them smoked and fresh. They also have a huge crocodile grass mound in which they mount the heads down the middle.
Along wth that interesting fact is the way they bury their dead. After a person dies they curl them up in a ball and put the body in a big vase. They put a hole in the bottom of the vase and leave it in the jungle for a year. After that they collect was is left and put it in a smaller vase where they store it in the trees.

I thought the fire making demo was really cool. They started a fire with bits of bamboo shaving and rubbing bamboo sticks together.

It was really fun seeing all the different types of houses. The dances at the end, and the yummy dinner to end the day.
I'd recommend this place to all visitors that come here.