Monsopiad Cultural Village in Kota Kinabalu Malaysia

They say that you have not seen Sabah if you have not visited Monsopiad Cultural Village that’s the reason why I included this in my itinerary. It is a thirty minutes drive from Kota Kinabalu City, you can ride a bus or taxi and I chose the latter because I do not want to get lost. Asking price of the taxi driver is RM120, we haggled for RM100 (roundtrip) but if you will take the bus, it is only RM3 per way. (big savings!) 

Monsopiad Cultural Village is a living museum and historical site in Sabah. It was founded in 1996 in memory of Monsopiad, the great head hunter and Kadazan warrior. He was the famous headhunter who defended his village three hundred years ago. No enemy could match his power and as a proof, he took 42 skulls with him. 

The 42 skulls are displayed in legendary House of Skulls. Aside from being a living museum, the village aims to revive, conserve, keep alive and document the culture, traditions and Kadazan community beliefs.  You will learn more of the ways of life of Kadazan people and Monsopiad warriors’ stories.

The entrance fee is a little bit expensive, RM75 for the guided tour and cultural show. As I was told in the email, guided tour can be anytime but we ended up waiting for the cultural show which is 2PM before the guided tour. 

I was bit disappointed because we will not be able to visit Green Connection and Lok Kawi Wildlife Park, but I could no longer back out because I already paid RM150.

After the registration, you will proceed to Riverside Café for your welcome drinks (coffee or tea); we stayed here for almost one hour, waiting for the cultural show. The cultural show lasted for 30-45 minutes. We enjoyed the show; visitors can also take part in the cultural show.

Start of guided tour. We learned about Rice Wine Making, Sago Grating (mamagalus). Sago Grub (butod), Shooting using Traditional Blowpipe (monupuk), Catapult (lastik) and Stilt walk (tampanau). Some of these are familiar to me since I live in the Philippines, alam ko may ganyan din sa Pinas. 

We paid RM75 per pax but we were not able to experience all the inclusions in the package like “Taste betel nuts and Traditional cigarettes” and “Experience Traditional Handicraft Making”. They just need to improve their guided tour because we kept on waiting for the next activity. If you are into history, you will enjoy the experience but if not, you can skip this tour.