Kudat Town & Sumangkap Village Gong's

Kudat town was one of those laid back ride by kinda town that you only stop by for an hour to get a drink and some food and a snap of photo before moving on. As a tourist town I could not see any charm in it but as a place to settle down lay back and just enjoy the sunrise everyday, this was the little cosy dream retirement place.

Kudat Seaside Fishing Boat Port

Kudat Town 

Kudat region apparently has the highest concentration of the Rungus Tribe and along the way on the main Route 3 there was two supprise attraction for a short detour. The traditional Rungus Longhouse and the Sumangkap Gong Factory village.

The Bavanggazo Longhouse Kudat is like an exhibit now for the tourist and it is made entirely in the traditional way set with tatched roof. This was really rare in a sense since traditional longhouse nowadays tend to cheat with some zink sheets underneath but this one was legit. I could not enter no do any real viewing as they seam to be open only for tours and its quite understandable since the lone stranded rider is somewhat very rare for them to justify a maned counter. View from the outside was still interesting

Bavanggazo Longhouse Kudat Entrance 

Traditional Rungus Tribe Longhouse

Sumangkap Gong Factory village was another wonderful find. This kind of one trade skill village is a dying culture in this modern age and yet they continue to produce traditional gongs by hand. At any point in time, each huts which represents the individual family factory for gongs would have someone hammering away making small peices of gong.

I chatted up some of the locals and they told me that making a gong is not dificult, for anyone can make a single gong so long as the shape is hammered roughly the same but the true craft masters are the one that make the musical instrumental gongs which required finding the right tune.

Sumangkap Gong Village / Factory - Kudat

Tourist Information on Sumangkap Village

Large Gong at Sumangkap Village

Musical Instrumental Gong's - Sumangkap Villaged

Family Skill of Gong Making. 

Short stop done it was time to do the longer ride to Kundasang. From Kudat to Kundasang the ride was a slow and uphill climb. Nothing much to talk about really, scenic through the Kota Belud road and the higher I go the cooler the air became.

Riding To Kundasang Via Kota Belud

Road by the River - Kota Belud - Ranau Route 

Climbing up Route 22 to Kundasang 

Traveled On: Aug 2019