25.09.2014 – As it is a Borneo Discovery Year for yours truly, I visited the state capital of Sabah to continue the quest recently. Repeating Kota Kinabalu for the third time, I was glad that my trip would cover some of the new tourism products in Kota Kinabalu.
I departed Kuala Lumpur at 10.20am from KLIA2, which was the fourth flight from KL to KK for Airasia. Going through a normal procedure for check-in and boarding, the walk from the domestic departure gate to Gate J12 took almost 15-20mins with leisure walking.
The reasons why I like to take morning flight :-
As soon as we reached Kota Kinabalu, we boarded the bus to Tagal Tinopikon Park which is located about 30-40 minutes from Kota Kinabalu city. I had no idea of the park except that it was near to a river. I was expecting a national park of sort.
Tagal Tinopikon Park
Dark clouds hung low on the skies. Our bus climbed the hill vigilantly. Slowly, my phone signal was gone. By the time the bus swerved to the right to what was a compound to a local house, our tour guide for the whole trip whom we warmly called Abang Yus announced that we had arrived to our destination, Tagal Tinopikon Park. We alighted the bus to be greeted with the Dusun hospitality; most of the locals were standing in the rain offering us umbrellas.
We descended steps that led us to a wooden hanging bridge across a tawny brown coloured river. I was informed that if not for the rain, the river is crystal clear and is roamed by many kelah fishes waiting to be fed. According to the head of Kg Notoruss, when the guests are on the bridge, the fishes would swim near the river bank waiting for food. On the bridge, we heard the beats from tagong, a kind of gong used by the Dusun ethnic. The smell of our lunch was blown by the wind straight to my nostril. We were brought to the hut nearby the river bank where food was served.
So, what is Tagal Tinopikon Park? Tagal Tinopikon Park lies along the beautiful Moyog river located at Kg. Notoruss, Penampang. With a total area of 15,000 sq metres, Tagal Tinopikon Park brings you to experience nature authentic village life with friendly Kadazan Dusun host. The Tinopikon Park is part of the Moyog River and one of the successful Tagal by Malaysia Department of Fisheries ecosystem. “Tagal” means prohibition in the kadazandusun language. Here, fishing activities is extremely prohibited and one will be fined if caught fishing in the tagal area.
Activities in Tagal Tinopikon Park
Among the activities that can be done at Tagal Tinopikon Park are enjoying Kadazan Dusun village life, swimming in the river, feeding the Pelian/Kelah fishes and taking a tour around village which is surrounded by local fruits tree and poultry. The adventurous one could go jungle trekking to the waterfalls – Tambokou and Wasai. The trek took approximately 30 minutes to the waterfall. If you were to ask me, Wasai is more picturesque than Tambokou. It involves one river crossing to Wasai waterfall.
Before we indulged ourselves with the many activities in Tagal Tinopikon Park, we had our lunch at the hut. The food was cooked in the open kitchen traditionally using firewood. It triggered the nice aroma of the food and intensified the taste of the food. We were served traditional Dusun cuisine such as manuk sapak goul (ayam masak kicap), batang keladi masak ikan masin, kapayas (betik masak bersama daun cekur, tundok munduk (pucuk ubi kayu). The rice was served on a coconut shell. The rice was wrapped in tarap leave. I was also introduced to tuhau, a species of ginger found in the jungle. Diced in small chunks and fermented before served as food. Every dish served to us was good but my favourite was bambangan, a type of wild mango with brown skin usually eaten as pickle or cooked with fish for a distinctive flavour. The one I fancy was the pickled version of bambangan, the best in the world.
As I was the only one who was determined to go to the farthest waterfall, I was accompanied by 3 Kadazan duzun villagers. The long walk was made fun when they entertained my curiosity to speak Kadazandusun language. Trust me it was not that easy.
Try this KOPISANANGAN DOUNGKOSUABON (Good Morning) or KOPISANANGAN DOUNGSODOPAN (Good Evening). Long, long word. Despite parroting the words all the way back to the hut, I always ended up with Kepisanganan Kesuabon and the Dusuns laughed hilariously at me.
Our tour ended up with Sumazau dance, a traditional dance of the Kadazandusun ethnic.
For more info on Tagal Tinopikon Park, contact :-
AJ Best Travel Sdn BhdLot 7, 2nd Floor, Block SH9 (MDP SH9-7-2)
Taman Suria Shop Apartment Ph 1B, Jalan Penampang
88300 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia.
T +6088 702878 M +6017 862 3833
F +6088 702878 / +6088 728459
E ajbestsb2013@gmail.com
W www.bestofborneo.com.my
FB www.facebook.com/ajbesttravelsb
GOING TO TAGAL TINOPIKON PARK, KOTA KINABALU : Airasia flies 12x daily from KL to Kota Kinabalu. Kota Kinabalu airport is Airasia’s second largest hub after KLIA2. Domestically, passengers can fly direct from KK to Miri, Tawau, Sandakan, Kota Bharu, Penang and Johor Bahru. International passengers can fly direct from KK to Singapore, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Taipei and more.