Tranquil, beautiful and only starting to be discovered by local and foreign visitors alike, Kudat district is home to Sabah’s most traditional tribal group, the Rungus. Fascinating and friendly people, many of them still follow traditional lifestyles and produce some of Sabah’s finest handicrafts. This unique tribe of soft spoken people live in district renowned for its glorious white sandy beaches, while in a modern context, there is good and inexpensive seafood, recreational facilities including an 18 hole international golf course and plentiful accommodation.

Please click on map for a larger version.

Pulau Balambangan and Pulau Banggi

On clear day, the high peak of Pulau Banggi and the distant flat sprawl of Pulau Balambangan sit tantalisingly on the horizon to the north. Kerakit, the main (But very small) settlement of Pulau Banggi is located at the island’s southern tip and has schools, an informal food stall, a few simple shops, local government offices and a relatively new hospital; however, there is no tourism infrastructure at this stage. Scattered small settlements, including almost 50 fishing villages, dot the coast, with most of Banggi’s inhabitants making a subsistence living from fishing and raising coconuts.

The original people of the island and the neighbouring Balambangan are Banggi, the smallest of the Sabah’s indigenous groups who have the distinction of speaking a non Borneon language, thought to be related to one of the languages of Palawan in the south western Philippines. Today, the Banggi are rarely seen, living in isolated small groups.

Pulau Balambangan, site of an abortive 18th century British trading post, has only one small fishing village today. An important archaeological site located in the far south of the island.

Kerakit is the main centre of Pulau Banggi. T teardrop island lies amidst coral reefs between Banggi and the coast of Kudat. Just south of Kerakit, the island of Malleangan, where fine white sandy beach is backed with coconut palms with a few houses dotted about is the sort of place that tempts the adventurous to camp and live a simple life for a few days.

Despite being chosen as the site of a British trading settlement in the 18th century, Palau Balambangan today is virtually deserted, with just a small settlement, Kampung Batu Sireh, in the south east. Flat, with often swampy coastline with coral reefs making approach by boat challenging, and with only brackish water, it is difficult to understand why British would have chosen this in preference to Palau Banggi as a site for a settlement.

Kampung Batu Sireh has given its name to cave set in limestone outcrop at one side of an Exquisite tiny bay on the southern tip of Balambangan. This is an important archaeological site, where evidence of human habitation some 16,000 years ago was uncovered. None of the remains are left on the site, but there is a splendid view from the cave mouth of the sea below. The waters of the bay invite swimming, although locals warn of estuarine crocodiles sometimes lurking in the vicinity.

North of Kampung Batu Sireh, at one side of a large and beautiful bay, Teluk Lung, the remnants of the abortive Balambangan settlement can still be uncovered in the scrub at the back of the beach. Shards of blue and white Chinese porcelain, broken terracotta tiles and glass melted by heat of the fire which raised the settlement all bear silent witness to the past.

The clear warm waters of Teluk Lung are home to a research project aimed at studying the growth of different varieties of seaweed. This is in line with efforts to encourage seaweed farming to help improve livelihood of fishermen in suitable coastal areas of Sabah. Long lines of several varieties of seaweed are buoyed in the water by plastic bottles, left to grow (Providing the turtles do not help themselves to a free meal) until they can be dried and processed to carrageenan powder, exported for use in the food industry.

Information source: I would like to thank Mr. C.L. Chan of National History Publications (Borneo) SDN. BHD. Web site http://www.nhpborneo.com for his kind permission allowing me to use this information from the book 'Kudat' by Wendy Hutton

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