Sabah State Museum Day

Hello!

I was in Kota Kinabalu over the weekend for my baby nephew's 100-day celebration.

I go to KK a lot because I am half Sabahan. My bf and I were just there a month ago, so things were pretty much redundant for us. We arrived in KK on Friday evening after a quick 20-minute flight from Brunei.

We flew back on the 7:35PM flight on Sunday, so we had almost a whole day more in KK where we had nothing much else to do. We spent our Friday night and Saturday daytime in Imago mall and Suria mall for a while, so we pretty much covered whatever shopping we had to get done. So what did we decide to do?

Visit the Sabah State Museum.

For the very first time. Haha. It is quite shameful on my part because I was born in KK and am basically in KK every single year since I left at age 2. Glad my BF (100% Bruneian) agreed to wanna tag along, making my mission to bestow Sabahan knowledge onto him much easier (not that I have a lot. My cousin unabashedly said I am not Sabahan at all).

We took a Grab car from our hotel in KK Times Square and it cost us only RM8. We are now total Grab converts after many unpleasant taxi experiences, particularly in Malaysia. We took a Grabcar from Suria Mall to our hotel for RM5 while the taxi driver wanted to charge us RM20. When we insisted on RM15, he challenged us to find a taxi at that price. So off we hailed a Grabcar. Seriously, don't blame people opting for Grab car/ Uber services over yours when you guys act like such total assholes.

One of our Grab taxi drivers said that they are being harassed by taxi drivers so they have to be very cautious and careful. We were informed the same by our Uber driver in Penang back in May.

Recommendations for taking Grab Car/ Uber services:

1. Always sit in the passenger seat in front. If you sit at the back, people will automatically know it is a Grab/ Uber service,
2.  Try not to make the Grab/ Uber drivers wait too long because it may arouse suspicion amongst taxi drivers. These services always come with the model of the car and the plate numbers so you will be able to spot them from afar.
3. Try to stay out of the spotlight: it will be easier to walk a bit further off from where tourists take their taxis, this again is to avoid arousing suspicion.

We've had good experiences with Grab and Uber services so far in KL, KK, Penang and Singapore. They provide a safe and cost-saving way to travel. We normally purchase airport taxi coupons at RM30 to our hotel, and we found out they only charge RM9 on Grab. They are also very convenient because you can easily plot where you are and where you want to go.

So anyway, we hailed a Grab car to go to the Museum at about 12 noon from KK Times Square. The Museum is open daily from 9AM to 5PM.

Tip: Search "Muzium Sabah" instead of the English name if you're using Grab

The Main Hall greets you when you arrive

Home tourist

There are two ticketing booths to get entrance tickets, One near the Main Hall and the other at the entrance to the Heritage Village (both on opposite ends)

 We entered the Main Hall first and we were greeted by this huge Bryde's whale skeleton display. It is 18.6 meters in length and is the biggest whale skeleton exhibit in Malaysia. It was found stranded at a beach off Gaya Island on 17th December 2006 (almost a decade ago!). Unfortunately, they failed to save the whale.

The Museum collections comprise of:

Pic taken from http://museum.sabah.gov.my/

We started off at the Ancient Culture Gallery.

 Not many photos but that section contained a lot of information about prehistoric artifacts from important archaeological sites all over Sabah. It contained plenty of tools made of stones, clays, shells, wood and bones used by the Borneo people in the past.

Also, inside this section is a very interesting (also very dark, very creepy) replica of a cave. You could enter it and look around like it is a real cave (without the smell!)

Next, we went to the Sabah History Gallery.

I found this section the most interesting of all because it details of how Malaysia came to be. Malaysia is young (only independent in 1963). 

Borneo was previously ruled by the Sultan of Brunei and Sulu Sultanate. Then came the Westerners. The British took over Sabah and coined it as North Borneo. We had our local distaste to the new ruling which resulted in local uprising against the British ruling.

The Japanese invaded Sabah during World War II (1942). The Japanese rule was a dark period for Sabah's history. From 1942 to 1045, the Japanese ruled North Borneo, along with most of the island. The locals were also against the Japanese ruling and there were several guerrilla resistance groups, such as the one led by Albert Kwok in Jesselton.

The Allied Forces sent many Australian and British soldiers in their aid and became victims to the Japanese's brutal punishment of the Sandakan Death March, where the soldiers were forced to march from Sandakan to Ranau. The March caused the death of 2,345 Allied prisoners of war through the sicknesses, diseases, hunger, thirst, whipping and shooting. 

Six survived by escaping and lived to tell the horrific experiences they suffered,

There is a War Memorial and Gardens of remembrance in Kundasang, where those who died are commemorated. I was there last December and the names of all the soldiers are listed on the wall.

There is a wall paying tribute to the figures who aided in the guerrilla movements to rebel against the Japanese and to provide refuge to the Allied soldiers by hiding them or secretly giving them food.

The Japanese surrendered in Labuan on 10th September 1945. 

North Borneo attained self-government on 31st August 1963.

One thing I didn't get was that there are so many words to read and yet the room was so dimly lit. I left with my eyes really hurting. There is a lot to read.

 This newspaper was from 1963!

 Bata wishing Malaysia longevity! How tactful.

After that, we went upstairs to the Natural History Gallery.

The Natural History Gallery section gives an overall 101 on Borneo ecology. It showed the different forests found in Borneo, such as mangrove swamps, primary and secondary forests, virgin forests and different specimens found in them. 

After that, we went to the Ceramic Gallery:

Here, we learn of the different ceramics used in Borneo, many being imported all the way from China from as early on as the Sung Dynasty through to Ming and Qing Dynasty periods.

 Jars were used for storage, wine-brewing, bride price, ritual and even burials :s

There are a lot of beautiful antique jars here, my favorite being those from the Ming and Qing dynasty periods.

Pictures here are not in order by floors. We just strolled wherever the wind took us. Here we went back downstairs to the Headhunting Gallery:

 Hundreds years ago, the fearsome headhunters roamed the land of Borneo. Armed with sword and blowpipe, they hunted human heads as trophy.

In the gallery, there are displays of swords and weapons used by Kadazandusun and Murut people to cut off people’s heads. Yep- you would not have wanted to mess with them.

head-hunting sword attached with the hair of victim

 OK--- I did not know this at the time but these skulls are apparently the real deal.

Skulls were hung up and displayed like the photo above because the headhunters believed they could ward off dark spirits and bring their families good fortune and protection.

APT expression

 Those were the many different interesting and educational sections in the Main Hall of the Museum. Will blog about the really cool Heritage Village in my next post. That section contained many different houses of different Sabahan tribes that you can enter and walk around in!