Harvest Festival decorations in another mall

We went walking around in another mall - not as new as the 1Borneo. This mall had their open stalls all decorated for the Harvest Festival. It looked so nice.

By now we needed to go to the tandas. I loved the little picutes to show us where:

I did not expect to stand on a little pedistal, balance my backpack AND have the toilet flush at me before I was ready! I was in such giggles that I dropped the battery for my camera, but luckily there was not toooo much water on the floor.

Dancing for the Harvest Festival

We were so fortunate to see some dancing at the 1Borneo mall. The Harvest Festival falls over the next couple of days and I think these are Harvest Festival Dances. We watched a couple of dances and then the audience were invited to come and learn a couple of steps. Then they did another few dances - every time they changed their outfits as well! During one of the dances they had this arrow blowing at some balloons. I was invited to try it out and actually popped a balloon with the arrow! Another very fascinating dances was across poles which the other members of the crew kept banging together. We really enjoyed watching all this.

Getting a foot lesson:

The dresses are just as pretty at the back:

Checking the blowpipe:

There are 5 balloons against the wall - black, pink, yellow, orange and green:

The guy with the red bag managed to shoot the yellow balloon first time round. There are now 4 balloons left:

I've been shown how and am being cheered out with lots of tribal shouting:

See: One shot and the yellow green balloon is all gone!

This young guy was very brave to try this lesson. 

This guy is doing the dance blindfolded:

1Borneo mall in Kota Kinabalu

This is a big mall with a beautiful entrance:

The Broken Bas

While in Kota Kinabalu, we went by bus to the mall. When we next look, the bus broke down. We had to hang around next to the road waiting for another bus. So we watched some children having fun in the sea. What is so nice about this sea for little children is the fact that there are no waves to bump them over and dunk them under.
The next bus eventually came and could go shopping.

Craftmarket/Filipino market at Kota Kinabalu

The craftmarket is inbetween the fresh foods and the dried foods markets. It is all under roof and goes on until night time. They have lights inside and they can close and lock up the whole complex late night. It is very, very cramped inside and full of lots of stuff you want to buy. The prices seem good to elsewhere, the people are very friendly and actually you cannot choose what and whom to buy from. We ended up going there at least 3 times during the weekend. There are beautiful fresh and seawater pearls, keyrings, bags, t-shirts, pretty pots, local musical instruments, beads and pretty material. It is very difficult to photograph what you see.

The girl at the back is not a girl, listening to the deep voice.

There were many men sewing and fixing clothes along the side of the craft building. They all have these old treading Singer sewing machines!

These long sticks are for disciplining your pets I was told. The 2 kittens sleeping next to the boxes were having their siesta after eating from the cardboard on the other side of the discipline sticks.

Markets at the Waterfront of Kota Kinabalu

This is great fun for anybody who loves local markets. It is busy, there are many stalls of all sorts. The market starts some time in the morning and goes on till it is dark. I think it get busier as the day goes on and maybe night time is busiest. There is a huge fresh foods market. Then there is the area where you can buy freshly made food and sit and eat it right there in the busy area and enjoy the market. A little bit further is the market for dry goods.

Here is one photo of the dry goods market which were under roof.

Some stalls have a roof over their heads, some have umbrellas and some have no shade. Some are so beautiful, you keep taking more photos.

The chillie stall was particularly pretty.

The cat is quite at home next to the eggs.

Fresh chicken and also fish a little further on.

The desert section. 

The 'kitchen'. We had some really nice chicken satay from this stall.

The fish looks as good as it tasted.

The pretty blue fish caught my eye.

The flies needed to be sorted out. Not a nice job.

All sorts of sea grasses.

This is what I saw on Saturday. Very informal and no tables to display the clothes from.

Siesta time!

Probably the most night marishly parking lot. How this guy eventually got out, I don't know. There is only one entrance/exit and he was seriously parked in and right at the back too.

My suggestion for experiencing these markets is that you do not go alone if you can help it. You have to have a friend to share it with, to have a laugh and to say 'look at this' and 'let's taste that' and 'I need to sit now'. There is no ways you can enjoy it as much on your own.