Mari Mari Cultural Village

Introduction :

Growing up in Peninsular Malaysia, the girls only know that Malaysia consists of 3 major races – Malay, Chinese and Indians. Though they have read about the various ethnic groups in Sabah and Sarawak, it was all book knowledge. Since we had the opportunity to travel to Sabah, other than exploring her beauty, we definitely want to experience her culture and history. Mari-Mari Cultural Village came out as a top search in google with a very high Google rating for cultural activities in Kota Kinabalu. 

Entrance Fee & Transportation : 

Entrance Fee was RM100 per adult and RM90 per child (below 12yo). Entrance fee includes a guided tour of the 5 traditional houses, a cultural performance and a buffet lunch. There were 2 sessions per day at 10am and 2pm. We chose to go for the 10am session as we reckoned the afternoon session would be hotter and more humid.

We did this activity on our second last day in Kota Kinabalu. By then we had already returned our rental car and had to go around by Grab. Hailing a Grab car to send us to Mari-Mari Cultural Village was not difficult. It’s a 40mins car ride from KK town. Our session ended at about 1pm and getting a Grab ride then was challenging as we were far from the city center. Thankfully, we managed to get hold of a Grab car coming in with passengers for the afternoon session after waiting for about 20mins. So the decision to participate in the 10am session was a good one for us.

Our Experience

The crowd for the 10am session were split into groups of about 15 people and respectively led by an in-house guide. Our group consisting of our family of 4 and 3 other families were hosted by Aiman. Aiman, from the Murut tribe, was an experienced guide and well versed in English. He was telling us the background and distinct characteristics of each tribe as he brought us around the manmade village. He made stories come alive and slotted in some jokes that made all of us break into laughter. He was also helpful and accommodating. 

The tour around the village took about 2 hours. We visited houses of the 5 major ethnic groups in Sabah – Dusun-Kadazan, Rungus, Lundayeh, Bajau and Murut. The houses were built according to how it was a century ago, living out their motto of “As it was…. As it is…”. In each house, we got to see their living space, learn about their livelihood and special skills, and tasted some of their traditional food and drinks. The tour was informative and enjoyable. Thereafter, we were ushered to an open hall where we watched a 30mins cultural performance. Finally, we were brought to an eating area to enjoy our buffet lunch. It was a nice spread of local dishes of eg chicken, fish and vege etc with rice. That marked the end of our tour. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time here, and our initial hesitation to join a guided tour through what we thought would be a tourist trap was laid to rest. They certainly deserved their 4-years in a row Best Man Made Tourism Award by the Sabah Tourism.