Sunday in Tuaran

I know..... but I can't stop taking her

After another busy week of finishing off the annual reviews, three workshops, a very brief visit to my lovely Ranau and attending a headmistress's retirement celebration, I relish a quiet day in Tuaran not doing anything very special. Tuaran is a sleepy sort of town but the wonderful tamu (market) on Sunday transforms it into a busy town where everyone comes and is one of my favourite places. As well as every sort of vegetable, fruit and fish there is just about everything else to buy and of course my favourite place is the second hand clothes stalls of which there are many to pass away the hours. Today I went to the tamu on my newish bicycle with only 10 ringgits (2.50 euro) and unfortunately the ATM wasn't working so I went anyway returning with a bunch of bananas, a delicious pineapple, some tomatoes, a cucumber and a pair of smart esprit trousers, that I wouldn't normally have bought but hey they were my size and I had 5 ringitts left!

  I then went for my usual bike ride which is a shortish circuit in the padi fields and I love watching the progress of the padi as it will very soon be the harvesting and I'm not sure if they will do it all by hand as in the Ranau area. The farmers seemed to have rigged up a network of string and cans which are pulled intermittently by someone sitting in a hut and then there are just rows and rows of plastic bags and cds and shirts blowing in the wind to distract the birds from taking all the padi.

Bajau dancers at school

Dusun and Bajau costumes. Not sure what the the thing on the head is called!

Dusun costume from near Kota Belud

I thought you might enjoy seeing some more photographs of people in traditional costume. These children were performing this week in a small primary school near Kota Belud which is mostly Bajau people but towards the mountain area there are many Dusun people- so quite a mixture. The people of Sabah love dancing and are very proud of their traditional heritage and celebrate their ethnic diversity.

  So this time next week I will be at our lovely Ferme des Vallots with Andrew, Tanya , Anthony, Lisa and Remi and I'm feeling very excited about it now! I fly on Friday night arriving on Saturday morning and then getting a lift with Lisa from Lille. So I may be very busy next week getting everything ready for the wedding but who knows.... I will be sure to let you know all about the wedding of 2015 at La Ferme des Vallots and of course some photos!