Tuaran's Sunday Morning Market

This morning, we went to Tuaran to visit the bustling weekly market or locally known as ‘tamu’. Tuaran is situated in the West Coast of the state of Sabah, on the island of Borneo. It is located 34 km north of the state capital, Kota Kinabalu city and is strategically situated along the main highway linking the city with the north of Sabah.

 

Every Sunday, the town centre comes alive with a variety of sights, sounds and smells. The tamu is a weekend open market where native people bring their produce and harvest, either home-grown or picked from the jungle for sale. The tamu operates as early as 6am and closed by 2pm. The best time to go is in the early morning, when everything is fresh and abundant. The natives camp on the tamu grounds and by afternoon most things would be gone.

Early birds can grab a variety of local delicacies for breakfast, including pastries and traditional cakes. The tamu is also a great place to take pictures.  Everything fresh is available from roots to eggplant to fruit, laid on the floor. Prices are much lower than the regular markets.

There is also a variety of seafood available and it's very cheap. 

This is definitely something that I've never seen before. 

The native of Tuaran are known for their hand-woven baskets, fish traps and other hand-made bamboo craft.  This is the perfect place for a good bargain. 

Fruits or vegetables that some of us may have never seen before:-

‘Mahkota Dewa’ (God’s Crown) fruit. 

Wild banana heart. 

Now this fruit is interesting. My husband despises this fruit as it reminded him of how he got really sick within an hour after consuming it. This is a Bambangan fruit. It is popular in Sabah. We, the people of Sabah, love our bambangan fruit. It is a type of wild mango with brown skin and a somewhat pungent smell. It can be eaten fresh or made into a pickle and cooked with fish for a distinctive flavour. I still remember during my college years, my friends and I used to eat our instant noodles with bambangan pickle just to add an extra sour tang to it.

This is my favourite fruit. We called it ‘belunu’ on this side of the world. It is a seasonal fruit so whenever I see this fruit I will definitely buy some.

This is new. I have been to many tamus is Sabah since we moved here but I have never seen this, live chickens for sale.   

Sayonara for now! I will surely come back to Tuaran soon.