Visit Tagal Tinopikon Park, an authentic eco-village near Kota Kinabalu (Sabah) where you can feed toothless fish in the river and trek to a waterfall!

Overfishing in Malaysia has resulted in a lack of fish in local rivers, but with the village community effort in Tagal Tinopikon Park (in Notoruss village, Penampang, which is 40 minutes’ drive from Kota Kinabalu city), fishing has been made illegal along the Moyog River here; the name “tagal” means “prohibited” in the local Indigenous Kadazandusun language and anyone who fishes in a tagal area will be fined.

Hence, friendly Pelian (toothless) fish are in abundance and you can even feed them!🥰

We spent half a day chilling at this village, trekked into the rainforest to a waterfall (an easy 30-minute trek!), got creative with batik-painting🎨, watched the villagers do rubber tapping to extract latex from the rubber trees, strolled through the village garden with tropical fruit and indulged in a delicious kampung home-cooked meal prepared by the villagers. 🥬🍍

This was one of my favourite experiences in Sabah, seeing how travellers can bring value to the villagers as they learn about the local community (most proceeds earned go to the villagers), while villagers give travellers a peek into their lives. Creating harmonious and mutually beneficial ecosystems like this plays an important role in the future of sustainable tourism.💚

Special thanks to Tourism Malaysia for inviting us to this Mega Fam trip in 2020, where local and international media were invited to experience exotic Sabah and take part in the PATA Adventure Conference & Mart 2020 that brought together international experts in the adventure travel industry, tourism agencies, adventure product buyers and sellers from across the world.