Kota Marudu (GPS: 6.49582, 116.76096) is a small town within the Kudat Division of Sabah. It has a population of 59,000 people with the majority being the Dusun people and Chinese from the Hakka and Hokkien dialect groups. It is 130 km from Kota Kinabalu. Neighbouring towns include Kota Belud, which is a hour away, and Kudat, one and a half hours away.

Kota Marudu was originally known as Bandau, which in turn was derived from the Kadazan-Dusun word "mondou", a mystical buffalo-like creature feared by the locals. It was renamed Kota Marudu, after the fort built by local warrior Shariff Osman, to defend the place against British colonialisation.

Getting there

You can take a minivan or shared taxi to Kota Marudu from Kota Kinabalu. The journey will take about 2 hours.

Festivity in Kota Marudu

Every November the town celebrates Pesta Jagung, or Maize Festival. It is a time for celebration, competitions and exhibitions. Traditional sports are played while a Pesta Jagung beauty pagent is also held.

Tourist Attractions in Kota Marudu

  1. Sorinsim Waterfall

Kota Marudu is on the Map of Sabah

Return to Sabah Kudat Division main page; list of Towns in Sabah and Towns in Malaysia

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Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

About this website



Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.

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