Today we took the short flight back to Kota Kinabalu for a half day in the city before checking into our lodging, the Magellan Sutara Resort and Spa (more on that later). Our exploration began with a visit to the Monsopiad headhunter cultural village, where we saw skulls collected by the greatest headhunter warrior of his time. We were greeted warmly with a couple of shot glasses filled with their version of rice wine. This time, the rice wine was icy cold, so it was extra refreshing on this hot morning.
We took a peek at a collection of the skulls, which was a bit spooky. All of the skulls were suspended from the center support beam of the room.
The practice of the high priestess is quickly fading out, which is one of the reasons why the cultural village is in existence. A few years back, a team from National Geographic came to document a lot of the traditional practices... here is an example of traditional jewelery: a heavy metal piece worn around the waist by the women.
While we were there, we also learned how they still use traditional methods to make their rice wine, as well as their methods for distilling the rice wine into a more potent brandy. I tried a bit of the brandy straight from the condensation distiller. It was interesting... not too abrasive, but also not too much intrinsic flavor; just a hint of fermented rice aroma.
We were treated to a brief cultural show which included dances from three different tribal groups. La Verne and I, along with Nancy (one of the other folks in our group) went on stage to try a dance involving bamboo poles that were rhythmically snapped together near our feet... we had to step in and out of the poles without getting our feet caught! It was a lot of fun, and a bit of an adrenaline rush as the beat got faster and faster.
Outside the village, La Verne took a quick stroll along a rope bridge and took a moment to jam on the traditional instruments with Thomas... they had a pretty good beat going on. 
The remainder of the afternoon was spent back at our ridiculously luxurious resort, lounging by the pool. It has been an activity-packed vacation, so we enjoyed the down time immensely. We wrapped up the day with a short trip into town for dinner at a restaurant called "Little Italy." We felt the need for a little break from Asian food, and pasta hit the spot nicely. We're beginning to realize how little time we have left in Malaysia, so we'll really need to make the most of the last few days we have!
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