Tamparuli Suspension Bridge

The suspension bridge at Tamparuli crosses the Sungai Tuaran beside the road bridge, a narrow cable-and-plank footway that moves noticeably as you walk it, and its fame across Sabah is almost entirely due to a song: Jambatan Tamparuli, written by Justin Lusah in the 1970s, in which a girl crossing the bridge in high heels gets one stuck between the planks - a Kadazandusun standard that virtually everyone in the state can sing. That is why a modest rural footbridge is a landmark. It has been damaged and rebuilt more than once after floods on the Tuaran, which rises hard in the wet season. The town beside it has a Wednesday market, the tamu, which is one of the better ones in the Kota Kinabalu hinterland.

Highlights

• A swaying plank footway - narrow cables and boards over the Tuaran.
• The song's bridge - the subject of a Kadazandusun standard from the 1970s.
• A river that floods - the Tuaran, which has taken the bridge out before.
• The Wednesday tamu - the town market beside the crossing.

When to go

All year; Wednesday for the market. An hour.

Before you go

The bridge genuinely moves and is not for anyone nervous of heights. It has been closed after flood damage at times. It is a short crossing and the town itself is small.

Nearby

Tuaran and the Mengkabong water village are west; Kinabalu Park is east.

Key facts