visited the Rungus tribe in the tip of Borneo

Last week I travelled from kota belud. Although lonely planet tells about hourly busses, no bus. A lot of eager taxi drivers telling you to take a private taxi or combined taxi, minivan instead.
it took me 3 hours to find out what how and where from, nobody seemed to know.

Luckily my first minivan left within half an hour. Nobody talked English. First van drove me to kota Meruda. There I had to change to the next van to Kudat. Some people were already waiting inside. First the minivan needed 6 people to start driving, so 12, finally with 12 passengers we left. It took me 4 hours to reach Kudat. From there my private taxi was already waiting, to Jamal village in the tip, totally north, of Borneo. Finally at 15.00 I reached my destination.

Staying in a rungus longhouse, build for tourists, in the style of their ancestors. I stayed with Roland and Nancy and their 3 kids, their parents, his 2 brothers, his wife and their 4 kids, all living in the same house. Youngest 2 years.
You can call Roland on 019 534 5225. You can also book by friend of them on 019 802 0549.

Roland showing how the coconut we have in the shop grows in a fallen coconut.

In the longhouse there are 4 rooms, with mosquito nets and thin matresses on the floor. I was the only guest the first nights. Quite dark and lonely and a bit far from their house it felt.

Roland showed me the beach, a 10 minutes walk over fallen trees and wading through a small river.  And there it started raining and it did not stop until 3 days later. And not just raining, pouring, heaven came down, floods in Kudat town and me having to wade over the grass to reach the toilet or my room. Those days I talked a lot with Rolands sister in law, 32 yrs old and now pregnant of nr 5.  I smiled a lot with grandma, only a few years older then me. Nancy took me out picking vegetables from the forest, only 20 meters away. I watched how the family interacted, how everybody took care of all the children, how the children change into and out their schooluniforms, how they prepared the food. While the only guest I ate together with the family sitting on the kitchen floor. What stuff we white people are :-) I learned to throw bones etc through the holes between the planks to feet the dogs underneath, and a lot more. The women were fantastic cooks. Ate cooked and fried Tapioca for breakfast, etc.

When I was trying to book a plane ticket back to KK, another couple came by taxi from KK AND it stopped raining. I accepted to stay 1 d longer driving back with them and on the way back visiting the gong factory, hand made. That was yesterday.

So I am in the city again, kota kinabalu, but this time in the hotel my Hong Kong friends had last time I was here. Today I visited the Sabah museum complex. Bus back to town, 1 ringgit only. So I am in town until Wednesday, with wifi.