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Camp Tinangol
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Accommodation Style
Food & Drink
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Overview
This is our main camp in Borneo and is a traditional Rungus style Long House. Not far from the white sandy beaches of northern Borneo, this camp will also give you a real feel for life in a Rungus community.
Camp Tinangol is approximately 150 km north of the state capital of Kota Kinabalu. This is usually a 3 hour drive from the airport with the road tarmaced most of the way! It is in the north western corner of Sabah approximately 30 km south of the town of Kudat. From here it is a short drive to the Northern Tip of Borneo where you can see across the water to the Philippines and be on a spectacular white deserted beach.
You will be living and sleeping in a traditionally built Rungus Long House. The local ethnic group is Rungus who used to, and still do in some villages, live in great long structures over 100 ft long. These are usually made from local timber and bamboo but nowadays also incorporate zinc sheeting on the roof. This style of accommodation has a long corridor running the length of the building. On one side of this corridor is an open space where people sit and talk, care for their children, prepare rice and other foods for cooking. On the other side of the corridor are individual family rooms which are used for sleeping and cooking in. As you can imagine these are extremely communal buildings with community life happening under one roof.
The Long House at Tinangol has been adapted slightly to give you a bit more comfort but in essence is the same principle. You will share a sleeping room with 1 or 2 colleagues where you will have a mattress on the floor and a shelf for your personal belongings. You will spend most of your time outside in the communal area sitting and talking with community members.
There is a small toilet and shower block located nearby, a communal area for meetings and eating your meals as well as a separate kitchen area. Although there is currently no mains electricity the long house is connected to a generator which is switched on each evening. There are British 3 pin sockets in camp for you to power and charge your electrical items and batteries.
The kitchen is small but well equipped and several of the local ladies will supply you with a daily menu of fresh, local produce. Our kitchen crews live nearby and will be on camp most of the time. They are responsible for providing three healthy, well balanced and tasty meals a day. There will be a mix of local menus and a sprinkling of western food, hopefully catering to all tastes and requirements.
Our camp crew are very accommodating and will insist that you relax, sit back and enjoy all they can offer after project work, however we would prefer it if you got stuck in and helped wherever possible, assisting in the preparation of meals as well as cleaning up and other camp duties. Local cooking techniques are also taught and utilized. As in all our camps unlimited drinking water is supplied as standard: the water is purified through European standard filters and chemical purification, which reduces risk of waterborne diseases. Soft drinks and beer can be provided at your expense.
There is reasonable mobile phone reception in and around the camp and all key management carry mobile phones. If you have 'international roaming' activated on your phone you will be able to make and receive calls. We suggest you purchase a local SIM card if you intend to use your phone in order to avoid the horribly high roaming bills. However we also encourage you to minimise on phone use – you can catch up with everything back home when you get back – don’t let the phone interrupt your experience.
As explained above the Rungus ethnic group traditionally lived in long houses, encompassing the whole community under one roof. This led to close knit communities working and living together, helping each other to harvest their fields or work on the community building. The Rungus are a proud bunch and have traditional dances and costumes which they love to get out and show off – any excuse for a party. They also are experts at brewing the local rice wine – or in fact local brew made of anything including corn, maize or coconuts to name but a few.
