Sleeping In The Borneo Jungle: Terrified And Alone In Paradise

When I was 22, I flew to Borneo to meet backpacking friends. Our plans were skewed and I ended up sleeping in the jungle at the northern tip of Borneo… ALL. BY. MYSELF. An exciting experience for the fearless adventurers among us, right?

Shame I don’t fall into that category.

I may have been terrified when the sun went down, but the Tampat Do Aman eco-resort at the northern tip of Borneo was a paradise from dawn until dusk.

A unique experience at the northern tip of Borneo

I booked the flight to Borneo without really thinking the whole ‘solo international travel’ thing through. I would meet my friends at the airport, or maybe in the capital city of Kota Kinabalu. I could handle taking a taxi to a predetermined place by myself. I’m a big girl.

Side note: Before I booked this trip, I had never even heard of Borneo. I was basically clueless about the world and all its treasures for the first 22 years of my life.

The 18 hour journey from England to Malaysia went smoothly, but all I could think about was finding the girls. Usually when I travel, I celebrate each little victory – like my luggage actually appearing on the conveyor belt or making it all the way with no delays. Not this time. You see, back then I was kind of a huge baby when it came to being responsible for myself.

Getting from Kota Kinabalu to Kudat

I landed in Borneo and got a taxi into Kota Kinabalu; but there had been a last minute change of plan. I’d had a text just before departure telling me to meet my friends in Kudat instead – a small fishing village in the north of Borneo. In the strong midday heat, I negotiated a shared local car ride from the bus station.

During the definitely not air-conditioned journey, a young Malaysian girl fell asleep on my shoulder. As we bounced through the country, I couldn’t help but feel pleased with myself. Look at me, being all independent and adventurous.

Ha. Once the driver had dropped everyone else off at their homes, he instructed me to get out at what I can only assume was the centre of Kudat town. Drivers shouted at me from every angle, none of them in English. I suddenly felt extremely conscious of how pale and lost I looked, with my gigantic backpack and severe lack of friends. There were no other foreign people around, and definitely no old schoolmates. Culture shock slapped me in the face like one of the smelly, wet fish that was sweating on the nearby hawkers’ stalls.

I know, I know: this is a real adventure. But I’m an anxious person and the change of plan had thrown me. Back then, I wasn’t yet the girl who moved to Dubai alone and travelled to Rome, Vienna and Hong Kong by herself. That all came later, and I hadn’t prepared myself to be alone in Borneo.

In Kudat, my first thought was that I needed Wi-Fi. I bought a lukewarm ice tea from a cafe and eventually got online. No messages. Where the hell were the girls? I messaged them all, but it soon became clear that nobody was online, and they hadn’t been for some time.

Clearly, there are many things I could have done before I set off to avoid the situation I had found myself in, but hindsight didn’t bring me much comfort as I stood stranded in the baking heat.

I decided to find a place to stay. Once I had showered and got a more reliable Wi-Fi connection, the others would be easy to find. I knew they were on their way. Maybe they were just delayed.

Finding accommodation in Kudat

Finding a place to stay in Kudat proved to be a lot more difficult than I had imagined. With no Lonely Planet guide and a lot of men shouting at me, I turned down numerous rides before I jumped into the most uninterested taxi driver’s car and asked him to take me to the hostel of his choosing. He just looked at me, perplexed. This had worked in other countries around South East Asia, why not here? A man leaned through the window and handed a me a business card. I agreed to let him take me to ‘Tampat Do Aman’, wherever that was. The card said they had Wi-Fi. I was jet-lagged, dirty and scared. I got in his car.

Note to other young women travelling alone: maybe don’t do this.

Imagine my nerves when I realised we were driving further and further away from town. I wasn’t really worried about my safety because when I was 22 I thought I was invincible. I was just worried that there might not be any bars where I was going. What would the girls say when they realised I’d checked us all into a hostel in the middle of nowhere?

 

The hostel turned out to be an eco-resort in the jungle, ran by a guy from Stratford-Upon-Avon and his Rungus wife, who had given birth just five days before. After a 20 minute drive, we stopped on an otherwise deserted road and knocked at the owner’s house. I have to admit, I was relieved to see a British person. The ignorant tourist in my just wanted to be understood.

Tampat Do Aman, ‘A Place of friends’

I guess I came to the right place! Tampat Do Aman translates to ‘a place of friends or a peaceful place’; from the local Indigenous language, Rungus.

But it was no ordinary backpackers’ accommodation.

The owner showed me to a long wooden hut on stilts, where ‘rooms’ were separated by bamboo doors. When I opened my backpack, a nail file fell out and disappeared through the wooden slats into the wilderness below. That’s what I get for bringing luxury items to the jungle, right?

He left me to take a shower in one of the outdoor stalls (actually quite nice), saying he would come back later to, ‘explain what we do here’. Sh*t, had I accidentally signed up for some kind of volunteering project? The girls were actually going to kill me.

I asked for the Wi-Fi password. Ha.

Looking back, I should have known that there was no Wi-Fi in the jungle. The owner didn’t know who had created that business card the man in town had shown me. There was also no way  to get back into town, so I was literally stuck in the Borneo wilderness with no contact with the outside world.

The owner wasn’t too concerned at my panic-stricken face, and offered to take me down to the beach in his truck.

The sun was disappearing into the horizon as I settled onto a picnic bench, sipping a cold beer and watching a lego-man sized child play with a body-board on the shore. I finally relaxed. I was going to be okay. There’s something about watching the sun set in a stunning location with no idea where the hell you are that has a calming effect.

I figured I could handle a night by myself in paradise.

I ate ceviche for dinner, and chatted to a few of the others at the resort’s ‘Tip Top’ beach bar, though most ignored me, probably judging me too pale to be interesting. The long journey had tired me out so I jumped in the first truck back to the long house at 8pm, following instructions to look out for the yellow eyes of slow lorises in the trees.

Sleeping in the Borneo jungle, solo

Back at camp, I crawled onto my top bunk and lay with my face just inches from the wooden ‘ceiling’. The hut was open to the elements and I could hear orangutans thrashing in the trees high above. Lizard-like creatures crept along the wooden beams, and a plummeting coconut crashed through the trees every now and then. I had the room to myself, but I would have given anything for a companion.

It was the longest, darkest night of my life. I had to count my own breaths just to focus on something other than my racing heart. All of my backpacking hardiness just fell away in that longhouse. Maybe if I’d had some time to prepare myself for a night in a foreign country alone, or if I’d had a notion of when I’d next see a familiar face, I’d have felt better.

Finding Paradise at the Northern Tip of Borneo

It felt like the sun would never rise, but eventually it did and I reluctantly crawled down from my bunk. Jet-lag and fear do not mix well. In the breakfast area, the owner Howard had good news. My friends had contacted him! They were coming for me!

I didn’t exactly feel proud of myself for ‘surviving’ a night in the jungle because I’d spent dusk till dawn hyperventilating and preparing for imminent death by anxiety attack. No, I was just relieved, and ready to be reunited with my friends. I headed to the beach to wait, fell asleep and got the worst sunburn of my life. My forehead swelled up and I spent the rest of our time in Borneo channeling the Elephant Man, but that’s another story.

Kosuhui beach on the shores of Simpang Mengayau

I woke up and went to cool off in the sea. My splashing was pierced with shrieks, and I turned to see my girlfriends clashing out of the trees and onto the beach toward me. I’ve never been more relieved in my life. They had been stuck on a boat in some obscure part of Borneo, but they were here now.

It turned out they had always planned to spend a few days at Tampat Do Aman, so I soon had dorm buddies and the jungle didn’t seem so scary anymore.

Borneo nights

Sunset was really special at the the northern tip of Borneo, and no two were the same. We would build a beach fire and watch the sand crabs scuttling across the beach as we riddled together songs from our various countries and drank beer. The truck took us back to camp each night, the full moon lighting our way and the cool breeze soothing my ridiculous sunburn.

 

More info about Tampat Do Aman eco resort

The Good

With two certificates of Excellence from TripAdvisor, Tampat Do Aman is a popular stop for backpackers in Borneo. It’s 18.6km from Kudat. Everything at the eco-resort is completely sustainable. The owner had bought six acres of land around the village of Marang Parang, and was trying to protect it, as well as the wildlife that inhabited the jungle. Through responsible tourism, the idea was to educate the locals to appreciate and sustain their own culture and country.

The 50ft traditional Rungus Long House is a communal style accommodation designed  based on those lived in by the Rungus people, Sabah’s most traditional sub-group of the indigenous Kadazandusun. Inside, each of the nine hut-style rooms is named after one of the animals you might see during your time there. We stayed in Orangutan, Slow Loris, and Water Buffalo rooms.

The cost is about £8 per night.

There are also semi-permenant tents which have self-contained gardens. They cost the same per person as a bed in the longhouse.

 

The wooden toilets were pretty sanitary – you just throw sand over your business, and the outdoor showers were surprisingly welcoming. Now I can say I’ve showered in the wilderness!

There is also a small Rungus Museum at the resort, where you can learn more about the local community.

The only food available is served at the Tip Top Restaurant at the beach, which has amazing fruit juices. You pay your tab at the end of your stay and though the prices for food and beer are higher than those around Borneo, they’re still cheaper than in the UK, so I didn’t have a problem with that.

The Bad

Despite his laid back attitude, the owner forbade people to bring food or drink purchased elsewhere, so he kind of had the monopoly. I guess this is normal practise for anyone running a business, but I felt the policy was at odds with the atmosphere at the resort. Because we were so isolated and had to rely on Howard to pick us up things from town, we didn’t have much choice and had to spend there. When we did bring a few beers from the single locally-run shop there, Howard tried to charge us for consuming them on his property.

The Ugly

My friend fell through the rotting wooden floorboards in her room and was left with a fierce bruise on her thigh. We were glad she hadn’t fell the whole way through into the wilderness below, but it was worrying that we were sleeping in such an unsafe hut.

There was a big booklet, explaining all the ways that the eco-resort was helping the local community. You could pay a local lady to do your laundry, Howard was paying for a young guy to learn to drive so that he could be the dedicated taxi driver for the resort… it went on.

While there’s no doubt that the resort brings tourism to the area, I’m not sure that the locals have much chance to prosper from it. My friend got talking to a local man who ran a guest house nearby, and he told her nobody gets a look-in for tourist accommodation in the area because of this resort.

Make of it what you will. I guess Tampat Do Aman is better than many other accommodation options, and it begs the question whether anyone can truly be authentically charitable abroad.

Book your own stay at Tampat Do Aman

 

Things to do at the Northern Tip of Borneo

Across the road from our accommodation, Howard led bush walks in his Nature Reserve. You could book numerous activities via Tampat Do Aman, including a fishing trip with one of the locals.

The resort looks out onto rice paddies on one side, but they were dry when we visited.

We biked out to the geographical Northern point of Borneo, and walked along the beach back to camp afterwards. The shallow water was a welcome relief to my sunburn, and so clear we could make out huge jellyfish floating towards us!

So there you have it. I (kind of) survived a night in the Borneo jungle all alone, with no Wi-Fi and no idea when I’d next see civilisation.

Would I do it again? Probably not, but the sunsets were worth the traumatic arrival.

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