Maranjak Longhouse Lodge — Hotel in Borneo

This was a wonderful building.The surrounding area was rural and beautiful.||Unfortunately that was about it. Contrary to what was written on the Sabah Tourism website, there were absolutely no activities for visitors. There was no local wine to taste (luckily I had brought my own), no tour of the house, no music etc... Language was a problem here. Upon arrival the young receptionist could not understand much of what I said and made me understand the manager would be in later. We got to speak to the manager for about 3 minutes and then never saw him again. ||This is a three hour drive from KK and there is very little to do in the area so without any activities or people about we were stuck talking to each other for 4 hours before bedtime. Dinner was fine but breakfast was a disappointment. A bowl of noodles and tea was not sufficient to keep me going for the drive back to KK. ||Whilst the house was very airy and comfortable the rooms were not. The gaps were all boarded up and you needed to leave a noisy fan on all night; forget listening to the sounds of the jungle.||We found this rather expensive for what was essentially a hostel with no real hands on cultural experience. It is a very long way to drive from KK for an uneventful night. This could be a fantastic stay but I would recommend phoning in advance and not just booking through an internet site in order to check what will be provided.||The gong village nearby is definitely...

Maranjak Longhouse||When we arrived and said we had a booking for an overnight stay everyone looked puzzled, regardless of this we were shown to our room. We were prepared for basic, which it was, we were prepared for outside amenities which they were but what we weren't prepared for was the graciousness of our young hosts, the delicious evening meal prepared for us by them, sincere hospitality and a breakfast you would be lucky to get in a top hotel. Sadly after breakfast when it was time to leave they were nowhere to be seen and we left without thanking them. We slept soundly to the sound of rain falling along with many of mother natures little sounds. We missed out on any traditional music/ performances as described on their website but since we were the only 2 there we understood that- more for large tour groups. All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our overnight stay and left feeling relaxed and refreshed. Would highly...

Great experience here with gracious host/hostess - great traditional food (no luxury or pretension!), an enjoyable half hour culture show, and particularly helpful, well spoken guide, who drove us to the nearby gong making village, the honey bee village, waited while we shopped and lunched in Kudat then drove us around searching for accomodation at the tip of borneo. Theres a little craft shop, and a walk around the area but no planned activities. Its all about the overnight...