Getting to Pom Pom

To get to Semporna from KK we had to take a bus, then boat over to Pom Pom island, overall the journey took 12 hours all of which were incredibly exhausting. We got to the bus station at around 6:00pm which was subsequently followed by 1and a half hours outside a police station. Some would blame this on just being paranoid tourists, but I would say we were just coincidently there. The bus had a puncture so that had to be fixed before we could leave.  The 8 hour bus ride could be compared to Dantes 9 circles of hell. It would be described as less then pleasant and hardly a wink of sleep was gained by any person on the bus apart from myself, as I am really awesome.

The buses are modern and comfortable.

There are few things in life that I am thankful for but blankets are certainly one of them. The blasting air con certainly did not contribute to the joy of the bus ride, but thankfully I was able to actually to get to sleep considering my friend allowed me to conveniently place my legs over her whilst I slept. However some may argue that I am able to get to sleep just about anywhere because my slumber lasted throughout an hour after getting off the bus, sitting in the TRACC office, and then proceeded to continue throughout the boat trip over to Pom Pom island.

Sleeping in the office

It took a while to pack all of our equipment and luggage and Guido was surprised at how many bags we had. There was a moment of worry about if we would have to make two trips or if the boat would be able to sustain the amount of luggage we had, including the weight of everyone who needed to travel over. After what seemed like ages of planning and rearranging, we finally set off with all the bags and all the people on board.
Making our way to the island, there was yet another brief moment of panic when the boat stopped, but luckily that was just a false alarm, as there was only a small amount of plastic that covered the engine for a second, the bag then luckily untangled itself and the boat continued sailing through the waves.

Sleeping on the boat

Overall the boat journey was an hour, maybe more, quite hard to tell actually because I did end up sleeping throughout the whole journey with my friend lying on my shoulder. Could have been 30 minutes could have been an hour and a half. Only after we got to the island did I find out that there were photos taken of me as I slept. Very unfortunate that they would not be deleted either.
We arrived at the island at about 8:45 and were all completely drained of energy by the end of the whole trip. We all really just wanted to sleep. Despite our best efforts to try and take a nap, we were then instructed to unload all of the bags and equipment from the boat and load it on to a massive canvas that we had placed on the sand. We decided to try and make a productive chain so that we could get the job done quicker and then rest. Overall the journey was hard, but fingers crossed its well worth it.
Jackie Mac

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