Minibus to Semporna!

After our time up the river with Uncle Tan's we were a little reluctant to leave the quiet solitude of the jungle, but alas we had to (not only because we were badly in need of a shower and pretty much all of our clothes need to be laundered).  We had booked ourselves into the Scuba Junkies Lodge in Semporna for that night and we were nowhere near it.  So after a last ride up the Kinabatagan (and a short drive) we bid farewell to Ida and Suzanna (who are now our friends on facebook) and Ampong (who gave us the boat ride) and then hopped on our first minibus. 

Minibuses are the only way to get from the town we were at to Lahad Datu which was the transfer point to get to Semporna.  After about 5 minutes in the really tightly spaced seating (even adult Malays couldn't possibly sit comfortably in them) we did not want to take another one.  At any rate we decided to think of it as a real cultural experience.  And it was.  The driver did not drive fast (which was nice) but he honked at everyone that was walking and yelled as we passed.  If they put their hand out he picked them up.  There were also actually "bus stops"  that he stopped at, but as far as I could tell he could stop anywhere.  On our way to Lahad Datu we picked up a variety of people including: an older woman and her granddaughter, a very old man with no teeth, a couple of "cool" looking guys, a mother and 3 young girls on their way to a party and a man with a large crucifix prominently displayed from his open shirt and a really long pinky finger nail.

We arrived somewhere near Lahad Datu and the driver frantically honked at another minibus driver and said to us "Semporna yea? Come."  We followed and ended up on anther minibus (yay!) bound for Semporna.  This one fortunately did not pick up passengers.  There was a large family with us as well as two other couples (all Malay of course).  Nancy managed to fall asleep on this one some how as did the wife of man in front of us and the mother in the large family.  Us men all met eyes briefly, looked down at our loved ones and shared a moment (briefly).  Then we all went back to out the window and such.

After 5 and half hours on two separate minibuses we finally arrived at Semporna.  We ended up with a double room and for the first time since we had left the Aqua Bella we had a room to ourselves (with aircon!).  We also asked about laundry service and were informed that the cleaning lady could do it, so we gave our laundry to her.  After registering for our first snorkeling trip (on the following day) we ate and promptly went to bed.