There were a few fishing villages that shared the island with us.  However there is pretty obvious tensions between the resorts and villagers.  The resorts have complained because the fishermen are using cyanide and dynamite to fish which is incredibly harmful to the reefs and all life that depends on it.  There is also a lot of shark fining (for shark fin soup a specialty dish in Singapore) that occurs in these waters.  So much so that 10 years ago there were tons of sharks all around the islands and today there are virtually none.



Its hard to know where to start...there is no running water, electricity or schools in the village.  I watched a sweet little girl play dress up with her dolls that she had drawn in the sand.  The doll, house, clothes everything was drawn into the sand with her fingers...
And yet as you so often see in these situations the kids seem happy.  The older kids watch the younger ones and things like shells and sticks and (sadly) empty bottles and cans become toys.