a beautiful trash heap.

That is kinda what Mabul Island amounts to. Actually, that's unfair - it's extremely beautiful, but it is also dirty. An island off the coast of Borneo that you can walk around in 30 minutes and houses 2000 people living in fishing villages, is what it is. And what does that lead to? Trash, everywhere. The local kids play with it, fashioning boats of of styrofoam and paddling around naked, but mostly, it's just in heaps outside the huts. But, on an island, where else is there to put it?

Not, however, on the neatly combed beach of our hotel (it's not a resort without AC or any beer besides Stella, or where the classiest drink special is a liter of rum with a bottle of coke for $11).

Matt got his SCUBA certification in the world class reefs and I lounged on the beach taking advantage of the drink special, occasionally, stepping out into the ocean and hanging out with the resident sea turtles.

So, despite the trash, there was also beauty. Which I suppose is how it is everywhere.