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We ended up off the coast of El Nido, Palawan, island-hopping aboard an outrigger canoe-style bangka, despite my penchant for seasickness.

With the sea breeze ruffling their hair as they hopped around the bangka as easily as if they were on land, they told us stories, cooked three-course meals on the boat and played beach volleyball with us.

When Sariah went to fetch water in a pit near her home in Bangka Island, Indonesia, last September, she was unaware that a 3m-long saltwater crocodile had been resting in the crater, watching as she filled one of her buckets.

Bangka island is one of the richest tin-mining regions in the world.

Crocodiles are a protected species in Indonesia, but in Bangka Island, they are usually killed after an attack - rather than being handed over to a local conservation agency.