Eventually we made it to a small coastal sugar cane town. The industry was devolved by the Dutch who built cute narrow-gauge railways running through the plantations bringing the sugar cane to the port. Some parts of it still working. There has been a half-hearted attempt to make a tourist industry here. It's certainly beautiful, stunning mountains, mangrove swamps and white sand beaches. But no tourists, Ringo and I hired the two best (teak lined) rooms in a big run down beach road hotel for about £12, there was just one other guest. Ringo said the Muslim call to prayer from the many mosques at four am and lack of alcohol, put many tourists off coming. Sad because the people were lovely and the place stunning.
But there is a thriving handy-craft industry. We found marble carving, shell jewellery, mother of pearl boxes and the like, and teak wood of course. We were taken to workshops practically on the beach where families worked together making lovely stuff. Eventually we found a village with teak wood work-shops, we visited them all.
One guy in a small factory told us he was "just the local chief of police" (pointing to a police station along the road), his wife was the boss, could we come back later.
What we learnt was the the government have cracked down hard on the teak wood trade to ensure the sustainability of supplies. Local artisans can (or should) only buy from the official run logging company, and the police enforce the rules, hence the police presence in the forest.