The Siassi Islands are a blend of time and place, and yet so different from anywhere else in PNG. They lie in the clear blue waters of the Vitiaz Straits, a watershed of cultures and peoples in the region. Like so many other coastal and islands people in PNG, the faces of the Siassi bear the stamp of their own history: of distant migrations, recent out-marriages and the relative isolation of this place. Their oldest ancestors were probably followed the sea-going migration that populated the mainland about 40,000 years ago, as part of a second wave of migrants who, according to archaeological evidence, arrived about 5000 years later and quickly settled New Britain and New Ireland. Up until, 5000 years ago, all these north coast and Massim islands were also wiped by successive waves of Malaysian-Chinese traders, whose fine features and beautiful eyes have survived throughout the region. The most salient evidence of this seems to be the high-pitch and extended beams of their thatch roofs, which, particularly on Aromot island, resemble so many South Asian temples. The people themselves look like a perfect blend of their West New Britain and Morobeen neighbours, with dark skin, long limbs and a reddish tint to their hair, suggesting more recent or continuous inter-marriage. But what's most interesting are the signs of cultural borrowing and exchange. The ceremonial head-dresses of the Siassi, the large flat sail-like sago-palm boards, clearly come from West New Britian, and are not unlike head-dresses seen along the Morobe Province, Madang, and up through the Rai coast. There are even head-dresses in the Sepik region that look something like these, which may or may not be related, but which complicate the picture and suggest that culture is always fluid, and in many places is as much subject to trade and exchange as are shells, fish, sago and other goods.

Malai island has a peaceful village along its white sandy shoreline, sheltered by a low mountain ridge, with small well-kept gardens beside its double row of homes. Between these homes is a wide, well-swept clearing where ceremonial dances and other public events are staged. Following this clearing to the far end of the village, it narrows into a footpath running through the bush along the shore. About a half kilometre away, on a slight peninsula surrounded by clear blue-green water and bounded by tall palms, is the Malai Community School. It would be hard to find a prettier school in all of PNG, with its brilliant gardens, basketball court, and, best of all, the wonderful big blue dinosaur on one of its outside walls.

Crown Island is another Siassi idyll. Here the homes are scattered over a patch of completely flat ground, giving the island a much more exposed and fragile feeling. One can imagine storms that rip through here and leave homes barely standing, people clinging to the base of palm trees and coconut cannonballs whizzing every which way. There are no gardens on Crown, but there are plenty of canoes, as fishing is clearly everything here. For all this, the tiny population is warm and cheerful, happy to show visitors the bones of a huge whale hanging from a tree, and the rafters of a new house going up.

Aromot Island is the most unusual of them all. It's sometimes called the Hong Kong of the South Pacific. So crowded is this tiny island with people, pigs and churches that it seems almost like a floating ark, set adrift in the Vitiaz Straits. Some of the homes are even two-storey, with the lovely upturned gables that give the visitor the impression of having sailed out of Melanesia and into Malaysia. The Aromot people live here in their traditional home and commute, so to speak, to their gardens on the main island of Umboi, which adds to the oddly metropolitan feeling of the place.

To reach the Siassi islands, take a boat from Lae or Madang.