It's always intriguing to experience the different traditions, practices and languages while traveling through the countries of SE Asia. And sometimes, our language comprehension and pronunciations can provide for a humorous experience. For instance, during our trek in Myanmar with Sam, he once commented to Haley about the salad. Different part of the world, and naturally, different pronunciation -- but to us, instead of "salad", it precisely sounded like "slut". So, with a confused look, Haley clarified what was said ("do you like the tomato, slut ?" ) and then explained why we were laughing at and what the word represents in our culture. No disrespect to Sam whatsoever, just funny how sometimes our different pronunciations will take us somewhere unintended for sure.

And now, as we said our farewell to the wonderful people of Myanmar, we continued our journey to Rosanna and Haley's heritage in the Philippines. Rosanna arrived before us and we reunited at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Manila. A fitting hotel name, as since Rosanna insists that she is not Asian, I describe her nationality as Pan Pacific Islander SouthEast Asian American -- that pretty well covers it, right ?

Rose spent a summer in Manila as a 7 year old, and came home nearly fluent in Tagalog. With daily exposure at home to the native language with her lola (Grandma) and parents, she's done well at preserving some level of fluency. She's getting some good practice speaking with the locals here, and they are delighted to speak Tagalog to her. Most everyone we have met thus far speaks relatively good English, so no real language barrier to transition to -- just the fun "F for P, and P for F"!

It was great to reunite with my friend Alasdair, who I met while on a diving trip in Philippines last year. Unfortunately, my other buddies Tim and Dave were traveling and unable to catch up with us. But, I'm confident we'll meet again, and they still have their cherished Trump shirts to remember me.

Our entire stay in the Philippines is centered in the Visayas (of course there's the obligatory B for V conversion, so it's pronounced Bisayas), with our first stay in Moalboal, Cebu. Located a not-so-pleasant 3 hour drive from Cebu City, Moalboal is quite secluded. It's all about the diving here, with some peaceful relaxation mixed in. Not really any town or night life to speak of, but lots of friendly people and local life. Connor missed out on his first day of scuba diving, due to tummy troubles, but he recovered and made it back in the action the following day.

Haley, Connor and I went for a full day of adventure with both the Whale Shark swim along with a day of canyoneering at Kawasan Falls -- early morning pickup at 5 AM, and all day action. Rosanna opted out of the early morning torture, and enjoyed the bed a while longer. Of course it was a much greater story to share when I met my first whale shark in the wild in Tubbataha, but that's a quite rare event. But at Oslob, it's guaranteed and more of a zoo experience than anything else, but hey, it's quite cool to be inches away from these massive creatures.

From there, with some catnaps in the van, we continued on to meet Cecil for the canyoneering adventure. Our hotel gave raving reviews of Cecil, describing him as a really cool guide, and only 3 foot 2 and ripped -- well, more like 4 foot 8, but with Connor standing next to him, in a small Filipino house that has ceilings touching our heads, it made Connor look freakishly giant. This turned out to be quite a fun adventure, with swift rapids to cross and cliffs to jump from. All 3 of us made the leaps, all from 15 - 28 feet heights, and Haley went up the tree for the highest leap of the group, at 35 feet -- it really felt high from up there, and you come screaming down to the water. It was beautiful scenery everywhere, and an awesome day. On the final jump at Kawasan, after second guessing ourselves and reluctantly making the leap, Cecil then proceeds to dive effortlessly with his small frame, and in perfect form like a professional cliff diver head first. Wow ! !

We had a great day of scuba diving around Moalboal -- weather opened up a bit and we got some sun, visibility improved underneath, so some good diving conditions. We got the music cranking, getting pumped up before the dives, and entertained our divemaster, Michelle from Belgium -- no peace and serenity, it's time to have fun, and we even had a 4th of July toast between dives, a patriotic tribute to coincide with our friends at home doing the same thing (after adjusting for Philippines time zone of course). Connor did very well for his inaugural dives, and looked comfortable and natural. We even did a Filipino cooking class, and learned to cook chicken adobo, pancit, and biko, just like her lola did.

Can't leave part of the Philippines without some karaoke action, so I got a couple of the staff to join Rosanna and I at the local (very local) karaoke joint. Bought a couple bottles of local rum, and all was good. Drenched in sweat at 9 in the evening, as I've been in saunas that I couldn't get myself to sweat this much. But plenty of fun as always, and we sang and drank until closing, rockin it out with Jun Jun and Arod -- Filipinos absolutely love to sing karaoke, and they seemed to be very entertained with me there.

We enjoyed our stay at Blue Orchid Resort, between the beautiful setting, very nice rooms, and a great staff. Well done, Bill & Lisa, Steve & Michelle, along with so many nice filipino staff. Many thanks for an excellent stay, and I hope they liked my rubber duckies departing gift.

I'm writing this on the ferry boat, on our way from Cebu to Bohol. We'll spend 4 days here in Panglao Island/Bohol, diving around Balicasag Island and getting pampered in the Presidential Suite at Henann Resort, the nicest on the island. The Henann lounge access is included for suite guests, and features a large selection of complimentary treats and hors'd'oevres. Connor was a bit hungry and annihilated the selection, so the staff was working to restock. We had a few laughs and figure that he might be going through a late growth spurt.

Everyone's happy here, and off to a great start on our next phase - Bohol ! In the next few days, maybe I'll have a video production of the adventure to date. But for now, enjoy the photos in Philippines.

Robert, Rosanna, Haley & Connor