Day FourteenWe are now in Allen on the island of Samar. I know it has been a while since I made any kind of contact, but we were on an island without internet for two days and have been traveling for the last two. Since my last post at Cebu we traveled north on that island and crossed over to a small island called Malapascua. This was a really small island, in fact on Saturday we walked all the way around it. It was also quite deserted, partly because it was past peak tourist season and partly I think because there is not much there. We found a great deal on a room. The lady running it gave us almost a 50 % discount. I am not sure why she gave us a discount and not the others that came before or after we did, but I am not going to complain. My theory is that she thought we were newly weds and wanted to give us a deal. Which leads me to this thought, everyone here thinks Alex and I are married or siblings. I get the first and although we don't look anything a like they could think the second either because we are white and therefore must be related, or because men and women don't travel together here and sleep in the same room unless they are married or siblings. I wonder if they always think we are marrie, but don't want to offend us if we are siblings so they ask if he is my brother instead of my husband. Eh, doesn't matter either way, let them think we are married or siblings it is up to them, if they ask we will tell them, if they don't then can assume away. We spent a day and a half on Malapascua. We hiked around it, found a nice little deserted beach to swim at, did a little snorkeling (don't worry I was fully covered in sunscreen so there was not sun burned booty this time), and just laid around a bit. There really wasn't much there, to our surprise (not pleasant or unpleasant just not what we expected). It was described as a smaller quieter Boracy (the big tourist island we were at) and it really wasn't. There was a lot of places that the guide book listed that were closed, and a lot of places had big red X's on them. I think that meant they were going to be torn down. The X's reminded me of the tree cutters in Fern Gully that put a spray painted X on the trees to be cut down. Anyway it was a pretty quite island and we liked it, people were friendly as we have come to expect, but we decided to move on after a day and a half so we could spend more time on our journey back to Manila. Yesterday we made it form Malapascua to Tacloban on the island of Leyte. We took a boat to San Isidro on Leyte then found out that there was no longer a bus that ran from there directly to Tacloban. We had to take a bus to a place who's name a can't pronounce or spell then a van to Ormac and finally another van to Tacloban. Today we took and 8 hour bus here to Allen from Tacloban. The last two days have been a bit squished, uncomfortable, and unpleasant, but not every day can be a lazy day on a sunny beach. So we take the bad with the good and get on with it. Since I haven't done much I thought I might share with you some of my observations. First driving: I know I have mentioned that travel is packed to the gills and comes in various shapes and sizes, but I don't believe I have described the driving. In short people drive like psychos. From what we can tell there are no rules of the road like we have in the states or if there are no one fallows them and no one enforces them. There are very few traffic lights or signs and only in bigger cities. We are going to try and take a video so you can see really how nuts this is. The first few rides were a little scary, but we are adjusting. I am surprised people don't die more often in car accidents. After three weeks of very aggressive e driving, I hope I still drive like a normal person when I get home. It is going to be weird having people drive calmly and stay on the right side of the road and not honk their horn every two seconds. But believe me the horns are necessary it is like a coded form of communication that all drivers here know.Second stray dogs: There are tons of stray dogs everywhere. Some look mangy, some look healthy, some have been adopted by the people in the area, most have not and most have had puppies and we have even seen a but of doggie mating. However, the people and the dogs coexist happily, each going about their business. My guess is that both have better things to worry about than the other. The people have more important things to put time, money, and effort into than collecting and dealing with stray dogs and the dogs have better things to do than bother people. It is quite interesting. Although some times I really want to pet them and or play with them and I know that is a really bad idea so I don't. Well I don't have anything else to say and we are a little travel weary so I will sign off for now. We are doing well and getting along just fine. I'll be home in a week. Just so you can keep track we will be heading out again tomorrow to Lagaspi or Donsol I don't know how far we will get. I'll get to the computer again in a couple days, most likely to just check in. Miss you all.