About

My Philippines Adventures [MPA] is here to share what I have learned and experienced here in the Philippines. I’ve got a ton of tips and tricks for surviving in the Philippines as an ex-pat, adventures, and family updates. MPA is really now “Our” Philippines Adventures.

They say “it’s more fun in the Philippines,” but sometimes it depends on how you define “fun” haha.

** The rundown below has been seriously condensed **

How It Started

My Philippines Adventures started as a place where I could post about my travels and adventures around the Philippines starting with my first trip to Bohol in the Central Visayas in May 2017. Well, I came here for a month, had an incredible time, made a few videos to post to my new MPA Youtube channel and website, and before my vacation was even over, I decided that I was going to move here.

How can I just pick up and move? Well, all of my work is online, and my sons in the US are adults, so why not pack up and experience living in another part of the world?

Me at the Chocolate Hills in Bohol.

After returning to the US from my first trip, in three short months, I packed up my life in the US. I sold my truck, put a bunch of stuff in a storage unit [that I am still paying for – haha], gave a ton of stuff to one of my sons, and arrived here with everything I could fit in my big a** suitcase and an overstuffed laptop backpack.

I was very lucky to have made some great friends on my first trip, especially Peter and Rowena, the folks I rented an Airbnb bungalow from on my first trip. They were kind enough to let me do a long-term rental on the same bungalow, and I settled into work, did some travel, and just enjoyed figuring out how to live in the Philippines since living here is much different than being a tourist.

The Girl

Not long after moving to the Philippines, I met Chien. We started chatting online [Cherry Blossoms] and after a lot of chats, planned our first weekend together. I still joke about how she wouldn’t even put her arms around me while riding back on my motorcycle after I picked her up from the pier, but there was something that just kinda clicked between us, and her coming to visit immediately became an every other weekend plan.

A picture of Chien and I overlooking the Chocolate Hills in Bohol.

Little did I/we know that those chats and that weekend were going to be the beginning of a life together.

Anyway, our original plan was to travel together, so our first trip was to Dumaguete so Chien could get her Philippines passport. It was a nice trip if you take out the nightmare of a hotel we stayed in. To this day, I still don’t know how that hotel had so many good ratings, but, to the best of our calculations, it very well may have been where our life together changed forever.

Daddy

Not too long after that trip to Dumaguete, Chien let me know that she was “late.” Late? Ya, “late.” So, what does a guy do when he hears the word “I’m late”? He goes straight to the pharmacy to pick up the necessary home tests.

Picture of our positive pregnancy test results.

Yup. That’s two solid lines, and with that, we were going to be parents.

Chien's maternity photoshoot at Peter and Rowena's house in Bilisan, Panglao, Bohol.

Now, for a lot of guys that go to the Philippines, a positive pregnancy test would be a nightmare come true, but for me, not so much. Just like Chien and I so easily “clicked,” this new reality felt about as natural and easy as our relationship had been since the beginning.

Enter Typhoon Cydney

From the minute we found out Chien was pregnant, I wanted her to come live with me in Bohol as soon as possible, so I could be there for every doctor appointment and do anything and everything I could to make her pregnancy as easy as possible. But, Chien also had a good job and it took many more months than expected for her to get the ok to resign. But, that finally happened, Chien moved to Bohol in August 2018, and our [first] daughter, Cydney Alexandra, aka Typhoon Cydney, was born in January 2019.

A picture of our daughter, Cydney Alexandra.

Ya, so the idea of being “travel buddies” was exchanged for being parents, and I would never change a second of it. Our little Typhoon runs at full speed every single day of the week and has been the most wonderful challenge we could have ever asked for.

Yoyo G & Yoyo M

We’ve been blessed to have my mom and her wife, aka Yoyo G and Yoyo M visit us twice. Once right after Cyd was born, and again one year later, just before the Covid scamdemic lockdowns started.

A picture of Yoyo G, Yoyo M, Typhoon Cydney, Chien and Me at the Chocolate Hills, Bohol.
A picture of Yoyo G, Yoyo M, Typhoon Cydney, Chien and Me at the White Beach Resort in Anda, Bohol.

For the sake of brevity, I will say that the following years have been a whirlwind. We planned on getting married in Thailand, but Covid lockdowns nixed that idea, so we got married online via WebWedOnline because the lockdowns meant we couldn’t even get the necessary paperwork here so we could get married in the Philippines.

Finally Married

A picture of Chien, Typhoon Cydney and me after our online wedding.

We survived category 5 Typhoon Odette which passed right over the top of us just before Christmas in 2021.

Daddy x 2

And, we welcomed another addition to the family, Madison Reese, who was born in February 2023

Our Typhoon Cydney holding her sister Hurricane Madison

So, now we are a family of four, living in Panglao, Bohol, and trying to decide what to do next.

Wrapping It Up

Ya, I know, a long freaking “about” page, but I had to get some of what’s transpired so you understand where my ex-pat Philippines knowledge comes from. There is a lifetime ahead of us, and hopefully, a ton of great videos will educate and entertain anyone that comes to our little website and social media channels.

Thanks for stopping by. We appreciate you.