TBK Travels- Chester goes to Port Barton

The Beautiful white sand beach at Port Barton- Friday afternoon!

Chester loves parties and people and beaches so when he was invited to the reopening of Dam Dam Place in Port Barton he jumped at the chance.

( Click this link to see the Blog about the reopening of Dam Dam Place:

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2023/03/tbk-gives-some-alcoholic-cheer-to.html)

Luckily he invited The British Kabayan as his driver ( bad move) and Kevin as his cameraman. Kevin announced he has never been to Port Barton before and was very excited.

We handed over the Blue House to Jullymar at 9.45 am and with a car loaded with Chester’s bowl, food and towels set of to Robinsons to buy snacks and sweets for the Road trip and Alcoholic gifts for Adam at Dam Dam place.

We put “Port Barton” in Google maps and it told us it would be 162 km and take us 3 hours and 25 minutes. We collected Kevin on the way in San Pedro and then completed the 112km towards Roxas on the Great North Road hugging the East Coast of Palawan most of the way. The road here was good and we turned off to Port Barton after about 2 hours driving. The road then gets progressively worse as you head over the mountains ( 2 lanes of bendy steep narrow road but with spectacular views.)

Chester admiring the view as his driver takes him to Port Barton

Just near Port Barton we took the wrong turn and ended up going down a gravel track then back onto concrete road and then the road came to an end in the middle of nowhere! At this point we decided to eat our picnic lunch- Prawn and Mango salad.

After 3 hours being a very good boy sleeping on the back seat and occasionally sticking his head out of the open windows Chester was very exited to get out, have his bowl of water and explore the countryside.

I entered “Dam Dam Place, Port Barton” in Google maps and it told me it was closed. I responded that it was opening tonight and we headed back the way we had come and then took the right turning into the quiet sleepy town of Port Barton. It was a lot busier than my last trip with several new restaurants having opened like Fat Cat .

The Beautiful Fat Cat Restaurant- sadly it was closed when we arrived

The beach is now full of Massage places and people offering boat tours to the islands. Chester loved swimming and Kevin loved the soft white sand.

Chester enjoyed swimming in the clear warm sea both days

It was a hot sunny day and although it was high tide many people were sunbathing in " insy winsi polka dot bikinis" , or in some cases tiny thongs. Meanwhile the local kids were flying kites and walking home from school.

A little too much flesh for my now conservative Middle Eastern mind!

The beach is much nicer and less crowded than El Nido and has a strange mix of buildings destroyed by Typhoon Odette and never rebuilt ( Deep Moon Resort) and new additions that have opened, or reopened , as the tourists have returned to Port Barton.

One of the many buildings destroyed by Typhoon Odette

There are at least 5 hotels that have spring up since my first visit in 2018. The largest and best of these being The Holiday Suites where Alvin and I had lunch the last time we were here (and it poured with rain).

We walked down to the far end of the beach with Kevin filming us for our Vlog . He also took lots of photos which I have used in this Blog- Thanks Kevin!

You can see the Vlog of the reopening of Dam Dam Place here…..

We had lunch at Besaga which has now expanded with some wooden benches on the beach where we were served by a very good-looking young waiter. I ordered Mango shake (which disappointingly arrived in a tin) and Kevin had fresh Watermelon juice. Chester and I were still thirsty so we had two more cold litre bottles of water. Then I had a beef and mashed potato dish which was warm in places and hot in others. It had huge chunks of beef in a home-made gravy and was attractively presented with piped mashed potato.

My beef in gravy with mashed potato

Kevin opted for a chicken dish which was so big he ended up sharing it with Chester!

Chester drying out after his swim!

We walked back to Eashanti’s for a shower and then headed to Dam Dam Place which you can read about here….

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2023/03/tbk-gives-some-alcoholic-cheer-to.html

After a very comfortable sleep in a huge room ( 2 double beds, AC, shower and plenty of room for Chester to sleep on the floor) we showered at 7.30 am and headed off in search of Breakfast before heading back to PPC

Dam Dam Place appeared to be closed and when we asked they said Adam was still asleep so we headed across to Fat Cat where Erwin ( who used to be a Chef at El Nido Cove then worked in Lio , Port Barton and as a reporter in Taytay before returning to Port Barton as a waiter when Fat Cat opened earlier this year) looked after us very well and we had an amazing breakfast sat in the sun.

Chester and Kevin sat outside Fat Cat

The huge, hot, beautifully presented breakfast at Fat Cat with two bottles of cold Service water and freshly brewed coffee- amazing!

After breakfast we bought some Pasalunbong and wandered around the town before loading the car and saying goodbye to Ate Rose at Eashanti's and heading back to PPC.

Pasalubong is Tagalog for gift and its traditional to bring Pasalubong back for your friends from your road trips!

This is where I always stay when I am in Port Barton

Our room at Eashanti's place

Sadly it was time to leave the palm trees and white sand as I had arranged to collect Joven at noon in Puerto and we had a 3 hour drive ahead.

One of my favourite pictures from the trip- Nice one Kevin!

We headed off and Kevin filmed some of the trip so you can get a better idea of the amazing scenery- you can see that Vlog here

Insert Road trip vlog here

After all his walks and swimming Chester was exhausted and fell asleep on the back seat:

Chester travels very well in the car

After an hour or so driving I was in need of more coffee so we stopped at a little place I have used before near Astoria Palawan and had coffee, Lemonade ( freshly made and very lemony, water for Chester and Halo Halo for me ( too much ice, not enough fruit, not as good as the ones I make!) . I loved the coffee mug and the little Cafetiere the coffee was served in.

They had plenty of choices on the Menu , all freshly made and Pizza

It was empty when we entered but then filled with 1st year Education students from PSU on a field trip.

Refreshed, we continued our journey and I dropped off Kevin in San Pedro and collected Joven who did the ironing while I unpacked and did the washing. Then he washed the car and vacuumed inside to get rid of all Chester's hairs ready for our next road trip on Monday to Talaudyong beach.

I will leave you with some more of Kevin's excellent pictures from our 24 hour road trip to Port Barton. I hope you like them as much as I do and I would encourage you to leave a comment , Many thanks.