Samar has always been a mystery for us growing up. Although we have heard stories from my Dad about his childhood catching fish, running around town with his mates, and our extended family, we never knew how amazing and beautiful it truly was until we were old enough.
My family never took a trip to Samar when we were kids, even if our Dad’s side of the family are all Calbayognons. Perhaps because we didn’t have a car and we don’t want to drive a heck of a long distance, or we were too young to travel. It was in the mid-’00s when my father took his first flight to Calbayog via Philippine Airlines and boy did it become an addiction.
We found ourselves Fatherless for big chunks of time during summer breaks. Pretty soon, my mother joined him. Then in 2014 they seriously looked into purchasing a property.
My father’s family didn’t actually have a house to go back to. When their family moved out in the late 80’s, their quaint house was torn down so It was my Father’s dream to have a house beside the sea so he can go fishing whenever he wants to and eat all the types of seafood.
As a family, we’ve only been to Calbayog once and that was via PAL. That was before the Pandemic. At the end of 2021, we decided to visit our newly renovated place. This time, we have a dog with us, so we traveled by land from Bulacan to Samar.
We booked a car that will drive me, my mom, my sister, my brother, and Juno.
A rough start
We got picked up at around 11:30 because our driver had to fix his tires. All good, at least we’re safe.
We took the new bougie Skyway from NLEX Balintawak to SLEX. Good thing I have Gcash to load up our driver’s RFID. We drove all the way until 1:00 in Batangas where we had lunch.
Lord, we were not aware of the portions and just ordered 1 goto and 2 bulalo, and girl, they were not Manila sized. They were good enough to feed 6 people. Also, we thought Goto was going to be like Goto King.
After Lunch, we travelled the long and winding road across Batangas, Quezon, Quirino, and by nightfall, we reached Bicolandia. At 12 Midnight, we reached Legaspi City (No Mayon for us..) and reached Matnog port at 5:00 PM.
We slept at the Port and waited until the Morning for us to board the earliest barge.
We boarded the barge at 9:30 and actually set sai at around 2:00 PM. We were hungry as hell.
Because of Typhoon Odette, our drop-off point was rerouted to Alegria, a bit closer to Calbayog.
We didn’t stop over to eat anymore and went straight home where our father had Lechon waiting for us. By the way, you can buy Lechon left and right by the roadside during the holidays.
We got home at around 3:30-ish, and there was no power. Good thing I bought a portable generator/power bank. The power outage lasted until midnight but it’s okay. It was a sign that power is getting back up for typhoon-stricken areas as well in Samar.
All-in-all, traveling by land was fun, for me at least. I got to see places in the Philippines I haven’t been to like Camarines Norte or Surigao, and wouldn’t have realized how huge Quezon province was.
10/10 will do it again.