The Subic Expat #4-A Tale of Two Dons

Don West and Don Cooper are two successful Barrio Barretto businessmen. Their shops are diagonally across from one another on the National Highway. Both businesses were begun in 2004.
Don Cooper is Australian and he owns the popular JayJayz Internet Cafe.The café is usually full of young women talking to their boyfriends via the computer microphone and webcam. JayJayz offers scanning and printing services in addition to Internet access.


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Don has a generator so that service is not interrupted during the brownouts. There is a big screen TV for watching sporting events or music videos and a suspended aquarium overhead for the nature lover. The food is quite good and varied and there are always a couple of daily specials. The espresso coffee is fine. His wife Trixie caters banquets. Don West can be found there having breakfast some mornings
Don Cooper was born in Sydney and has been involved in management of construction projects most of his adult life. His career has taken him to Singapore, Macau, Hong Cong, China, Egypt, Spain, Portugal, Norway and the Bahamas, in addition to Australia and the Philippines. The name Jayjayz is taken from the first names of his children; Judith, Jason, and John. He commenced the business in February, 2004.

Dons’ wife Trixie is from Bicol in southern Luzon and has one daughter at the University of Philippines. She has been in the hotel business in Angeles and Olongapo for the past 10 years and can speak four Filipino dialects.
Within the next year Don and Trixie plan to expand their business considerably. They envision selling fresh vegetables, fresh fish, Mother Earth meats, jams and peanut products. They also plan to have up to 6 motel/hotel style rooms with a TV bar/lounge area.
Don West is a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer. His Generals Command Post Bar is very popular with expats and some nights there is standing room only for latecomers.

He advertises “the coldest beer and the coldest bar in town”. His bar stays cool during the brownouts thanks to a generator. In addition to a fine collection of classic rock and country music, the bar has two televisions. The one near the front is usually turned to a movie or news channel. The TV at the rear of the bar is used almost exclusively for viewing Black and White documentary films about World War II in the Pacific. The noise level may be high with two TVs, the stereo, and conversation all going at once. Don Cooper may be found there having a beer after work some evenings.
The décor is decidedly military with .50 caliber and .30 caliber machine guns hanging from the ceiling and WWII model airplanes also suspended. Don’s Silver Star Citation from Vietnam hangs over the entrance door. He was the crew chief on a Navy Helicopter.

West is a WWII buff and named his bar after General Douglas MacArthur. There is uniformed dummy of the General inside the bar. In addition Don is proud of his two fully restored army jeeps; a 1943 and a 1944. One of them was used by General Douglas MacArthur in Leyte. West rides in this jeep during local parades dressed as General Macarthur, complete with corncob pipe.
Dons sandy hair and gray eyes indicate his Welsh heritage. What is not evident is that Don is also partly native American Sioux. He has the tribal membership papers to prove it. He has four sons and two grand-daughters .Don worked for a time at the ‘boneyard’, the very large storage facility for obsolete military aircraft at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tuscon, Arizona. While working there he discovered one of the helicopters he had flown in during the Vietnam War. West moved back to the Philippines in 1995 and opened the Generals Gym in 1998; the gym was across the street from his Generals Command Post Bar. He still works out regularly and, in his early 60s, Don can still bench press over 350 pounds.

His bar will celebrate its second anniversary in August 2006. The first anniversary party had lots of great food and conversation; don’t miss the second! Ring the bell, buy all the girls a Ladies Drink!