A weekend at Concepcion, Tarlac

We went to Sitio Tabon, situated in Baranggay Santa Monica, Concepcion, Tarlac to visit some of my wife's relatives. The road to Tabon was rough and dusty, although some parts already have roads good for single passage. At some point, I feared that the dust and lahar would trap the tyres of the car, but fortunately, the road was still passable even for a small car like the Picanto.

The town of Concepcion, Tarlac is just 106km north of Quezon City. With the new North Luzon Expressway, the trip took roughly an hour on a Sunday morning. The sight was refreshing - after all you don't get to see this scenery in the city.

Upon arriving at our relative's place, we were greeted by some turkeys that do not seem to mind the imposing red car that was moving at less than 20km/h due to the bad road conditions; but we were able to arrive at our destination without any problems. The locals were also looking at the car with gusto. I heard some kids at the next door saying "tingnan mo o, ang liit ng kotse" ("look, the car is small").

Turkeys are a smart lot; they are proud animals and don't mind being watched at all. They were willing participants in a flash photo shoot I made for my daughter. The trip to Tabon was long and rough, but our KIA Picanto was able to get us through and enjoy a good weekend in the province. We will defintely come back again.

Twin Spotted!

I found a carbon copy of my baby Pica at Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall Parking lot. I made a little peeking inside and I noticed we have different head units.

The Capacity to Carry

One of the things that really make me proud of owning a KIA Picanto is whenever people underestimate its carrying capacity. I actually heard someone say that the car looked good but it has a small trunk space. They couldn't be more wrong!

I recently ordered 170 kilos of ube and 30 kilos of processed peanuts from my hometown in Samar as part of my family business. The whole order was packed in 3 sacks and 5 biscuit cans.

rear view
My relatives shipped my order on an Eagle Star Bus which arrived 4:45am in their Edsa terminal in Pasay City. Unfortunately, the bus would just stop over for a few minutes (just enough to unload passengers) then continue to it terminal in Cubao. So I had to work fast and transfer the stuff from the bus to the car.


rear view unzoomed
The funny thing was, the first thing that the bus helper said was, "Magkakasya ba yung tatlong sako? (Will the 3 sacks fit?)". I happily said yes and proceeded into converting the rear seats into a large trunk space.


side view
So, how was the performance? I was able to accelerate to 120kph while driving on Coastal Road back to Cavite. Vehicle handling was still the same as if you have a 5 people inside the car (including the driver).


The wife
As a closing remark, a lot of people doesn't know that a hatchback can actually carry bigger and longer items than normal car. Why? Because you can let the extra items stick out of the back of the car!