The Honda City and the art of road tripping

MANILA, Philippines - Honda proudly calls its 3rd generation City “a work of art”. And by all indications, it seems consumers feel the same. Sales of the City reached 10,000 units in just over twelve months – the highest ever. Cause to celebrate? Absolutely!

To mark this milestone, Honda invited The Philippine STAR’s Motoring writers to try out the sub compact sedan the market has come to love. Our route: 240kms around Laguna de Bay through the provinces of Quezon, Laguna and Rizal. But it wasn’t just a routine zip through some scenic patches of the Calabarzon area. To truly celebrate and appreciate art (of not just the vehicular kind) we visited some very charming places.

Our first stop was lunch at Ugu Bigyan’s Pottery Garden in Tiaong, Quezon. Ugu, a renowned ceramics artist, knows a thing or two about food and hospitality. His Garden is dotted with airy pavilions where you can eat, buy his sought-out creations or just laze around and take in the provincial symphony of tweeting birds, rustling leaves and the distant cheer of men at a cockfight.

Ugu personally demonstrated how he makes his famous kulawo – a native delicacy made of eggplant or banana heart, charcoal-toasted coconut, onions, garlic, sugar cane vinegar, salt and pepper. Yes, it’s as good as it sounds. Whether you wolf it down as an appetizer, with your main course or just on crackers it’s beyond satisfying.

The rest of our meal was as lovely as our surroundings. A clam soup, fresh pako salad, jumbo gambas, fish with salsa, pork spare ribs. Dessert was a simple (but thankfully light) cup of sago in gata. All that, we washed down with what else? Cold, cold buko juice.

Before we left, Ugu shared his expertise in pottery too. In an enviably effortless demo which lasted mere minutes, he crafted a bowl and a quirky, “deformed” pitcher.

Now it was time for the longest stretch of our drive from Tiaong, Quezon to Binangonan, Rizal. Our 1.5 City A/T proved to be a gracious host for this journey. We set off in the early afternoon and our unit had no tint. But because of the City’s additional air conditioning ports on the rear seat floor, we were never uncomfortable in the cabin.

Another factor was the space. I was very surprised that the cabin of a car in this category could comfortably seat four adults and all our road trip paraphernalia. There was so much legroom in the front and back you tended to wonder how a vehicle of this size managed it. What’s more, the trunk space is extremely generous with a capacity of 506 liters.

As the sun set, we reached our home for the night – the Thunderbird Resort in Binangonan. Who knew that a luxurious hotel like this existed in low-key Rizal? With a pool and bar overlooking tranquil Laguna de Bay, we were all set for the night.

The hilly terrain around Thunderbird provided the perfect backdrop for our pictures and a test of the City’s 1.5 liter engine. Though car did lack the power we desired as we went up extremely steep gradients, it got a boost when we lowered the gear with the on-steering-wheel paddle shifters.

On Day 2 of our drive, we went down to Angono to visit Yab Design which is where larger than life resin figurines are hand made. The mostly exported designs range from depictions of famous people to gigantic creatures to seasonal ones like Santas and skeletons. Walking through their showroom was like strolling down a bizarre collision of TGI Friday’s, Vegas hotels, various amusement parks and a Christmas Winter Wonderland.

After that all stimulation to our senses, it was time for lunch at Crescent Moon Café in Antipolo. Our healthy meal included kamias, ginger, chili, coriander, onions, ground peanuts, dessicated coconut and dried shrimplets all wrapped in mild tasting alagao leaves. I also loved the cucumber with fish balls and pumpkin soup with coconut meat. As soothing for the soul as the koi pond on the property!

Our last stop for the drive was the Blanco Family Museum in Angono, home to the masterpieces of the late Jose “Pitok” V. Blanco, his late wife and all their seven children. Our curator was Pitok’s granddaughter who regaled us with anecdotes of the family and pointed out the artistic strengths of each Blanco family member. We walked through the galleries in awe of how such talent could be concentrated in one family.

Our City drive was then concluded. In all of 36 hours we cultivated an appreciation for a truly game-changing car amidst the rich artistic heritage of eastern Luzon. Not bad for my first road trip as a motoring writer…