Blessed Day!
Hello :)
How are you people? ... I hope you're doing well
On this post I'll talk about a municipality named La Trinidad in Benguet Province in the Philippines.
Yup!
I will stay in here for about a month (exactly less than a month, but just count it as a month, hehe)
If you didn't know why I will be staying in Benguet, it's because I joined the SEA Teacher program in the Philippines. The place where I will be studying and teaching named Benguet State University (BSU).
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| Benguet Location through the Philippines Map (Source: Wikipedia.com) |
Benguet is a province located in the southern tip of Cordillera Administrative Region in the island of Luzon. It's capital city is La Trinidad. Benguet also have its summer capital city named Baguio which is located in the south-central part of Benguet province. To travel from Manila to Benguet need for about 4-6 hours depend on the transportation and the traffic. The transport that usually use to travel are car, bus, or the other public transportation. Half-way after leaving Manila, the road is uphill and winding toward Benguet. It can be understanding because Benguet province is located in the top of mountain.
Benguet is the homeland of three tribes, collectively referred to as Igorots. The Ibaloi in the southeast, the Kankanai in the northwest and the Kalanguaya in the east. The language commonly use in Benguet beside Tagalog and English are Kankana-ey, Ibaloi, Kalanguya, Bontoc, and Ilocano.
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(Mountain in Benguet seen from BSU campus) |
After travelling from Indonesia to Manila, I continued my travel with other Indonesian fellows and the BSU dean, Ma'am Imelda Parcasio, and someone who will be our teaching coordinator named Ma'am Jingle Cuevas, that already fetch us in Ninoy Aquino International airport. We went to Benguet using mini bus of BSU and arrived in Benguet at 2 A.M in the morning.
In the same day, we have our small city tour in order to explore Benguet and La Trinidad by walking. Ma'am Jingle and her husband were our guide.
The first destination is the public market located near the BSU campus. The market was very crowded of the people. Buyers, sellers, and the porters were doing their activity in this market. The main product that available in La Trinidad market that I visited was the vegetables.
The first destination is the public market located near the BSU campus. The market was very crowded of the people. Buyers, sellers, and the porters were doing their activity in this market. The main product that available in La Trinidad market that I visited was the vegetables.
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| La Trinidad Market in Benguet |
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| Activities in the market |
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| Sayote, the easy to find vegetable in La Trinidad market |
As a mountain area, the agriculture sector in Benguet is well develop. They bring the fresh vegetables from the farmer to the market to sell. Some household industries also make some products from the vegetable or fruit in Benguet. One of the agricultural product that easy to find in Benguet but hard or maybe can't be found in other country like Indonesia, is the dried mango. It tasted sweet yet sour in the same time.
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| Dried mango as agricultural product in Benguet, given by Ma'am Jingle husband |
The other agricultural product that I never found in my country is Ubee Jam. I was surprised when I saw the Ubee jam, I mean they are very creative to make an ubee or sweet potato to be a jam for bread. It tasted sweet, a good combination for a white bread.
If America has a KFC as it's original kentucky franchise, Philippines has Jollibee as their original kentucky franchise. The Jollibee is easy to find food in the Philippines. Almost every street has the branch, from the big one to the small one.
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| Jollibee, a famous food in the Philippines |
After strolling around La Trinidad, Benguet, we ended our city tour by having the Jollibee as our lunch. It was ma'am Jingle treat, which made us double happy 😆
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