Fridays
Unit 4, 5, 6 Nevada Square
1 Loakan Road, baguio City
(+63) 9284012868
Going Wild in the City of Pines
By Kiki Tan

“We’re off to check some gay places.  You have any?”  We were in Camp John Hay, eager to go out, but unsure of where to head off.  On my own, it wasn’t the first time I went to Baguio City, dubbed the summer capital of the Philippines (great for cooling down, when the other parts of the country is in summer hot mode), but in the past, going out clubbing (especially in the gay scene) wasn’t in my activity book.  “You must have one or two.”

“There’s one (I, honestly, have forgotten this one place’s name); but the boys can be expensive there,” the concierge of the hotel said.

“Oh, I’m not into THAT kind of gay place,” I said – meaning, go-go bars are not for me.  “Just any gay place that isn’t, you know, gay in THAT sexually sleazy kind of way.”

Then this other guy approached.  “Head to Rumours – that’s along Sesion Road,” he said.  “It’s as gay as Baguio can get.”

Three, four hours later, I was in the middle of the dance floor of Fridays, in Nevada Square (this compound-full of party venues along Loakan Road, not too far from Session Road), somehow finding my way there from, yes, Rumours.

Noteworthies (I just made that word up, but you get the point):

1. Fridays is, say, the Bed Bar and/or Club Government of Baguio City – Rumours would be like Café Adriatico, or even Mister Piggy’s, when either of the two were at their peak.
2. With that comparison in mind, this place really happens only on weekends, too; other days, as it is with the others, it’s D-E-A-D;
3. The crowd’s young – I mean, YOUNG, mostly students and/or newbies in the workforce, all aware that, yes, you can be gay and sleep with other gay guys, and that doesn’t make you one who has “eaten a ‘sister,’” just another gay guy out looking for a gay guy, period.  And they know how to party, too (look at those dancing on the table tops…);
4. Note, though, the fascination with the term BISEXUAL – as in most of the Philippines, the term is used lightly, as if bisexuality makes men who have sex with men (MSM) manlier than their fellow MSMs but self-identify as gays.  There are many of the “bisexuals” in Baguio, too – something that may be of interest to visitors;
5. Good music – they actually have DJs, even some visiting ones at times, guaranteeing music-lovers good time;
6. Relatively cheap – yes, yes, you can get cheaper beers from even those other shops in Nevada Square, but this one’s still affordable (less than P100), especially since most days, there’s no cover charge;
7. Guys galore here (MSMs, and self-identified heterosexual men), with many standing in the middle of that empty lot in the middle of the square (and the fringes, too), all waiting to pick or be picked up.  Doing that, too, is easy because, not too far from Session Road, where everything really is, if the one picking up and/or the one getting picked up doesn’t have a place, there are numerous venues to go to along Session Road; and
8. The best thing about Fridays?  If it gets boring, right beside it, around it are venues (albeit mainly heterosexual) that can be visited.  This way, truly, every taste (well, almost…) is catered to.

“Hey, you’re here!” an acquaintance I was with said to the guy who recommended rumours at the hotel we stayed at.  He was with friends, mostly students, all eyeing us fresh meats in Baguio City.

“You’re here!” he returned – ending up discussing the good and the bad of Rumours versus Fridays, how everyone of us ended in the latter, et cetera.  It was tedious chit-chat, nothing special, really; just typically (if not stereotypically, gay).

I headed to the bar, grabbing some bottles of beer, looking at the quite skinny guys abundant in the place (Muscle Mary’s are few, to be honest), returning to the group to hear that the conversation hasn’t changed.

It was tedious, really.

But it made me smile.

Because Baguio City, with Fridays, is fast catching up with the gay lifestyle of the other more cosmopolitan places in the Philippines.