Baguio Night Market - Market Friday

Baguio City is full of life from sunset to sundown until the wee hours - a city awake 24/7. One of the reasons that is keeping the city awake is the night market.

This started back in 2007 started by some vendors of ukay-ukay or sellers of secondhand apparels. Baguio City is also known for these ubiquitous shops. If you are lucky and have a great bargaining skill, then you can buy original pre-loved products at a cheap price.

Bargaining starts at 9:00 until past midnight.

The city allotted half of Harrison Road, a national road, for businessmen to display their goods. The road is turned into another colorful and a different kind of busyness at night. What used to be a display of secondhand items, now you can buy rip offs.

This is not a shopping mall. Each vendor has a small space to display items. The stalls are cramped. Claustrophobia is real. That's why ready yourself to jostle and be jostled, push and shove. Be mindful of your valuables and turn up your vigilance to the highest level.

This is beneficial to both the sellers and the city. For a fee of just P50 PHP collected from each vendor, that is a negligible cost compared to what you will gain from customers. Reportedly, the city generates millions from these vendors every month.

You can find almost anything here that you need from head to toe - caps, clothes, bags, books, shoes, sweaters. There are gadgets as well from phone to speakers and accessories like jewelries. There are toys, souvenirs and even blankets, sheets, pillows.

Items sold here are babies to adults, girls and boys, ladies and gentleman. Everyone is welcome as long as you have the capacity to do so. Or you can visit like me and just take photos and window shop.

These are just some of the souvenirs sold here in this market. Notice anything? It comes in various sizes. Aside from the "snake" ashtray and keychain, there is also a barrel man famously sold in shops here in the city but I did not notice that here.

There are woven wallets, itch scratcher, dream catcher and different kinds of keychains.

I do not frequent this market. When I tag along with friends, I mostly just stand on sidewalk and wait for them. Sometimes I take photos and look for something new. I cannot even remember if I ever bought anything during my visits.

We met with some friends we have not seen in a long time. We all live a few minutes from the city but because of personal stuff going on, we cannot even find the time. Luckily this time we had the night to spend it together. Before going home, we decided to check out the night market.

It is also a great way to test my phone's camera's low light capacity.

These "Harry Potter" wands are new to me. This is the first time I am seeing this displayed during my few visits here. If it was during the hype of Harry Potter, I would have bought a couple of wands. However, I was just content taking photos of them.

I did not notice it right away but there were also pipes sold in this shop. My eyes were zoned in to the wands that I only noticed the pipes while browsing the photos I took.

I also did not notice right away the lady in this photo had she not moved right after I took the photo.

The market had been running for a long time. However, because of its location measures were discussed where to move the market. Last January, the city approved an ordinance to move it to the city market, particularly Kayang Street. The market starts at 9:00 p.m. By then, there should be only a few vehicles passing the national road but the road is still busy that time so this move is needed. Yet, the market is still here. The ordinance was approved last January and I took these photos last week. I guess the agency responsible for that can still tolerate the market to continue in that area. I see no problem with them being there since they can re-route traffic. This has been the way for many years, so why change?

Kayang Street is a great idea though because it is a free space when night comes. The city government is open for other suggestions.

This is also my first time to see these nameplates. You can personalize it with corresponding charge. The longer your name, the more expensive it is.

Flower vendors are located on the sidewalk of Harrison Road and they are there by day. Good for them because they can open their shops up until the night market closes.

If you are tired from shopping, then you can turn to the street foods available. Both ends of the market are dedicated to food stalls. It used to be on one end only but then more and more people seems to be drawn to the food especially students so more stalls are set up.

There had been an issue a few years ago about sanitation and handling of food and waste that the government banned food vendors especially those who do their cooking there. I guess everything is okay now because I see a lot of more food stalls.

Aside from local food, there are other Asian street food like Korean, Japanese, Thai, etc. There is one particular stall that I like to buy food. I believe they are freshly made because from the time they opened, there food are quickly sold. It is delicious and cheap with enough serving. I forgot the name of the stall. When we visited, they were no longer there and it was just past 10:00 p.m.

This night market has been the livelihood of locals. For those who wanted to do business with no worry about rent, they can start here. They can apply and see if there are slots available and set up their business here. The only hassle is bringing your goods here and then bringing them back home. Aside from that, it's a good place to start.

The night market has become one of the tourist attractions of the city.

All photos taken by my phone.

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