WHILE the young ones are bar-hopping and dancing the night away with electronic dance music (EDM), the young once are ballroom-dancing the night away with songs like Rita Lee’s “Lanca Perfume” at the lobby of a hotel here in Cagayan de Oro.
Lanca as in jackfruit? Ah, nope. All I can say is, those were the days.
One Saturday night, we, the young once, had a delish dinner care of an eat-all-you-can buffet at a hotel lobby, and coffee and complimentary cookies at another hotel lobby where ballroom dancing and a live band were its main features.
While savoring the coffee and cookies, I began to notice something: most of the people there belong to my generation. Except for the one and only young one, who’s most probably the daughter of my generation. It was an amusing Realization 101: finally, an appropriate nightlife for us.
I’m not really a ballroom-dancing fan. I’d rather dance the night away with EDM as my Muzak, and with some tequila to awaken my non-existent dancing skills. But I ended up dancing at the hotel lobby, anyway. Live band and dancing—perfect combo.
That particular hotel had a slow restart right after the pandemic lockdowns. I went there that time and the food at its resto was, hmmm, what’s the politically correct term? Okay, it was blah. And the hotel lost its appeal as CDO’s most luxurious hotel.
But it has had a major comeback, with much thanks to its general manager who has also made a major comeback. Somehow the hotel’s ambience went with him when he left and transferred to another country. But he’s back, and the Cagayanon is definitely happy that the homegrown hotel is busy again.
One of its perks is its location—right in the middle of it all at the downtown area. CDO’s major malls are within walking distance, depending on what the Cagayanon considers as walking distance. If he’s the kind of exerciser who prefers to walk from his uptown residence to his downtown office, even Laguindingan Airport can be walking distance for him.
Distance is a major factor that the Cagayanon always considers for his daily sked. If he’s an uptowner whose office is located downtown, he may have to leave his house an hour before his time in. One word: traffic. There’s always traffic during rush hour which worsens by Friday afternoon and evening for those traveling from downtown to uptown CDO.
The uptowner who doesn’t have a business or office in downtown CDO has learned to eat, drink, and be merry within uptown CDO. If he’s downtown, he leaves the area at 3 pm to avoid traffic jams.
Some city hall officials see the traffic as part of progress. The more the city progresses, the worse the traffic. Wisdom tooth, er, thought yarn?
Since CDO will morph into Metro CDO in the future, there’s Radisson Blu’s soon-to-rise status in uptown CDO making that happen sooner. That means more progress for the city, and more traffic, based on city hall officials’ analysis.
And there’s Gaisano Uptown City Mall opening soon, and Manresa as the future BGC of CDO. More signs of progress. More traffic.
