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Cebu is a dynamic and developing major city in the Philippines offering significant opportunities and conveniences, though it presents challenges with cost and walkability compared to smaller towns.
The video documents a journey to and exploration of Cebu Island, starting with travel via ferry and bus. Initial impressions highlight Cebu City's intense and vibrant atmosphere, with a focus on the practicalities of navigating the city, including finding food and accommodation. The host notes the cultural aspect of customizing food flavors and the generally good English spoken by locals.
Conversations with locals reveal insights into life in Cebu, contrasting it with smaller towns like Dumaguete. While Cebu offers better job opportunities and conveniences like 24-hour businesses, it is also significantly more expensive. The host also shares personal reasons for visiting Cebu, including passport renewal and meeting a potential romantic interest, underscoring the prevalence of positive interactions with people in the Philippines.
The exploration continues with a focus on accommodation challenges, particularly the difficulty of finding affordable places last minute due to Cebu's popularity. The city is described as developing rapidly, with modern architecture and amenities that seem new even to those who visited years prior. Despite the challenges of cost and walkability, the host expresses an overall positive impression of Cebu's eclectic vibe and the hard work ethic of its residents, concluding the visit with a journey back to Dumaguete.
Cebu City offers a dynamic and vibrant travel experience with 24-hour conveniences and more job opportunities than smaller towns. It's a bustling metropolis that is rapidly developing with modern amenities. However, visitors should be prepared for higher costs and less walkability compared to other locations.
Compared to smaller towns like Dumaguete, Cebu City can be significantly more expensive. While it offers greater conveniences and opportunities, travelers need to budget accordingly for accommodation and daily expenses. Finding affordable last-minute accommodation can also be a challenge.
Finding accommodation in Cebu City can be challenging, especially for last-minute bookings, as many places are booked months in advance. Prices can be higher than in smaller towns. Planning your stay ahead of time is recommended to secure reasonable rates and availability.
Cebu City is worth visiting for its bustling atmosphere, rapid development, and the opportunities it presents. The city boasts modern architecture and amenities, and locals generally have good English proficiency. It's a great place to experience the energy of a major Philippine metropolis.
The main challenges of a Cebu City travel experience include higher costs of living and less walkability compared to smaller Philippine towns. Travelers prone to motion sickness should also be aware that bus rides can be bumpy and may require medication.
Yes, English proficiency among Filipinos is generally good, making communication relatively easy for travelers in Cebu. This facilitates interactions and helps in navigating the city and understanding local culture.
The ferry fare from Cebu to Dumaguete is approximately 1500 pesos. This is a significant journey, with one commenter recalling it as a long six-hour ride.
Cebu can be significantly more expensive than smaller towns like Dumaguete, particularly for accommodation. Prices can be even higher during popular events like the Sinulog festival, with hotels sometimes costing five times as much.
Finding affordable accommodation in Cebu, especially last minute, can be challenging due to its popularity. Many people book hotels months in advance, particularly for major festivals. Planning ahead is recommended to secure reasonable prices.
The video suggests that living in Cebu is a possibility. One commenter asked if the host could see himself living there, to which he replied affirmatively.
Getting around Cebu can present challenges, as it is described as less walkable than other locations. While the city is developing rapidly with modern amenities, transportation planning is necessary. Some find e-biking to areas like Talisay to be a viable option with less traffic than downtown.
0:03 Where are you from, sir? USA. Oh, USA. Do you like Filipina? Just use some uh wake up juice. I really like having my sunglasses on. We're just here on the boat. Hey guys, I'm Ry Subu, and we are pulling up to the ferry terminal. Now, I'm just going to hop off the bus, buy my ferry ticket, and then get onto the ferry. Ride the ferry across, and then I'll be on Cebu Island. And then I'll hop back on this Seri bus. This bus ride costs 332 pesos to Cebu, about $6 roughly. Pretty reasonable price considering how far we're riding.
1:21 What a beautiful day for this. It's a perfect day to be riding to Cebu. Riding the Martin 5 Boat over to Cebu Island, and then we'll hop back on the Seri bus for the journey to Cebu.
2:39 So apparently, you're supposed to board the bus on the boat, and then ride the bus off the boat. You got to depart the bus to get on the boat. We just stopped here for a CR break halfway between Newag and Cebu City. I guess we'll be on the road for a few more hours before we get there. If you are like me and you are prone to motion sickness, I recommend taking Dramamine before you ride the bus here in the Philippines. I felt pretty unwell, and thankfully, soon we should be in Mandaue, where I'm staying tonight.
3:30 Cebu is intense. It's really an intense vibe. I love it already. I'm looking forward to getting to check in. I found this City Mall right down the street from the bus depot, and so I'm excited to have some food. I haven't eaten anything today. They told me the chicken will be a half hour. I really like it with the lime juice. I think it tastes a lot better with the lime juice. That oil is really good. This little pepper is spicy. I like it. It really adds a lot of flavor. That's something a lot of people don't know about is in the Philippines, the dishes are often designed for you to customize your level of flavor. So those with a milder preference, they don't have to use too much flavor, and those that like a lot can really turn it up a notch. I like a lot of soy.
5:35 Alexander, yes sir. Thank you so much, sir. Good evening, sir. Oh, good evening, sir. Good to see you. My English? Oh, very good, sir. It's very good. You have a good English. Smart Filipino man. Where are you from, sir? USA. Oh, USA. I'm like you, I moved to the big city for working. So I live near San Francisco for a while. Lots of Filipino people around San Francisco, mostly from Pampanga. You like Cebu? There's things I like and things I don't. I last came here 5 years ago. It can be stressful, I think, because it's a big city. I think I'm more like you, that I'm used to a kind of smaller town, more relaxed environment. So here it's busy, but here's where people can find a good job, right? People have better job opportunities. I like some of the conveniences I like in Cebu. More 24-hour businesses, more nice stuff, but of course, it is very expensive here. I think that's the big thing I noticed. It's much more expensive than Dumaguete. Yeah, Dumaguete is pretty budget-friendly. Here, yeah, you definitely pay a lot more. I'm here to renew my passport. So I have to do my passport here, and they, I tried to do it from Dumaguete, but the picture didn't come out very good. So I have to come here to do it in person. Sunday. This coming Sunday is a Syue. Oh, wow. Is that why it's so busy? Or it's normally always this busy? Yeah, busy. Close. No cars, no entry. Many people can walk.
7:22 Will you celebrate uh Calog? Yeah. Syal. I see. Okay, thank you, sir. Oh, no worries. You know all the places to stop here. How long have you worked here? Taxi. Uh, yes, sir. Cebu, almost 9 years. Wow. Yeah, every day, drive taxi for my family. I have one daughter and two sons. You're driving to take care of your family. How old are your sons? 12 and 6. How often are you able to go back to late April? Oh, very nice, because the vacation of my kids. Oh, very nice. From school. Beautiful wife. Oh, wonderful. How long have you been married to your wife? Uh, 13 years. 13 years. Wow, 13 years. That's a long time. Congratulations. How did you meet your wife, sir? Meet in Lau Lau. Oh, Lau Lau. Oh, so your family lives in Lau Lau? Or they live? Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. Near. Near. Okay. I thought maybe they're living in Leyte. Oh, that's nice. Your family is close. I was, I didn't want to acknowledge that because I know a lot of Filipinos have to live far away, but you get to see your family. Yeah, at the end of your working day. How about you, sir? You single? Oh, yes, sir. I'm single. Maybe one day in the Philippines, we'll change that. Yeah, we have a lot of Filipina here. Yeah, a lot of really nice women here. And, um, it's, uh, yeah, a lot of really nice women here. Do you like Filipina? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I met a few. And one in particular, she lives like in Talisay. So after I get, after I figure out, after I figure out my passport renewal, I want to go visit her in Talisay. We met through her aunt. Saw us in Dumaguete, and her aunt comes to visit Dumaguete, and this was like a few weeks after I arrived to the Philippines. And she asked me, are you single? I said, yes, I'm single. She said, you should meet my niece. So then she introduced us. And then her niece comes to Dumaguete, and we met and had coffee. And she said, let me know when you come to Cebu. So, yeah, I think there's a lot of lovely women here in the Philippines. And I feel very fortunate. I love this country. It's a beautiful country, and the people are very, very nice to me. And sometimes can be challenging with the weather. Sometimes the weather, you know, you have a typhoon, especially Leyte, where you're from. I know Leyte from can have some real weather challenges. But, um, I like it here a lot. I like the people a lot. I originally came here 5 years ago because I hired a virtual assistant here and I wanted to meet him. And he asked me, are you single? And I said, please don't remind me. Joking, joking with him. And he said, well, you ought to come to the Philippines. I said, what do you mean, come to the Philippines? I didn't know anything about the Philippines. And he said, well, there's, you know, if you're a single guy, like, there's a lot of nice women here. I said, okay. After a while, he talked me into coming. And he said, I'll introduce you. I work with some women, and my wife has cousins, and just kind of going from there. And so that's something that I really, I think for a lot of men, you know, they want to meet a nice woman to be their wife. And I think in the Philippines, there's a lot of nice women here that they're looking for a good man. And, uh, yeah, how long do you drive each day, sir? Uh, maybe 20, 24 hours sometime. That must be very tiring.
12:34 Building, building number 12, sir. Chang, not used to using that. My bus ride from Dumaguete took a very long time. The ferry normally takes like 20 minutes. Today it takes an hour and a half. And then because of the Sinulog Festival, there's no entry. Yes, there is an event here. It's quite very traffic here in Cebu. And yeah, I'm sorry for that. Because not your fault. Yeah, for me, it's better you can come early so that I can just give you the key. Yeah, you can go out anytime. M. Thank you. Yeah, I appreciate your help. You're a big help. My house is not here. I mean, we don't live here. So I thought you're not coming. I'm so sorry. Where are you living? About probably here, it's around 5 minutes ride. Oh, okay. You ride motorbike? Uh, oh, you take car? Yes. Oh, okay. I see. That's why it's a bit traffic. Yeah, yeah. And it's hassle for me to come here around 1:00 PM. That's why I changed it because my place is very far and I have work as well. Oh, your job? What's your job here? Um, not really a job. It's just I have another body house. Okay. So I'm going back and forth. Just back and forth. You have a lot of guests you're taking care of? Not really a guest. This one is just a transient. The rest is boarding house. So it's that one is for multi-state. Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Anyway, this is my place. Oh, very good. So, um, this is the washroom. My English not good. Oh, it's good. It's good. So Filipinos have good English.
14:34 All those here have their own key, so there's no curfew. Have you used one PES? Just, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I used it. Yeah. Yeah, it's very convenient now. Unfortunately, the cold one is not working. Only the red one, I mean, the hot one, because we're in a compound condo. We're in building 12, right? So we have building 16 and building one. There is a convenience store there, 24/7 open. So you can go there if you want to buy some. The smallest one is your key here. Perfect. So I'm just using the exhaust one, so that can, I mean, the air can get inside. Okay. Yeah, it's comfortable. So, yeah, it's comfortable here. I've been in the Philippines 6 months. So, oh, okay. Hey, so good morning. I just slept here in Cebu City last night, and I saw pretty good. It's actually really nice here. The aircon is really comfortable in this building. It is a very small room, perfect for me. It wouldn't be good for you if you are bigger than myself or a couple. So, yeah, I booked this spot. It was like $173 cents for a night. I'm in the Mandaue area, about 4 kilometers away from where I'm headed to the consulate today. I was able to get an appointment booked with the consulate last minute. On the way there, I'm going to print out a document I need to print out to present to the security guard, and then I'll get my photo redone for my passport photo. I'm probably also going to stop and have some breakfast, maybe at a McDonald's. It's the Deca building in Mandaue. There's like 15 of these buildings. And this is building number 12. I am going to be moving to a different building because I found another comparable listing here for the next week, and then I'll probably move to a different part of the city just to try something different out and see what that's about. I'm not sure about McDonald's here in Cebu, but I know McDonald's in Dagat will give you a free refill if you order a coffee. So I'll probably just get a breakfast combo and then have a second cup of coffee because I could really use the boost, guys. I'm feeling pretty tired, and I could just use some wake up juice. I had originally attempted to book a nicer, bigger place, but they just didn't confirm my booking. And so these people here were gracious enough to, and it's worked out to be a good deal. The location is pretty convenient. I'm not super far outside of the city. I think I'm near Jeep routes, which we'll check.
17:24 I'm near Jeep routes which we'll check out here in a bit. The outside and if I see a Jeep me going in the direction of IT Park, I'll probably hop on it. Considering we're moving toward after rush hour, Jeeps and rush hour can be kind of claustrophobic.
17:40 Especially here in Cebu City, the door just opens like that. So I have to remove these keys in my AirPods.
18:16 Bye-bye, and the adventure to the consulate begins. This spot is like a compound of these condo buildings. It's nice to be in a secured area.
18:30 Gosh, I'm just blown away by being back in the big city. It's been like six months since I've been in a big, big city, and I'm a fan of them. I know they're not for everybody, but I like the excitement, I like the population density.
18:50 I really like having my sunglasses on, so I'm going to put those on. There we go, much better. Reminds me of being in like Colombia. I definitely get that Latin vibe here in many different ways.
19:04 Just coming through security here. Sometimes I get to question like, are people in big cities rude or mean or whatever? And certainly, some can be, but also there's a lot of people here from smaller towns and smaller cities that come here to work, come here to get ahead, and are super friendly.
19:37 Cebu is not super walkable or pedestrian-friendly.
20:04 Hello, sir. Hi, nice to meet you, sir. What's your name? Oh, Jerus. Jus, you from Cebu? Yes, sir. Oh, it's a nice city. It's good. Very nice to meet you, Jerus. You from USA? Uh, well, I'm living in Dumaguete now. Nice. Enjoy. Thank you, sir. Have a nice day.
20:51 Bangkok. How can you get tired of this? It started to rain here in Cebu, so I stepped into this mall area. I guess the rain's already over somehow. I don't understand the weather here.
21:14 Coconuts. Hello, sir. Hello. It's definitely cooler here than in Dumaguete, even without the rain. It feels cooler.
21:26 So, almost made it to the consulate. One problem: it closes at 10:30.
21:31 Hello, good morning. Good morning, sir. Well, I was looking for the kiosk that we have in Dumaguete. They don't have them here in Cebu yet. That's okay. I'm sure they'll be in here soon.
21:57 It took a minute, but I'm definitely sweating.
22:11 Uh, yes, ma'am. Uh, one piece spicy chicken, Joy. I don't have regular. That's okay, regular is fine. How about the drink, sir? Uh, Coke Zero. Right here. Yes, ma'am. And what else? That's it.
22:39 Here you've got the gravy, here you've got the rice, chicken, and then my Coke Zero.
22:53 My first impressions of Cebu are solid. I mean, it's a big city, it's got a lot going on. It's like the second city of the Philippines, and you definitely get that vibe when you're here. Like it's one of the centers of the country outside of IT Park and Ayala Center.
23:11 Don't expect Cebu to be super walkable. I'm walking between Ayala Center and IT Park now, and as you could tell, it's not the easiest.
23:27 The vibe is eclectic. I love the architecture in Cebu. It's just cool-looking. Like, look at that.
23:40 There's one of those nice places you can have. I'm sure many of you recognize it.
24:12 One thing I like about Cebu is you've got great options. Hello, Bill. Like chili, nice Western food that you're probably familiar with. It's very beautiful. It seems like they've taken it to another level. I don't remember it being like this when I was here last time.
24:27 It didn't seem like I just don't recognize a lot of this, even though I was here five years ago. It feels like a lifetime ago.
24:34 I love this rooftop garden. It kind of looks familiar, but there's just something about it that just doesn't seem totally familiar.
24:57 People will definitely work very hard here. Here in Cebu.
26:01 I've enjoyed my time here a lot in Cebu. Ultimately, I struggled to find reasonably priced accommodation due to it being Cebu, and also looking last minute. A lot of people book their places for Cebu months in advance.
26:22 And I don't really want to be running back and forth to the outskirts of the city or paying like $100 a night. I'll come back down to Dumaguete and then come back up after Cebu and have no problem finding a place to stay.
26:45 Cebu is definitely a lot more built up from the last time I came here.
29:25 Uh, what is this one, sir? Balangao? Oh, Balangao. Okay. I've never tried. Thank you.
31:23 You have a Dramamine for motion sickness? We have, oh, it's similar. Yeah, okay. Can I have that one? Okay. How many? 22 pesos per tablet. Uh, okay. Uh, five tablets. Is this all? Yes, ma'am. Total is 109. We'll take that. Once or 30 minutes before or after your meal. Okay. That's three to four times per day. Okay. Uh, how, just one at a time or? Okay, thank you. I'm taking for a bus ride to Dumaguete. Okay, you take 30 minutes before your ride. Okay, thank you, ma'am. Have a nice day. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Ah, thank you.
33:25 Do meete, sir. Do, do meete, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir.
33:52 Sir, we're just here on the boat, waiting for people to finish boarding, and then we'll be riding across the water.
34:07 Landing in Oriental, and then we will ride to Dumaguete, and we should get there hopefully by midnight. What time is it now? It's 11:07.
34:20 So, 12:30, maybe like 1:00 AM. Earlier than I thought. We left about 7:30 from Cebu, and I slept most of the way.
34:31 It takes about a half hour to get across the water once we depart, and I think we've departed now. So we're just waiting to get over to the other side.
34:46 And then all these vehicles around us will head off, and then we'll head off. And head toward the city, and then usually I can just get off in the city early.
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