| Known as the oldest city in the country of Philippines, | | | | and give you what they have. The coin pesos starts |
| Cebu is the second city and also the second most | | | | with 25 centavos, four centavos makes 1 peso, than |
| significant metropolitan center is Philippines. | | | | theirs 5 pesos, 10 pesos. After that it is paper pesos |
| First time arriving there I landed at Mactan Cebu | | | | which starts from 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000. So |
| International Airport. The airport is air conditioned and | | | | keep in mind that if you decide to catch a taxi make |
| very spacious with people speaking Cebuano and | | | | sure you have coin pesos and 20's, 50's, 100's paper |
| English. Once I got out of the plane, I was directed | | | | pesos available. |
| to go to customs to get my passport checked and | | | | The hotel I was staying at charges me $34 U.S |
| also to turn in a visitor information form that I had | | | | dollars a day. The average price range at that time |
| filled out in the plane which the flight attendants hand | | | | for the hotels in Cebu ranged from $30 - $120 dollars |
| out before landing. | | | | depending what your looking for. If your staying for |
| After that I headed to the baggage claim area to | | | | more than a month it is a good idea to look for a |
| pick up my luggage. Signs and information in the | | | | local newspaper which it is English or ask locals there |
| airport was not very hard to read and understand | | | | where you could rent a month to month bases. |
| because it is written in english, visible and clear. So it | | | | As for me I planned to stay in cebu for 6 months so |
| is hard to get lost in there because theirs a lot of | | | | my first week there I was looking for a place to |
| customs officers willing to help and direct you | | | | rent. I found a 3 bedroom, 2 bath and toilet, kitchen |
| wherever you need to go. At the baggage claim | | | | and living room apartment which is very spacious for |
| area, you will see a lot of limo, taxi, bus and hotel | | | | about $160 dollars a month. I found out that the |
| agents standing and holding up signs before you | | | | average monthly rental at Cebu ranges from $100 to |
| leave the airport. So it was not hard to find any | | | | $600 dollars. So you could get a decent studio for |
| transportation or service in the airport. | | | | less than $100 dollars a month. |
| I decided to take the taxi, which the initial staring | | | | My monthly utility bills was averaging $10 for water, |
| fare is 30 pesos, when I converted that to U.S | | | | $60 for electric, $30 for cable t.v and internet. So the |
| currency its roughly less than a dollar because at that | | | | total would average about $100 for everything. I also |
| time 49 pesos was equal to 1 U.S dollar. The hotel I | | | | buy 5 gallon filtered mineral water for $.20 cents |
| was staying took less than 10 minutes to get there | | | | which is very cheap. I usually bought 4 to 5 of those |
| so the fare was less than 45 pesos. It is also a good | | | | 5 gallons bottles a month which the total would come |
| idea to have small changes like 20 pesos to 50 pesos | | | | out to be $1 month. As you can see my average |
| because the taxi drivers in Cebu usually do not carry | | | | monthly bills cost me around $261. |
| a lot of changes. If the fare cost less than 100 pesos | | | | It does not take that much out of of your wallet to |
| and you give them above that, likely the taxi drivers | | | | survive in cebu, basically it is just knowing how to live |
| will tell you that they do not have enough change | | | | like a Cebuano. |