A City of Contrasts

A city of contrasts. A city of differences

Shanty towns stand alongside homes of a far better standard than those in which most western Europeans live. Air-conditioned shopping malls filled with famous international shopping chains stand next to, and tower over, rustic local markets where food is sold off tarpaulins stretched on the ground. Plush, spotless branches of McDonalds, Starbucks and KFC can be found in the most unlikely places, nearby vendors can be found selling hot meat fresh cut from a whole pig roasting on the side of the road. 

To walk the streets in some area is to pass kareoke bars a plenty, sometimes more food stalls than there seem to be people and to occasionally come close to tripping over a live chicken tethered to the curb by it's foot, or a small child who is surely too young to be playing so close to a road. Then all of a sudden there appears a smart looking restaurant with a polite security guard on the door beckoning you inside. Dusty streets filled with potholes merge quickly into well maintained grass-verged roads and then are followed once again by glorified dirt tracks.

On the roads top range black windowed people carriers compete with cars glad that there is no one checking MOTs. Motorcycle taxis laden down with six or seven people struggle to get up speed while dodging the potholes. A cacophony of beeping is a constant soundtrack, not as a form of aggression but used as they are intended, as a way of saying "I am here".

Cebu is a not a city which gives itself to quick judgements, there is too much diversity and too many extremes to allow any quickly made judgement to stand for long.