Ikoyi
28 MARCH 2023
I said goodbye to Ikeja today. I have loved staying in this area of Lagos. It's busy, buzzing and close to the centres of Ogba and Berger - and I can travel around on local transport easily. You feel part of the hum of Nigerian city life.
The hotel's prices reflect this distance from central Lagos at 17,750N per night which includes a traditional breakfast. I've sampled the best spaghetti and egg, omelette and toast, mio moi and porridge and yam with egg sauce. Last night, I also had bean stew and plantain from the restaurant which was very tasty. The staff are such good fun; all good, friendly, helpful young people clearly intent on making this new venture a success.
I decided to use a taxi today rather than navigate local transport into central Lagos - I had visions of hectic, crowded change overs and threatening scenarios. The reality would have been very different. Nevertheless, I ordered an Uber taxi and paid the extra cost. Riding over the bridge from the mainland to Lagos Island you get a good glimpse of the fishing villages and logging factories, built over the lagoon. The journey took just over an hour - I had definitely over estimated the distances and hassles of getting into Lagos.
Ikoyi could not be more different from Ikeja. It's full of huge properties behind tall fences, guarded by security at their gates. The roads are wide and traffic moves smoothly. There are few people walking. There is far less easily accessible local transport. My hotel is within an Estate Compound entered through barrier gates and consisting of a grid of extensive streets lined with large properties. To me, it's soulless. The only attraction being that it accepts credit card payments and is close to the school I want to visit tomorrow!
I escaped to Victoria Island to visit the Cameroon embassy for information about getting a visa. I was able to enter the office, get the form and could have submitted everything there and then. I needed time though to recover from the knowledge that this visa would cost 250 euros!
Close by, I visited the Terra Kulture Centre. This is a wonderful arts centre in a building with a high bamboo ceiling with a restaurant, gallery and bookshop. Today, I met two artists currently exhibiting their work there and pawed over the range of fiction and non-fiction on the shelves. Here you get access to the wide range of Nigerian authors; their wealth of fiction and wide ranging non-fiction capturing an African perspective on history, politics and social/economic developments over time. Bliss.....