Mumbai

Going to Mumbai as my husband's WAG (UK term for Wives And Girlfriends of footballers/celebrities) had its pros and cons. The upside was that I got to stay in a fabulous 5 star hotel for free and the major downside was that I had to explore Mumbai on my own.

My dear husband had to travel to Mumbai to work for three weeks so I decided this was as good an opportunity as any to visit India. India is often referred to as a must see by most travel junkies so why not. For me, it was a bit of a shock because Bombay was so unlike Malaysia and Singapore (which were the other asian countries I had visited) and so much more like Lagos. From the beggars on the streets to the crowded buses and trains.

According to wikipedia, Mumbai with its population of 18 million is by some measures the most populous city in the world, of this I have no doubt. Despite, being a born and bred Lagosian from the depths of Isale Eko, Mumbai freaked me out, there were people everywhere. Living on the streets, bus-stops, anywhere.

On my first day which was a Friday, I had a tour guide and we visited some local markets in Bandra and Dadar, then in the evening my dear and I headed to a cinema near Nariman point recommended by a friend. Unfortunately it was closed so we decided to have dinner nearby and stumbled upon this apparently popular restaurant. It wasn't until we were seated and given the menus that we realised it was vegetarian. So I had my first ever vegetarian meal, not sure if I will be repeating the experience as meat is the crown jewel of my meals. After this we wandered back towards India Gate and the Taj Mahal via the former Queen Victoria road.

On Saturday despite my fear of being crushed by the bodies, I began my search for Fab India which led me to Pali Hill and Bandra area. These were the nice suburbs very much like Ikeja G.R.A and Ikoyi. On Turner road in Bandra, I discovered an entire row of fascinating jewellery shops but it was so expensive that I could just window shop and convert in my head to naira and pounds.

On Sunday, when I finally had my husband back as a touring partner. We did a tour of the city from India Gate. We visited most of the major sites including the imposing Victoria Terminus but the most awe-inspiring was the house where Gandhi lived in Mumbai. It was set up as he would have lived in it, with only the basic items required for human existence. It also had pictures from the significant moments in his life. His life is truly a story worth reading about.

Having overcome my fear of being crushed, on Monday I headed out to centre of town by myself and visited the Colaba Causeway and the art district area with the Prince of Wales museum, the Wellington fountain and other colonial buildings which were legacies of the British Raj. I also discovered another Fab India and some other similar shops.

On Tuesday, after more shopping in the Bandra Market and the departmental stores of S.V. Road. My whistle-stop tour of Mumbai was over.
I will save my tips for shopping and touring in Mumbai for another post.

Brussels - The best kept secret in Europe
I think Brussels is the best kept secret in Europe. The beautiful old buildings, the well kept gardens of the Brussels Park and the delightfully cute shops all made it a lovely tourist experience. Paris is often referred to as the Jewel of Europe but I think Brussels could give it a good run for its money. Maybe not in scale, because Brussles is smaller than Paris and as such contains less than Paris.

A famous artist once said the Grand Place in Brussels is the most beautiful square in Europe and I completely agree. The wide cobble stone square surrounded by several old buildings (including a museum), nice open air cafes and the general assortment of performing artists is a tourist haven.You could stroll around the square admiring the buildings especially the Hotel De Ville, grab a meal alfresco style or just stand around and enjoy the various performances. While, we were in the square, there was a stand up comic and a mock satan which kept escaping from its handler, unfortunately all the acts were in French so we only kind of got the general gist from the acting.

In the side streets around the square, there were kiosks selling fresh made waffles with ice-cream and chocolate which a lot of tourists were sampling and a couple of streets away, there was the shopping district which was popular with both locals and tourists. Away from the town centre, there was the Brussles Park and several beautiful gardens. The whole city was clean and very well-kept. A delight to walk around.

We were only in Brussels for a day but I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed Paris. I enjoyed strolling in the Brussels Park as much as I enjoyed the Jardin des Tuileries. We didn't get to go up the Atomium but it seems like a 20th century homage to the Tour Eiffel and is described in Wikipedia as the Tour Eiffel of Brussles and as for freshly made Waffles and Crepes, I loved both.

More From Ghana
On the second day of our trip, we took a stroll around and quickly realised there was not much up in Nungua. Fortunately even though it was 7p.m, we were able to get a taxi and head off to Osu, which is kinda like the town centre (Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus wanna be). Jokes apart though, they do have a street called Oxford Street, which bares as much resemblance to the W1 Oxford Street as the Lagos Broad Street to the EC1 broad street.

The taxi driver was kind enough to show us the local highlights and popular restaurants. We ended up in Frankie's which reminded me of Nando's ( a personal favourite). Judging by the clientele, it seemed like a tourist hangout and a popular hang out with the rich kids on holiday from universities in the UK and US. The food was ok, definitely different from Nigerian cuisine.

After dinner, we walked along the road and noted several bars with live music. With bars and clubs, I always prefer the well trodden path and will only go to one either recommended by a local or a guidebook. As this was not the case with Accra, we ended the night early and headed back to the hotel. Sadly, not an opportunity to repeat my KL table top dancing antics.

And so we went to Ghana…..
I am one of those customers, travel companies love, because I love spontaneous travel….I often just get that feeling that I need an escape from reality immediately and as a result will book a trip or hotel immediately. Needless to say, this is a very expensive way of travelling which I would not recommend.

So we woke up the day after our wedding celebration and started debating where to go to escape the goodwill and attention from family and friends. We had not had the time to plan this properly prior to leaving the Uk because we were both working our corporate behinds off. We had three options: Ghana and its luxury resorts and beaches; Obudu cattle ranch in Calabar and LaCampagne in Lagos. Eventually, we decided on Ghana because It was an opportunity to visit another country and avoid the ubiquitous naija mobile phone network.

Being naija where information is not readily available, we had to get to the International airport to determine what options were available for flying to Ghana. Luckily for us VirginNigeria had a flight to Ghana that evening though we couldn’t get a confirmation of the price from anywhere except the booking desk. We purchased the tickets and then had 3 hours to while away before the flight. We decided to go back to Allen Avenue to get some food to eat, which almost proved our undoing because after the meal we couldn't find any cab driver on Allen Avenue who was willing to risk the mega-traffic back to the airport. With some creative thinking we paid twice the price and did the 30 mins journey in two bits as a solution to the problem.

Eventually, we got on the 6p.m. flight to Ghana but not without some drama from the Nigerian Immigration officials, on our way to board the plane, our passports were requested and we were queried. The guy looked at our passports and asked where we were going to which we answered Ghana. The guy then laughed and commented that our passports were too rich for Ghana and what exactly were we going to do there. We answered that we were going for our honeymoon, which amused the guy enough for him to let us go without further questions.

About 45 mins after the flight took off, we arrived safely at the clean but not modern, Kotoka International Airport. When we got through immigration to arrival hall, we were met at the tourist desk by friendly and not-shady looking staff who attended to us efficiently. They were able to advise us about reasonable hotel accommodation and get us free travel from the airport from the Hotel. This was a stark contrast to Nigeria where the only way this would happen was if you were about to be defrauded or robbed.

Unfortunately due to the lack of planning, all the popular 5 & 4 star sea-side resorts were fully booked, so we had to settled for the seas-side Dutch Hotel in Nungua, this was about 45mins -1 hour outside the city. The hotel had a nice pool and was right on the beach which was lovely. The other facilities were okay and the rooms were a decent size. It came across as quite clean and well maintained but not as nice as the snazzy posters of Labadi and La Palm.
To be cont'd

It's been a while since my last post but I have not given up blogging yet....

I have been to Ghana and India and hope to finish my blogs on both trips someday soon

Belated Pre-New Year Post

New Year Celebrations

Most of what I can recall as per new year celebrations are nights spent glued to CNN watching the New Year creep across the world.

It usually started with Sydney were they always have huge fireworks on the Harbour Bridge, then progressed very quickly to Asia with Japan being the focal point and then on to Europe with the celebrations in Germany, the Big Ben ringing in the new year in London and the Hogamanay in Edinburgh and finally to my personal best, the ball dropping and huge party in Times Square, NY. The NY show came on about 5a.m. Lagos time and so often signalled the end of the night for me.

However, the memory of the ball dropping in Times Square often stayed with me long after the night was over. So, In 2004, I decided that the the ball dropping in Times square was a sight worth seeing during my lifetime and managed to convince my other half . So we bought our tickets and paid for an overpriced hotelroom on 6th Avenue (which we thought was close enough).

However, delayed flights and post 911 security requirements scuttled our plans and we ended up listening to the countdown from nearby streets without even a mere glimpse of the ball. After 30 mins of cheering with fellow revellers on the streets of NY, we returned to our hotel room to watch the replay on TV…..couldn’t break tradition!!!!

Horrible Hotel/Travel Accommodation Experiences

In my last post, I mentioned my experience at the Eko Beach Resort. On reflection, though it was not a nice hotel experience, I have actually had worse so this post is dedicated to my “Three Most Horrible Hotel/Travel Accommodation Experiences”.

In thirdplace is a one-night stay at the TBB Resort on Tioman Island in Malaysia.

Based on the fact that Tioman Island was once voted by the Times Magazine as the one of the most beautiful islands in the world, my travel companions and I had high expectations for our one day,one night trip to the Island. However, it all started on the wrong foot with us being stuck at the Mersing Jetty Terminal for two hours, then having to board a small ferry to transfer to a big ferry in the middle of the ocean and finally being stranded on the Tioman Jetty for about another hour.

Eventually we were rescued from the Jetty and taken to our hotel,the TBB resort, one of the several on Tioman Island. Due to the delay,we were fussed over and served dinner by the resort manager before been eventually shown to our chalets. To our dismay, the rooms could have passed as breeding sites for tropical insects as they were swarming with ants of all shapes and sizes. My friends were incensed, to put it mildly, but the only consolation the manager could offer was some insecticide and new sheets as all other rooms were fully booked.

Without any choice and after the gruelling journey of the day, my other half and I succumbed to nature’s call and fell asleep on a bed shared with a large colony of ants.

Competing strongly for 2nd place but not quite making it, is my night in some guest house (I can’t even remember the name) in Jos.

A few years ago, I attended a high scool reunion in Abuja and somehow got it in my head that it was a good opportunity to visit Jos. Not for any reason in particular, but just because I had heard that it was one of the most beautiful cities in Nigeria. Considering I was travelling alone and I had never been there previously, my plan sounded quite foolhardy to the friends and family I mentioned it to. However, being the Ajala that I was, I decided to go ahead with the trip.

I left my hotel in Maitama in the morning and after a brief stop over at the Yar’adua centre, headed of to the Abuja car park. I cannot quite remember now but I think I arrived there before noon but, based on the Naija concept of waiting for the car to filled with passengers before departing, we didn’t leave the carpark till late afternoon.

After the 3-4 hour journey, cramped in the back of the car, I arrived in Jos around sunset. I had thought I could easily get directions to any hotel but this proved not to be the case and as daylight slipped away, I began to panic. Thank God for MTN, a quick call to a friend in Lagos resulted in a friend of a friend coming to my rescue and meeting me with a car.

We went to the Federal Hotel initially but decided against cause it was sorta pricey and the TV in the room was ancient, (I mean ancient like it had no remote control) . After driving around for a bit, we ended up in some guest house not too far from where the lady lived and considering it was getting late, I decided to stay there. On being shown to the room, I nearly cried as the room looked like it had not being cleaned in ages, the sheets seemed dirty and there were cigarette butts all over the bathroom floor. A quick call to the reception had someone coming in to attempt to tidy the place but there was still more to come.

As I lay down in my day clothes on the apparently-fresh-but-still-dirty-looking sheets, a couple arrived next door. They spent the night taking advantage of the adult channels recently introduced on Mnet. I was out of the place at the first sign of daylight, but spent the rest of the day visiting sights around Jos which made the trip worthwhile.

And the winner is, (drumroll!!!!!!!), my night as a squatter in some dinghy apartment in Kayes, a bordertown in Mali.

In 2000, I was one of 26 student members of Aiesec who decided to brave the odds and travel by road from Lagos, Nigeria to Senegal, Dakar. The journey was spanned 5 countries and almost the entire length of West Africa. It was quite an experience with many interesting incidents but I will save those for another post and stick to just the accomodation story for now.

On our return leg from Dakar back to Lagos, we were supposed to catch a 12hr train from Kayes, the bordertown of Mali and Senegal to Bamako, the capital of Mali. On arriving in Kayes in the evening, we were informed that the train only ran once a day in either direction at 7a.m. in the morning and so we had to find some accomodation for the night and continue our journey in the morning. Our only other option was to travel in a truck used for moving cattle as the roads between Kayes and Bamako were not pliable by either cars or buses.

After numerous discussions, we decided to spend the night in Kayes but had no idea where in Kayes. While we were condering the accomodation options, one of the station staff said he had a friend who could offer us a room, I can’t quite remember how the negotiations went but we were shown to this dinghy flat. To the best of my recollection, the flat had only one light bulb which was in the living area and a couple of mattresses on the floor. After showers in the unlit bathroom, we all hudlled in groups on the mattresses and managed to fall asleep.

This qualifies at the worst of the lot not so much because of any inconvenience but more because at the time, I was an inexperienced traveller and I found the experience of being stranded in some dark flat in a strange county quite scary. Luckily these experiences have not deterred my love for travel and could soon become a distant memory when we acquire the means to jet around the world in style (most probably by winning the lottery).

So back to the Thai embassy story.

After our successful visit to the Malaysian embassy, we booked our Singapore-Bangkok trip.

My husband went to the Thai embassy with the usual docs, bank statements, flight and hotel bookings e.t.c for the three of us. On submitting the application, the Nigerian specific requirements in this link http://www.thaiembassyuk.org.uk/vnp.htm were brought to his attention. The most important being the need for us to present a Certificate of Clearance. The visa official who attended to my husband advised us not to bother applying without the said document.

This was not my first experience of Nigerian specific requirements as the Bulgarian embassy in the UK also has a Nigerian specific page for visa fees. http://www.bulgarianembassy.org.uk. The initial dilemma was that we were not aware that this document even existed nor had any clue about how to obtain it. A phone call to the Nigerian embassy was fruitless as they claimed ignorance which conformed with their usual attitude.

After numerous phone calls and emails to friends and family, we discovered that the document did indeed exist but could only be obtained in Abuja after "due process", which in Abuja speak could mean anything from queuing up all day to greasing a few palms. Also one of the key requirements to obtain the clearance was being resident in Nigeria, which none of us involved had the priviledge of.

After exhausting all the contactable contacts, we gave up on the idea of obtaining the clearance but not the trip itself. So upon arrival in Singapore, we diligently searched for the Thai embassy and presented our passports and documents again. One look at our passport and we were told we could only obtain the visa in London.

We enjoyed our exploration of Malaysia and Sinapore but sadly the beauty of Bangkok and Phuket were not ours to behold on this trip. Maybe next time eh:-)

Before I continue my Thai story, I have to have a quick whinge about the recent developments with Cape Verde and Ecowas.

Recently, during the process of planning our honeymoon, I stumbled upon the increasingly-becoming-popular tourist destination of Cape Verde. A beautiful island just off the coast of West Africa which had all of my favourite things (well travelwise),i.e. Sun, Sand and Sea and most importantly did not require me to obtain a visa as a bonafide West African citizen. It was utterly fabulous (a la Sharon Osbourne..Non X-Factor fans wont get this).

I started planning in earnest, requested the brochures, viewed websites and bookmarked web guides as I am one of those people who research a travel destination for months on end before the visit.

The more I read, the more I got excited and I made up my mind to book the trip for December.

Then came the announcement by the Cape Verde government of its intention to introduce visa restrictions for ECOWAS citizens due to the popularity of its country as a transit point for immigrants to Europe. http://www.afrol.com/articles/21176

I was shocked and dissappointed but my concluding thought was that some Naija pips don show them for there and now the rest of us have to pay for their crimes

Honeymoon Destination: Ghana