Vacation in Lagos

I am currently on vacation in Lagos Nigeria. Usually we must take our vacation outside of the country, because this is not considered a restful place. The only situation where a vacation in the country is authorized is if we have no re-entry visa. This is my case for the moment – my passport is still in immigration for the processing of my residence visa.
I am happy to be here. Lagos is a huge, vibrant city – it recently surpassed Cairo as the largest city in Africa. I am staying in the hotel we use for transit passengers here. It is a small African hotel – a bit shabby – but inexpensive (45 dollars a night – the average hotel price here is 250 dollars!) with a very friendly staff. It is also relatively well situated in the city. It is in Ogudu, right on the central expressway which turns into the 3rd mainland bridge (at 5 km, the longest bridge in Africa), which crosses over into Lagos Island. Ogudu itself is a small area with a lot of small markets and shops, some local bars and quite a few fastfood places, as well as internet access (where I am now). There is even a good pizza place!
I have been trying to get around some, but not hurrying about it. One day, I went to the Lekki Conservation Area. It is basically a preserved swamp. It was donated by a couple of big oil companies and is just across the street from the huge Chevron complex in Lekki. It is surrounded by suburban sprawl, but once inside, you are lost in a jungle. There is a footpath meandering throughout it – a raised wooden walkway in the swamp part, and a sand path in the savannah part. Apparently, there are some crocodiles, exotic birds, etc, but all I saw were a few monkeys in the big treehouse. The entire walk takes about 1 hour, and it is a very peaceful experience.
The next day, I was a bit more urban. I went to Alowolo Road in Ikoyi, next to Lagos Island. This is the biggest road for shops, restaurants and bars. I had a good time just wandering around and seeing what is being offered for the rich in this city. I visited a wonderful art gallery with some incredible contemporary African art. And just across the road is the “Jazzhole”, a shop with CD’s, books, coffee shop and concert hall. It was great. And in the same area is a HUGE market, with small stalls selling everything you could think of.
After a while I went into the Protea hotel for a drink. This is a prestige South African chain which has been cited as one of the first to bring down the hotel prices here. I enjoyed my time sitting in the luxurious lounge, drinking a Star beer and looking out over the water at one of the biggest yachts I have ever seen.
I love good food, and I had earlier spotted a restaurant called Chardonnay. I splurged and I am happy I did. I ordered prawns in a white wine, cream and garlic sauce. Calling what was on my plate prawns is like calling Moby Dick a fish – they were huge. There were two of them, but that was definitely enough, and it was so good. My meal of prawns, potatoes, apple crumble, 2 glasses of a crisp white wine and a bottle of water cost around 75 dollars. But it was very good, in a very classy atmosphere, and with a wonderful staff. (OK, maybe I have lived in France too long and picked some bad habits.)
Today I wentto Onikan in Lagos Island. This is really the center of the city, with the National Museum, the city stadium, the Camus cultural center, and a large shopping mall with a great grocery store named Goodies. The National Museum had a temporary exhibition concerning Nigerian lace and embroidery, most of the raw lace coming from Austria, and most of the African printed cloth coming from the Netherlands or England, purely for export to Africa. The permanent collection included some interesting stones carved with faces, from the Port Harcourt area.
Although it may not sound it, I am also relaxing a lot. I was very tired, and my last 2 days before leaving, I had to visit one of our projects to resolve some nasty staff problems. We ended up dealing with it, but it was pretty strenuous. With my siteseeing, I have also been averaging 10-12 hours of sleep a day, and had a great deal of time reading. I am starting to feel human again.
I fly back to Abuja tomorrow evening, Tuesday 2 August. On Wednesday 3 August I have a couple of specialists from Paris arriving who will be with us for a couple of months to overhaul our internal regulations, function scale, salary scale, and an overall audit of the HR set-up. So I will be thrown immediately into the grinder. But now I feel up to it.