Adventure Sports, Mountain Biking, Climbing, Search & Rescue
and anything that makes you feel alive outdoors.
Last Sunday I landed in Lagos, Nigeria. My last visit here was 3 years ago, so it’s been long enough I managed to forget most of the details.
I’ve been fortunate to visit a few countries in Africa on business, and Nigeria is the only one I wouldn’t make a vacation destination. During the past week, while my opinion hasn’t changed (after all, it is Nigeria with all of the inherent problems), I realized how little a view of the country I had on my first visit.
I discovered a Shop-Rite mall on Victoria Island. It’s a really nice Western-style mall with the top brand names. From a huge Shop-Rite grocery store, to a Wal-Mart style store called Game to a nice pharmacy, all carrying a selection that far exceeds what I can find in Israel. It was closer to a US mall than Israeli, though perhaps a bit small.
WiFi in the hotel is expensive ($20 for 5 hrs) and slow to painfully slow. However, the only local CDMA operator offers an EVDO data service that is really good!
Last night we went out to a party for Israelis living in Lagos at the house of a customer of ours. Imported…well…everything. Even the bottled water wasn’t local. It was a nice housing complex, and a fun pool party. Of course, the roads required to get there reminded us exactly where we were. The potholes are so big you could literally fall into them.
But in the end, it’s Nigeria. You can have nice restaurants, high end data centers and the latest and greatest technology in the stores. But basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity and running water just aren’t there.
We were working at a customer site when sewage started to bubble up from an underground filtering pit that was full. An electrician arrived 6 hours late due to traffic. My hotel room had no hot water all day. The brief power outages aren’t even noticed.
It’s a really interesting mix.
And so begins week 2 here.
technorati tags: Nigeria (Related) , Lagos (Related) , Africa (Related) , travel (Related)
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