The final spot on my West Africa tour after Ghana and Cameroon was the fan favourite Nigeria!

Despite hearing a lot about Nigeria over the years I wasn’t sure what to expect. It’s supposed to have one of the biggest and fastest growing economies in Africa, but also one of the most complained about countries by tourists. So I guess I was finally going to see for myself.

The first thing that made an impression was the cost of a visa. Just for a basic one week visit my visa cost was … $311! It’s literally the most expensive visa I’ve ever gotten in almost 70+ countries.

So … the bar was set pretty high. With a visa costing about the price of a gram of gold, Nigeria better be the best damn country I’ve ever visited in my life!

My Airbnb was in Victoria Island, which is a place outside of the city centre, where many hotels are and tourists tend to stay. It was a decent drive from the airport, but getting an Uber was not an issue.

The first thing I did after my long trip (believe it or not, getting from Cameroon to Nigeria was quite a mission, even though they’re right next to each other) was settle in to my new home and order some food! Wasn’t quite time to try my first Nigerian meal, so I just went for a good old Middle Eastern feast.

Then it was time to do the standard perimeter check. My host assured me it was safe to walk at night, so I went for an evening stroll. There was a small family owned supermarket down the road, which had a decent selection of stuff, and the street was packed with restaurants. It was also packed with locals just loitering around, either standing around a motorbike or a street stand just talking and laughing. All were friendly, and some said hi. I didn’t get many odd stares, so I guessed foreigners were pretty common around the area.

The next day I took my first drive through Lagos. I was in town for the Lagos International badminton tournament, luckily I have some Nigerian friends who were able to arrange some training courts for us. This required us to drive across town from Victoria Island to Ikeja, a very busy local area.

The Uber driver was chatty and he told us a lot about Lagos, from the politics to the public transport to the religions. My first impression of seeing Lagos in the daytime – messy. Once outside Victoria Island, traffic was horrible, roads aren’t the best, streets have no real order to them and most buildings are quite run down. Compared to somewhere like Abidjan, which itself is nowhere near perfect, it’s a noticeable difference which surprised me. I expected the opposite for some reason.

The tournament started the following day at Teslim Balogun Stadium. It’s a big complex in the middle of the city, and the stadium was definitely an upgrade from Cameroon, which was borderline comical. I was knocked out in the first round, which is never fun, but it also meant I now had four days to explore Lagos! After spending $300+ on a visa, I needed to make the most of it!

First thing we did was head try the boba place near my apartment. I’ve noticed boba has been becoming more popular in Africa, in Nairobi there are boba spots literally everywhere, but they’re hit and miss. Many don’t actually understand the boba culture, nor do they even understand how to make the pearls properly. Part of a good boba is getting those pearls to jussssssst the right amount of chewy and sweet. Outside of Asia they don’t really get this right in a lot of places.

We headed to Frosty Pops on Victoria Island, to our surprise it was actually amazing. I watched them make the boba from scratch and they did everything right, and it hit the spot! Wide range of flavours too. If you’re ever hanging on Victoria Island and need a place for a boba and lunch, definitely check it out.

The next day we had the whole morning free, so we went to check out the beach. Lagos is on the coast so there are a lot of beaches to see, but my local friend took us to Sol Beach – a private beach being developed into a lifestyle area with restaurants and bars etc.

It cost us about $6 each to get in, which we happily paid. The beach was empty, so we spent some time just laying out on the sand and relaxing, then two friends of mine went down the beach to ride a horse, and got fully scammed. They told them one ride down the beach is N15,000, so they agreed, then they charged them N30,000 because going there and coming back was actually equal to two rides. Nigeria has a reputation for blatant scamming, I guess stuff like this is the reason. But the audacity of this scam just kinda made it funny, we all laughed about it.

Then lunch rolled around – it was our chance to try the famous Nigerian suya along with some classic fried chicken.

Naturally we took our food to the tables to eat, then a staff member came and told us we needed to pay an extra fee of N15,000 to use the tables. Excuse me? We all laughed thinking it was a joke, but they were serious. Are we supposed to eat on the floor? So we confusingly took our food back to the beach and sat on some of the chairs there and ate.

Then the staff member came back and said if we want to use the chairs on the beach we also need to pay an extra fee N30,000 to use the chairs. At this point we were just completely bemused. We had almost finished our food so we just told them we’re going to leave now. We didn’t really see any other option unless we wanted to keep getting charged for everything, maybe next they’ll be telling us we’re breathing in the wrong place and need to pay an extra N50,000 for the oxygen.

So … Sol Beach? Not my favourite beach in the world, that’s for sure. As for the suya – it’s delicious! Definitely something to try when you’re in town. And it’s also a classic street food, so you should find it everywhere.

On my final day in Lagos I got the chance to meet up with Chris, an old travel buddy. We met in Thailand way back during out backpacker days and as he’s married to a Nigerian now, Lagos is home. He’s also the face behind the famous Authentic Travelling Instagram page.

I met him and his lovely wife at Ikeja Mall, which is one of the big malls in Lagos. Chris is a foodie all the way so he took me to eat some classic Nigerian food, I don’t remember exactly what this is but I think it was swallow and egusi.

Honestly I wasn’t the biggest fan, mostly because I’m not big on spicy food and this thing was spicy! But everyone else at the table was loving it, so I’m guessing it’s good for most people. Give it a try!

Unfortunately I didn’t have more time to spend in Lagos with Chris or I’m sure he would have had a ton of interesting places to show me, but was a blessing to see him anyway ten years after we first met. That’s the spirit of the traveller’s life anyhow – you can pick it up with old friends right where you left off, no matter how long or how far.

When it finally came time for me to leave, my friend came to see me off at the airport. He was carrying one of my bags, but when the security guard asked him where he’s travelling, he said he was just escorting me inside. She stopped him for a moment and told him there’s a fee for non-travellers. But he said he didn’t have any cash, then she looked at me and said it’s okay he can pass this time.

Even after a week, I had kind of gotten used to this. Everywhere you go there is just always someone trying to shave a dollar from you, and if I lived here I think it would drive me insane. Of course this happens everywhere on the continent, and I’ve spent years living in East Africa so it’s not new to me. But in Lagos it was just another level. I can understand why it feels like people are just on edge all the time – because you need to be!

So final impressions of Nigeria? Well, I only had a week in Lagos, and I was lucky I was amongst local friends who had the time to show me around different places. I can imagine as a solo traveller here, you’d really need to have your guard up, but overall I had a great time. Had a lot of interesting things to eat, caught up with old friends, and got to experience Lagos first hand. I’d always wanted to see this part of West Africa, and I’m glad I finally did.

One last funny story to finish. About two weeks after I left, I got a phone call on Whatsapp. It was a Nigerian number. I had no idea who it was, but I guessed it was one of my friends calling me on a different number.

“Hello sir do you remember me? I delivered your food to you on Victoria Island.”

“In Nigeria?”

“Yes.”

“Okay?”

“Sir my wife is giving birth right now and I really need some help to pay the hospital bill, please sir can you help me?”

I didn’t even know what to say. I guess even after you leave Nigeria, it’s always still with you somehow!