Deo1986:
Was that Tagbo in the third photo? But you exagerated the price for olosho, it is usually 5k,3kand 2k.

Since launching my blog, I have never altered any of my story line.

yinkeys:
Dreams
Now following this topic

It'd soon become reality as I'm currently planning another in few weeks time. Kindly send a mail to tunde@nomadic negro.com

Bibi294:
Op, next time you're going on such n interesting adventure... Pls notify me

I'm currently planning another in few weeks time. Kindly send a mail to tunde@nomadic negro.com so I can keep you posted.

nurshah:



Hmmm..boss no count on your word .Lagos according to bureau of statistics has one of The highest crime rates in naija and going by my experiences ,observations,tales .... I beg to agree

Again you are correct.
But to think that our existence itself is a risk...

Please Guys, I'd be glad If you can spare few seconds to allow me make my first few Nairas from blogging.
Please voting for me at the 2017 travel blog awards will mean so much to me.
I'm Nomadic Negro.

https://couponcode.ng/awards/travel-blog-awards-2017/

thunderbabs:
Ki lo sonu ti e n wa kiri na And da ur bae challenge na word n opposite......shey ur car no knw say u dey do d challenge ni...wey e carry mouth dey face us

just trying to do it differently ni. my bae no too geh nyansh.

Vote for me (nomadic negro) o
https://couponcode.ng/awards/travel-blog-awards-2017/

AlwaysUltraPad:
starting the thread, I thought I was going to read a normal short story we always have on fp. OP is good at writing.

Thanks a lot for those words.
I'd appreciate If you can vote for me too: https://couponcode.ng/awards/travel-blog-awards-2017/

I'm nomadic negro

chronique:
Kudos to you. Night waka nor be for me. Once I'm done with work, na straight to my caban. Lagos is too unsafe for any yama yama Waka at night. If you must try this, do it with a taxi, not your private car, to avoid your car being snatched at gun point.

Fantastic advice! On the contrary Lagos isn't as bad as people perceive it to be

Pangea:
This one na dangerous play o!
12 midnight excursion?
You no dey fear the police?

lol... I wrote in the tips that dressing and talking responsibly are two sure ways to escape the wrath of Nigerian police

BiafraIShere:
Interesting but the nightlife there seems dull

Correct! it's a different ball game on the mainland though, but islanders sure know how to really enjoy midnight.

IVORY2009:
be care of area boys

True talk. but Lagos is not as dangerous as people paint it.

ncine:
Cool adventure. BUt the (phone) cameras didnt do it justice

Yeah you observed right... i'm currently just making do with what I have. I pray I get bigger.
You can vote for me to win some cash as a travel blogger here too sha: https://couponcode.ng/awards/travel-blog-awards-2017/

i'm nomadic negro

cbngov01:
Cool would love this but I no dey ever sabi road..Nice one brov

Like I advised in the post, go with 2 or 3 others to make it more fun.
Take a Taxify or Uber for 2 reasons:
- they'd serve as your guide all through due to their wealth of knowledge.
- you'd have the luxury to do all you can in the car.

iamchybs:
This should have been video documented ... nice one tho

i'm currently working on improving my contents. video documentary will follow soon

soberdrunk:
"10k" for 'shortime'?? How??!!

I weak o.
but make I no lie, most of those girls tight pass mainland ones o.

Flashh:
You took your time to do this great job.

anything worth doing at all... lol

please vote for me here: https://couponcode.ng/awards/travel-blog-awards-2017/

i'm nomadic negro

Sleyanya1:


Midnight Tour... Making sense photos especially with the little write up. Op you'd make a good travel blogger.


Finally I thank God say una no jam any Karashika or men of the underworld.

lol... Thanks for the appreciation. i'm actually a budding travel bloger who just got nominated for the 2017 travel blogger awards.
please vote for me (nomadic negro) here. https://couponcode.ng/awards/travel-blog-awards-2017/

magnificientzaz:
Nice photos, your captions were interesting too

Thanks for the compliments magnificientzaz

Keneking:
But where is lalasticlala sef

Lalasticlala, you are needed here sir.

Were we crazy to have decided to Shoot Lagos at night? It wasn't my fault actually. Please allow me explain.

 
9:30pm 29th September 2017
I thought I had finally deciphered a new way of escaping Dami's 'wahala' when he barged into the partially lit sitting room without knocking. The buttons of his pink shirt weren't properly connected but he cared less as he spoke loudly (in his usual style) over the phone to someone I don't think I know. He had just returned from Gerald Road, Ikoyi, where he Joseph (our mutual friend) had invited him to the launch of Impact Hub.

I became angrier when he moved close to where I was lying, kicked me and jokingly said "omo better yeh ma sun..." I knew the implication of such song (especially when it comes from him) so I had no choice than to honour his invitation since he needed to just talk.

After all his reporting (which centered on how fantastic the people on the Island enjoy life), he concluded by clarifying that 'lekki people are learning work where Ikoyi peeps are".

 
The Next Day
So the team agreed we'd go to see things for ourselves the next day and this prompted me to write this tweet few minutes before the journey started.


 

I hailed another taxify with my phone when we got declined by the previous driver who probably couldn't take the risk.
Tolu sounded excited while I gave him a brief of our plan. He arrived few minutes earlier than the app had predicted, I smiled as I took that for a good omen. He dug straight into our drill as he suggested we start from Banana Island so that we'd ply the Lekki bridge and then head towards 'Eko' bridge on our way back. We all decided to go neutral by freeing our minds of all prior experiences we might have had on the Island so we can enjoy every scene as they appear.

 
Then the journey began

Dami joined Tolu at the front while I stayed back with Kunle (Marshal).



Falomo under bridge


Falomo under bridge where we took our first shoot. We passed the Lagos motor boat club where Tolu hinted us that one of the major criteria of being a member is to own a yatch (which I somewhat found hard believing).

The first cool experience with the Nigerian Police

At this Juncture, I'd like to appreciate the Nigerian Police even though many of their officers aren't doing it the way it should be done. The policemen who accosted us yesterday were calm and going by the way they spoke, i could easily tell they are learned. they stopped us after noticing our car's rear number plate was missing, did some searching and after carefully explaining what happened to the missing plate, they advised we drive carefully while we enjoy the night.


We saw girls too
...loads of them were on display. Marshal's mouth was slightly opened (probably in lust lol) while Dami decided to play a bit as he told Tolu to park beside the duo who were obviously waiting for a call.

The sex workers on the Island seems to have a solid relationship with the Police

Dami: hello, what's up? what's your name?

1st girl: Sandra

Dami: Beautiful. What's the price?

She: 20k for full-time.

Dami: How about short?

She: 10k

Dami: How about 5k?

Both girls: mtcheewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

We all had a lengthy laugh as Tolu twisted the ignition and zoomed towards banana Island.

 
Banana Island
On getting to main gate of banana island, the stern-looking security officers asked if we lived here and we nodded in affirmation (a plot we've mastered many seconds before getting to the gate). They lowered their guard while Tolu added pressure to the gas. The team broke no sweat.

Romur has It that this belongs to the wealthiest woman in Africa. In 2014 (According to Wikipedia), she unseated Oprah Winfrey as the richest woman of African descent in the world

 






Front view: Lagos Intercontinental hotel

 

We stopped by Golden gate, Alfred Rewane road to take few road pictures then headed straight to the Lekki link bridge as earlier planned.

Alfred Rewane road

Alfred Rewane road


 
The Bae Challenge
What If a car... don't let me think about it. The risk was worth taking. *grins

After bae challenge on the link bridge we headed into lekki, paid toll of #250

The babes at admiralty were madder than we've ever seen them... We spent up to 30 minutes roaming aimlessly there and wondering why everything including the roads, whores and even the police on this part of the Island seems better than what we are used to on the mainland. Everything we saw was motivation.

I said to no one as the street lights flashed on my face while I smiled.

On our way back, we took few pictures on the Eko bridge before plunging back into the uninspiring atmosphere of the mainland.

A view from Eko Bridge

 

To think that we had mad fun without eating nor drinking anything further validated the below:



 

I strongly suggest you try this out with your team or wait till I'd be doing my next tour.

 
Here are few but strong tips on wandering Lagos at night

-Free your mind: this will enable you absorb at a maximal level.
-Take a private car (uber or taxify will be better): This will enable you do all you like while at it. there were many times when we'd stop abruptly to take pictures or ease ourselves. It is also safer.
-Don't go alone: going with a partner is good but it's better with partners. i.e 3 or more.
-Hold cash instead of relying on ATM: this is in case you'd like to buy something or maybe settle the cab driver. in our own case, we had visited 4 different machines and still couldn't get money to balance the driver. We ended up doing a cash transfer.
-Be responsible: this means, dress well, talk politely to the police if you encounter one, you can drink, but don't misplace your home training.


Source: http://www.nomadicnegro.com/lagos-at-night/

wman:
OBALORLA,

Nice website you have there. NomadicNegro looks really good. It shows that you put a lot of work into it. I'm still waiting for the continuation of your Ilorin trip.

But you didn't upload many of your pictures on your Instagram page. And your Instagram page has too little followers. Seems like you haven't done much publicity on it.

You also need to get a better phone. Your images aren't too clear. For a travel blog, your images need to be top notch. After getting a better phone, you can then graduate to a professional camera.

You could also have an events session on your website where you inform people about upcoming events of this nature in Nigeria. I don't think anyone in Nigeria has done this yet. A lot of people would have loved to visit this Jollof event and other events in Nigeria but they don't know about it. If they know that yoru website will contain this info, people will troop more to your website.

This is priceless bro.
I sincerely appreciate you for this and will do as advised.
NB: I actually finished my Ilorin report and there's a fresh post on the blog now which I haven't posted on nairaland yet.

Fortune decided to dash me a smile when I stumbled upon the Jollof festival on twitter. This was after I narrowly missed the last edition of the Eat.Drink.Lagos.


This tweet was all I needed to make up my mind for the festival.

Life Hack: If you aren’t following/befriending the right set of people on all social media platforms, you might as well be missing out from the many good things life has to offer.


Getting There


How we got to the Jollof FestivalGetting to Jaekel House (home to the Nigeria Railway Museum), Ebute- Meta wasn’t at all difficult since we rode in Dami’s car and it was just approximately a 25min. drive from Iwaya. The organizers also did well by fixing road signs at the most visible spots to help guests out.

My Entourage

Dami and Dami

Dami caught me while checking out the page on my computer so he insisted we go together and before I could say “it’s not free”, he dialed Dami’s number and that was how we became a trio.

Though, it’d be a little cheaper (@ #800) to buy tickets before the day of the festival than at the entrance (@ #1,000) but since we weren’t really sure about our schedule for the weekend, we opted for the latter.



Registration



It was a seamless exercise as there were options of cash and card payments littered at the entrance where the registration desks were manned by myriads of beautiful girls and sturdy security men.

On completing our registration, we were handed entry tickets which included tickets to free Jollof and Guinness stout. Maximum respect to Flutterwave (the official payment partner of the day) as they were on standby to deal with any payment hassle.

The Setting


The setting was such that the vendors surrounded the eating area


There was enough space to accommodate all the activities and this made movement/navigation painless.


Parking

Though there were 3 major parking points which were not too close to the venue, the organizers ensured the availability of ‘keke napeps’ to convey people who can’t stroll down (I doubt if anyone used them though).

Parking was well-coordinated as some young boys from the neighborhood (who must have been hired for the task) were smart enough to spot potential attendees, directed their cars and ensured they are well parked. And for those who don’t want to park at all, Taxify (the riding partner of the day), provided some help by giving New and existing riders #2,000 off with the code JOLLOF.



Atmosphere

A typical building in the railway compound which must have been erected during the colonial era.

Unlike the perception of a few that the railway compound is a messed up area, this is about the finest places to organize an event this theme as the aroma of the spices collaborated well with that of the rusty Iron and ancient buildings.



Food and Drinks


I called it the pizza Jollof because each of the 3 segments had peculiar flavour/dressing.


Been a while since I last tasted something as good.



Every sip was worth it.



Simi’s Joromi comes to mind here.


The smoke added a special effect to make the Barbecue legendary.


Jollof in shell…. What more can man say?


[center]“YOU DON’T NEED A SILVER FORK TO EAT GOOD FOOD.”

-PAUL PRUDHOMME[/center]


Side Attractions


The drone came to say hello.


Grass carpet


Big boss, first of his name, keeper of tissue, custodian of Jollof…


Art


when a ball juggler knows his stuff.



You claimed to have been to the railway museum but didn’t ride this. continue o


Games



Carpet scrabble: was the most played game at the event


Smart kids took turns at schooling each other



There was table tennis too.


Those who were good at dunking too had a swell time.


Ambassadors

I spotted these beautiful girls and requested that I took a picture of them because I was really interested in the inscriptions on their tees and they gladly agreed.



Jollof Festival Sponsors



Maggi: ensured everyone got a free plate of Jollof from their Jollof bar.


Guiness: gave everyone free bottle of Guiness Africa special


The festival started by 12pm and ended by 7pm but we left earlier after being convinced we’ve done all that there is to be done.

I will sure be on the lookout for when the next edition will be staged as there are many things I forgot to do.

Source: http://www.nomadicnegro.com/jollof-festival-pictures/

fantastic points op.
here are my additions:

1. use hyperlinks more: truth is some posts are more powerful than others on your blog. try as much as you can to tailor your post such that it links to these posts.

2. use more visible fonts: too tiny fonts might give a bad reader experience.

3. avoid grammatical and typographical errors: though inevitable, try as much as you can to mitigate them. a better way to do this is edit your post at least 3 times before pushing the publish bottom. alternatively, reach out to a friend to help review.

I run my travel blog (www.nomadicnegro.com) using these tips.

[quote author=madejobi post=58787536][/quote]

He wishes you a very safe trip as he joins camp on thursday when all is a bit calm.

madejobi:

Posted to Ogun too

the son of man made his findings, and was able to deduce that his best route will be to get a cab destined for sagamu at ketu for 600 and add just 400 for the cab to take him to nysc camp

Ogun was where the son of man got. Heard the camp is cool. Can't wait to leave Lagos.

.

olabodedavid:
Dear stream ll pcm, this post is
meant to pressure NYSC to
break it silence over our
posting. But we all have a role
to play, here is frcn news room
number 08033818197 send
them message on watsap, sms
or even give them a call
simply request them to invite or
interview the official of NYSC on
the subject matter. the more
messages they receive the more
serious they'll take it. we must
force NYSC to talk to us. thank
you all as you cooperate.

I don't think we need all these. just like our various schools, nysc is also a mechanism to hold back as many youths as possible so as to depopulate the labour market. truth is there are many reasons why many want to go for service at all cost but here are the most common of them:

fear of what is next after school
majority have barely traveled out of their states of birth
many want to just snap pictures in khaki
a lot more want to flirt.

In all honesty, all the aforementioned are not enough reasons to become restless about.
Let them fix whatever time they want but while they are at it, lets try laying our hands on more productive things. There is more to life than nysc guys. trust me, there is.

i'm also a proud batch 2 pcm

Sanmysax:
good noon my people...
please I think we should have a whatsapp page for Batch A stream 11 Corps member or what you think.

Noting beats this our nairaland space. Whatsapp disturbs majority's peace wit unneeded notifications.

I open this page at my convenience and i'm sure i'd still get the necessary info.

guys, nysc isn't worth all this restlessness.

mignone:

hi! I just came across this write-up. can you answer a few questions from me as regards exact entry fees to the slave trade route/museum please?
do I send you a pm?
patiently awaiting your response. thank you

hello mignone kindly reach me on Whatsapp via 08021031732.

I'd give u a comprehensive breakdown of all entry fees.

Imo state is one of the 36 in Nigeria and lies in the South Eastern part of the country.Owerri is its capital and largest city. Its other major cities are Orlu and Okigwe.

Truth is, Imo has (compared to other states) little or no tourist attraction and I knew this before traveling but I came just to confirm the prejudice I’ve always heard about the people in the east, eat their food and see how beautiful their women are.
So, rather than narrate how everyday went, I’d do more of sharing my observations about different things I witnessed while roaming around the streets of the eastern heartland.

With the above in my 6th sense, I figured it’d be more profitable to explore the Owerri while Dami would hang out with Noble a close friend in Attah to enjoy his stay. So I went in search of a cheap hotel between Owerri and Atta to make it easier for us to link up when there’s need to.

while I wondered along this lonely path, I recollected that the palm oil from the eastern region of Nigeria was described as being of the highest quality. The people were so good at cultivating it that the Malaysians came to Imo state to learn the fine art of palm oil production.

After few minutes of soft walking, I spotted a decent hotel whose surrounding was conducive enough to dwell. #5,000 was all I had to surrender to enable me have access to one of their standard rooms for the night.



MY HOTEL




The Atta gate Hotel is a newly built hotel situated close to the popular Attah junction. Its standard rooms have been designed to ideally occupy just 2 persons (precisely a male and female).
I marveled at the interior as the whiteness of the duvet and bed-sheet are the first things which would catch any stranger’s attention. The floor tiles were as though they’ve been brutalized with excessive detergent. By the right (just below the flat-screen TV) stood a black comfortable work table while a portable fridge rested calmly beside the wooden bed. There stood a small fan just by the entrance of the toilet (even when the AC is functional).
The cleanliness of the toilet itself wouldn’t only make one want to eat in but also invite few friends. It was spacious too.
.



INFRASTRUCTURE
– The first of them I noticed were the roads- they weren’t laced with gold nor bronze but on a scale of 1-10, I’d give them a 6.5. The roads I saw were almost void of potholes and were convenient enough for drivers to move on.
-Though I saw less of schools, the few I saw were either dilapidated (causing an eyesore) or well-built to the taste of the ones I saw in Osun (trust me, Osun State has the best set of public schools in Nigeria in terms of architectural designs).
-There exists a 24/7 emergency health service and also a fire station and like almost every other state, electricity is epileptic, but since I dwelt in hotels all through, I barely felt the glitch.

-As presumed, internet connection was invincible in some places (specifically villages). I noticed this when I tried browsing the web whilst in Attah gate hotel and this made me decide against paying for another night despite the hospitable nature of Chidinma, the hotel’s receptionist who did all she could to keep me for another night.

Lodan international hotel


THE GIRLS

The girls were scattered in varying colours (with the light-skinned taking the lead) and their shapes too will force a stranger place focus more than the intended time.
I saw prostitutes too! Yes. Like every other state, there are prostitutes in Imo, but the astonishing thing is you can barely tell who amongst them is. I wouldn’t have known without the help of my bike-man who went as far as telling me these girls charge the average of #500 for a quickie and #1,500 for an overnight face-off.

GOOD PEOPLE
Ha! I met many of them in Imo.
At Attah junction was an industrious Oluchi- a beautiful mother of 1 who sells roasted yam. She took care of me like she wanted me as a second husband the moment she discovered I was a stranger.
Street foods in nigeria
I can never forget how good this lady made me feel, Aside volunteering to take this shot, she also helped me clean my mouth with her hands after discovering I had spilled oil on my chin. lol[img]
https://i2.wp.com/www.nomadicnegro.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WhatsApp-Image-2017-05-04-at-6.42.47-PM2.jpeg?resize=640%2C853[/img]


Chidinma gave me her slippers on discovering I had misplaced mine. she is till date the friendliest hotel receptionist I have met. *seems I have this thing for Chidinmas*

Gloria too was awesome she warned me like a mum would her underage child when I told her I would be traveling to Oguta village to see the much-talked-about Oguta Lake. she told me never to attempt swimming because the lake eats people every month. hahahaha! …

Oguta Lake[img]
https://i2.wp.com/www.nomadicnegro.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WhatsApp-Image-2017-05-04-at-6.42.55-PM.jpeg?resize=640%2C853[/img]
The lake is about thirty miles (48.27 km) from the junction of the Ndoni and Orashi River.It is a fine piece of water, being about five miles (8.05 km) long from east to west and a mile and half (2.41 km) wide. Oguta Lake is the biggest lake after Lake Chad in Nigeria. The lake was a port for the evacuation of palm products in the colonial era as well as a marine base for the Biafran Navy during the civil war.Uhamiri is the goddess of the Lake





The vulcanizer at Amajueke too was awesome, his control of English clearly beats mine. He educated me on how and where to get the best out of my adventures.I was particularly marveled by how he took so much pride in his profession while he addressed me.

How about the Okada rider I met at Oguta? his calm demeanor swayed me. He took out time to give me the better advice on how to reach my hotel since the route I intended plying was the longer and more expensive one. I can’t forget fineboi the canoe driver too! He collected #50 from me instead of #100 for a canoe ride when I told him I couldn’t understand his language but that I had come for sightseeing.

I can go on and on because these people gave me more than enough in terms of love, This completely changed my orientation about the people of Imo and the eastern part of Nigeria in general.

NIGHT LIFE


I settled for A portion of Nkwobi diced with raw onions bitter-leaf and shredded Ugba. A bottle of beer too was present (accompanied with bananas)to wash it down.

The bomb! for anyone who wants to have a feel of what they look like, the best time to try starts from 8pm. While I strolled by some, I got tempted to have a feel of all the delicacies on display but since the opportunity cost of doing so is me trekking back to Lagos, I withdrew.

TRANSPORTATION
In Imo (unlike many other states in Nigeria) there are no colour codes for cabs and buses. maruwa (tricycles) dominates in Imo as I can risk saying that for every bus, there were 3 tricycles. yeah, tricycles were that much.


For every bus in Owerri, there are about 3 tricycles

Transportation too was affordable. Yes, I traveled many kilometers and got charged no more than #100.

It is a normal thing in Imo for even Old women to own/ride bicycles/motorcycles.

STREET FOOD
I am of the opinion that the east cultivates more yams than any other region in the country. mehn, there is a yam roaster in almost every street from the creeks to the clean sides.

Diced Roasted Yam with Fresh pepper with palm oil




Most similar to beans, It is known as Ukwa in Igbo and the scientific name is Treculia Africana.
Ukwa is such a versatile food with a natural delicious flavour. It can be cooked plain without any ingredient, not even salt and it will taste great especially when prepared with fresh Ukwa. It can be roasted and eaten with coconut or palm kernel. It can also be prepared as a porridge.

Roasted Ukwa with coconut too is very rampant. it is being hawked and sold for prices ranging from #50 – #100. I bought one at Amajueke and regretted I hadn’t bought more.


Ugba too is quite popular so I had to buy some on my way back home.

The palm trees
You see, if I were blindfolded and asked to sketch what Imo looked like in the early decades (before the early settlers got there), all I’d do is drawn as many palm trees as my pencil’s lead will permit. So imagine how many trees an HB pencil will sketch on a broad sheep of paper.
Farming
I loved the fact that almost every household (aside developed places like Owerri) has a farmland in front or beside their houses. What made this appeal to me was the fact households in other regions too have farms but majority of these farms are located far from their homes.



I can go on with the description but I feel these should do.

* * *

will I want to Travel again to Imo?

The answer of course is a BIG yes.


I am Negro, I write about everywhere I visit on www.nomadicnegro.com
I post all pictures and videos on instagram @nomadic_negro