ktravula – a travelogue!

Lagos Again

The state hasn’t changed much since 2010, except for more stringent laws prohibiting so many things. No more eating in traffic. Heavy fines for driving on BRT lanes, or for driving on one-way lanes. The roads haven’t got dirtier, or cleaner. The road cleaning worker service that has been there since a while has remained. There appeared to have been more traffic law enforcement officers on the streets as there should be: Lagos probably has more cars on the road than any other city on the continent.

A part of the 3rd Mainland Bridge has been closed down for repairs, for good reason. It’s better to be safe than sorry. The Silverbird Galleria looks like a ghost of itself, but that could be because 12noon on a Friday may not be the best time for socializing. BRT buses look a little older now, needing either repairs or replacement, or just some makeover. Much of what defines the state have remained mostly in place: the yellow buses, the long traffic jams, and noise.

In all, not a bad re-introduction.

Lagos Again was published on August 10th, 2012, with the tags , under the adventures, Travelling category. There are currently 3 comments on this article so far.

Lagos in the Office

After making the large prints of three of those photos I told you about a few weeks ago, I walked up to Amie at the office this morning and asked her which ones she liked the most. Her answer was unequivocal, she chose the one showing the Lagos traffic at night. When I asked her why, she said it was because she loved (big) cities. Sigh. A few minutes later, I asked James the same question and he chose the same picture. His reason was that it was more lively than the pictures of glowing lamps and a church window. In any case, I immediately began to rethink my earlier decision to take the photo home to install on my wall. As a third person suggested much later, I could actually put it right there in the office and let people admire it whenever they come in.

I tried that today, and it has thankfully failed as an experiment.

First of all, there’s not much space on the wall of the office to fit a 16 x 20 inches drawing without causing some aesthetic discomfort to some of the other cultural photos already there much of them smaller. Second of all, much as I gave it a chance to stay on my table where I can see it, I have painfully realized that I can’t stand the sight of that long energetic Lagos traffic for eight hours non-stop every day. Better to put one that shows more of a world at peace with itself, even if through the little light entering through a church window. I’m afraid of how agitated my days might be if I keep the Lagos traffic in front of me for much of the day. I have therefore taken it off, and now I’m taking it home to hang on the living room wall where I don’t spend much time anyway. All those in awe of (big) cities will gape at it and find their rhythm. And when I want to study, maybe it will help me to focus, or give me the needed spunk when I need the energy. And maybe not. In all, I have come to agree that it is a beautiful piece of photo that captures some of the fundamental elements of the Lagos evening: traffic.

I had taken it one late evening on my way from the Lagos Island, and it shows traffic on only one side of the road. A candid colourful shot of daily experience.

Lagos in the Office was published on October 5th, 2010, with the tags , , , , under the Observations category. There are currently 6 comments on this article so far.

I Hate Big Cities

Maybe I should just say I hate cities because Lagos is not such a big city (except by population) yet it has succeeded in riling me up enough to write this while battling headache and fever induced no less by a few days of activities in its rowdy belly. There is always an underlying assumption by residents of cities, I now believe, that they live in a concrete jungle and that the only way to survival is to live by the jungle rules. I talk of noise, of course, and a general rowdiness that always, always disorientate, or at best push one to a resolve never ever to return to that scene of madness except in a cocoon that blots out the noise, the long traffic, and the general lawlessness on the road of stressed office workers trying to get home in time for the latest edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

I bet New York is like that too. Darn, count me out for now. I’m going back home to take paracetamol and some malaria drugs, and then to bed.

I Hate Big Cities was published on August 14th, 2010, with the tags , , , under the Soliloquy category. There are currently 1 comment on this article so far.

Sand in My Socks

After attending the Bookjam @ Silverbird event that had in attendance writers from many corners of the world and catching up with friends and colleagues, I was talked into a visit to the Lagos Bar Beach a few about a kilometre down the road from the Galleria. We had some fun moments riding horses, picking sea shells, writing names in the sand, catching up on old times and generally being silly at the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

One of us the Punch journalist and author of the NLNG shortlisted novel Under the Brown Rusted Roofs. It’s the girl, although the other guy seems through these pictures to love her more than I do ;).

Sand in My Socks was published on July 25th, 2010, with the tags , , , , under the adventures, Art, Fun category. There are currently 3 comments on this article so far.

On the Third Mainland Bridge

Pictures from a thirty minutes walking time around the continent’s longest overhead bridge.

On the Third Mainland Bridge was published on July 24th, 2010, with the tags , , , , , , under the Art, Observations, Travelling category. There are currently no comments on this article so far.