Hey guys, how’s the Sunday evening going?
Firstly, I have to apologise for not posting on Wednesday. Got occupied and didn’t get the chance to do some blogging. I promise to do better.
Today’s blog........
Even Though Nigeria to Cotonou or Benin Republic (which is the correct name of this country abeg?) is less than 3 hours from Lagos, Mile 2 to be specific, it’s a shame that we hardly ever visit these countries and say it proudly that we have travelled abroad. We only see destinations like America, Dubai, UK and other far away countries, forgetting that we can be tourists and holiday makers in neighbouring countries.
Firstly, I have to apologise for not posting on Wednesday. Got occupied and didn’t get the chance to do some blogging. I promise to do better.
Today’s blog........
Even Though Nigeria to Cotonou or Benin Republic (which is the correct name of this country abeg?) is less than 3 hours from Lagos, Mile 2 to be specific, it’s a shame that we hardly ever visit these countries and say it proudly that we have travelled abroad. We only see destinations like America, Dubai, UK and other far away countries, forgetting that we can be tourists and holiday makers in neighbouring countries.
Few weeks ago I visited Cotonou by road with my mum, brother and sister and as expected it was an interesting but not so smooth road-trip and it wasn’t too bad getting there and good thing is my brother knows the way and it’s a straight road from Iyana-Iba so we didn’t experience any difficulties getting there.
On arrival at the boarder we hired a taxi to take us round the city and paid CFR 15,000 for the day which equivalent NRA 9,500 approx. this was optional as we could have taken our car across the boarder and paid CFR 5,000 - 3,200 approx. for a 3 month pass but we wanted to enjoy the day trip with my brother as he was going to drive us back to Nigeria he would need some rest and time off the driving.
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| Few of the currencies |
Overall the trip was interesting and French is the general language, I thought my French was fair but I found out it is below poor as they spoke really fast and we couldn’t understand a word they said, thanks to our uncle and his wife who lives there and was the interpreter. So I need to take that basic French off my CV, before someone embarrasses herself at her next interview.
Downside is the country is a little underdeveloped, I can’t categorically judge this as I only spent couple of hours, but from what I saw it looked like I was somewhere in Oyo State having a nice time which is different if you are used to the Lagos and city life.
Food! This was a difficult something, we didn’t find any nice fast food places and trust me I like good food and enjoy trying new meals especially when I visit a place but it was a no no for me on this trip, I didn’t quiet understand the meals so myself and sis survived on fruits while my mum and bro managed to eat the rice they ordered.
Will I visit again? Of course I will but instead of a day trip will stay for a weekend and get to enjoy the place, rather than rush back to Nigerian that same day, the headache I had when we got home that evening was not a joke! So I won’t want that to happen again.
If you do visit, I will love to hear your experiences and if you have visited in the past please drop a comment for those interested in the trip and correct me where wrong so I can learn a thing or two for my next visit.
Ok.....
Something to note there was no network service on our phones throughout, didn’t get the option to roam either so I didn’t bother using my phone.
Unfortunately I didn’t take pictures on the trip, will explore more on the next visit.
Where’s next on the African tour you are wondering..... I’m thinking Ghana, fingers crossed it will be more interesting with more stories and pictures to follow.