Discovering Ethiopia

I stayed in Ethiopia for three months last year and of course I took time to discover a bit. It is a beautiful country but I only had so much time, which I tried to make the best use of. Visit Ethiopia with me through this post...

Addis Ababa is the capital of the country. The capital is at an altitude of 2,355m above sea level

- Amharic is the official language and there are 10 regions in the country. Each region has its own language

- The population of Ethiopia is about 113 million

- The Orthodox Church is super strong there

- The country is GMT+3 (2 hours ahead of Nigeria)

Bagamoyo, Tanzania

I am sure you have read so much about Zanzibar when it comes to travelling to Tanzania...I have spent the year here and have found different parts that deserve a lot of attention. This country is beautiful and there is infrastructure for tourism to thrive. When people ask me about travelling to Nigeria and West Africa, I tell them that there is a lot to do but we have some catching up to do compared to East African countries. West Africa is more about the culture and the people.

My latest discovery was a town called Bagamoyo. It is on the coast and is about 63km from Dar es Salaam.

Mtwara, Tanzania

I visited Mtwara this week and was pleased to discover this part of Tanzania.
Mtwara is in the South of Tanzania and it is far more developed than I imagined it would be.

If you have followed news on Tanzania recently, you may have seen that cashew nuts was in the news a lot. The nuts are mostly produced between Mtwara and Lindi. As we drove here, there were cashew trees all over. There are big cashew farms. Surprisingly, all the Tanzanians I was travelling with had never eaten cashew, only the nuts. Tanzania is one of the biggest producers of cashew nuts in Africa and it adds a percentage to their foreign exchange.

My first Safari in Kenya

Sometime in 2013, I went to Kenya for the first time. It was an exciting trip. The plan was to go on Safaris then end up on the coast.
I watched a film called 'The Ghost and the Darkness' recently and a flash of the Tsavo eaters story came back. I remembered that this was mentioned by Amani, our tour guide, at one of the parks but I don't know if I paid much attention to that story. This was a reminder that I hadn't written about my 2013 Kenya trip.

On the day we were to fly out of Abuja, we were sitting at the airport waiting for our flight when we saw the news of the West gate mall attack break. As frightening as it was, we were not going to change plans.

When we got to Nairobi, I stayed with my uncle and his family for 2 days in before leaving on Safaris.

It's been 5 years, my cousins are all grown up now

Finding spices, tortoises and doors in Zanzibar, Tanzania

There has been so much hype about Zanzibar, but at the same time, a few people weren't particularly thrilled. 

Being in the country, I knew I had to visit so I planned a trip with my sisters and three friends.

I seem to have written more on Tanzania than I have on any other country, here are some of the links. This was my first post then I did a bit in Kigoma. The next one will give you my general impressions and of course I went on a safari. Do check all the posts out when you have a chance.

We spent two days in Dar es Salaam catching up and me showing them the few places I know. Some of the places we went to were Cape town fish market, we all loved the food.

Cape town fish market overlooks the ocean

We watched the sun set, look at that sky line

Exploring Kigoma, Tanzania

I was in Kigoma for four days and discovered that there was a museum. I had some time on my hands so the explorer in me got busy...

I called a taxi and set off to find it.I hear it is also straight forward going there by bus also. It was a fifteen to twenty minute drive from the Hilltop hotel where I was staying.

Kigoma is in North West Tanzania and is the capital of Kigoma region.

I read reviews while I was doing my research, there were good and bad reviews. I didn't have high expectations but I went anyway. 

Exploring Malta - That beautiful Island nestled in the heart of the Mediterranean

I discovered Malta, a beautiful Island in Europe, in the Mediterranean sometime in 2012. This place is one of those hidden beauties bestowed by nature. I read a bit about the place before going but wasn’t sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. I had to go back in 2013! I am told that it has beautiful weather all year round.

What a view!

Maltese narrow and windy roads

Up and About Nigeria - rejoinder

From my last post, I got a very detailed reply via e-mail from a friend. Waking up to that was such an amazing thing, that I decided to write a follow up post with his comments. 

I say a very big thank you to all of you who follow my blog and come here to read whatever it is I have to write. Please keep the comments coming, they make it all worthwhile :-)

That was a very great piece by Ene and I thought I should lend my thoughts to some points she raised. Yes, Nigeria just reached her centenary year as an entity and quite frankly, many aspects of her nationhood leaves a lot to be desired. However, there are many contributing factors to this and I feel obliged to respond to two main issues: History and the state of historical artefacts. I would not mention much about the economic aspect as that can be an article on its own. What I may want to clear up is that Nigeria was not referred to as a ‘giant of Africa’ because we had actually attained that status. It was in recognition of its enormous POTENTIAL in terms of population and material resources that gave us the moniker. We were just ‘work-in-progress’.

Up and About Nigeria

Have you ever travelled around Nigeria with the motive of appreciating the diversity in the different cultures, ethnicities and complexities that make up the country? These are things worth celebrating.

Nigeria has so much that is yet to be tapped, Nigeria has so much potential, Jim O'Neil's MINT theory states that the concerned countries economies have the potential to grow rapidly in the next three decades. This has been said about Nigeria over and over though. Nigeria has been called the giant of Africa, it is the most populous black nation. But does a country not need to appreciate what it has and its past to move forward?

Nigeria celebrated the centenary of its amalgamation this year, but I have to say that there was no real impact on Nigeria despite the series of events that were held for certain people in Abuja. I would have thought that this would be a time to dwell on the things that haven't worked, and what makes Nigeria the country it is, then come up with ideas to make the nation stronger.