Wo bin Ich zu Hause - Meine heimat für Fremde

As the days of my trip progressed, I realized that many of the natural sites that had survived or were being preserved had strong spiritual or cultural ties. Whether I believed the stories behind them or not was irrelevant. What mattered was that, thanks to those beliefs, these incredible places were being protected and were still accessible to visitors. Here are my favorite sites from the ones I visited. Awhum Waterfall  is attached to a monastery, and the water is believed to be sacred. So much so that women are traditionally not allowed to visit the falls while wearing trousers. The waterfall is about an hour to an hour and a half's drive from Enugu City, depending on where you depart from. The entire hike covers 6.77 km and took us 2 hours and 27 minutes to complete, including photo stops and breaks. It is absolutely beautiful. The trail begins on an open stretch before gradually descending until you reach the stream that flows from the waterfall. At this poi...

I know most of you may have heard of Lagos. The Mega city. A city where people come to in search of their dreams, of opportunities and or their destiny. I like many Nigerians, I am no different. In 2001 I came Lagos, I came to Eko with the hope of realizing my dream. Umm but why Eko? You see I am Igbo and like may tribes in Nigeria or dare I say Africa, the fate and future of a woman is dependent on her male counterpart. With this I mean first her father, then brothers, uncles, her husband or any other male counter part for that matter. Well let’s just say I wanted to be able to decide for myself. I wanted to be in a place where accepting decisions and guidance wasn’t about gender but competence. A place where my voice and my opinion would count. From the tales I had heard Eko sounded like such a place. A gateway to opportunities, a melting pot of desires, of creativity, of sheer will and tenacity – I wanted in. Of course I would later learn that in reality, the story do...

If you have made it past all the negative press and terrifying stories you hear about Nigeria and still decide to come over then perhaps there are a few things I can share with you about traveling through Nigeria based on my own experience. Nigeria is not one of the usual tourist destinations in Africa. There are obviously other countries in Africa with more developed tourist industries and longer service history in the sector Safaris which most people associate with the whole of Africa are not available in Nigeria the closest you will come to that is a visit to one of our national parks and forest reserve like Yankari Game Reserve. If you are looking for a place where everything is predefined, where you find all necessary and updated information online including packaged tours – then you are also shopping in a market where this is still under development What then can you expect from a trip to Nigeria? Ibadan,Benin,Enugu,Idanre,Kano,Akwa Ibom The beauty of Niger...

Hostels in Nigeria? Personally, when I travel, I look for trendy hostels, I could stay in. You see Hostels are great for Solo travelers, it’s a perfect place and way to meet other travelers that are like-minded to explore with. They are also more affordable than hotels. At first, I stayed in Dormitories and after a few years I started staying in single rooms in Hostels. In the years I have been coming back to Nigeria I never heard of hostels, so I choose to look for budget hotels.  I budgeted maximum 20 euros per night. My Budget - I choose a 20 euros budget because in Mexico and Brazil I was able to find good hostels with dormitory beds for 9 to 15 euro a night or a single room for 20 to 35 euros a night.  The cheapest I dared to stay in Obudu and Kachia cost 5500 a night - the service level differ greatly. When you book a double room, most find it hard to give you two towels but some property owners understand that it's about HOSPITALITY To identify hotels, I us...