My Benin Experience

Travelling is one of the major activities I enjoy doing but lately I haven’t been able to do so as much as I would and go to places I love mostly because of money. I’m trying to get somethings in place before I start travelling as much as I used to when in Uni…this stall has made me realize the truth in the little saying of ‘travelling em-broadens your knowledge and keeps you appreciative of life/nature’ cause I have been living the most boring life since I stopped. Anyways, lets get to the gist- I got a message last week Wednesday from someone asking if I’ll like to go to Benin and I’m like Yaasss this is the Lord’s doing obviously!! For my International Friends/Readers, Benin is the capital of one of our states in Nigeria called Edo and I have always wanted to visit hence jumping on this offer.

We left the next morning Thursday at 10am mind you, I left my house at 5:30am to the bus park which got delayed by so many agbero movements which made us leave later. Benin is a 4-5hours ride from Lagos(not including traffic), we stopped at Ore to get some food and relieve ourselves. Finally got to Benin and lodged in a Guest House and oh boy was it really prepared for some nasty, there was a poster on the wall detailing the TV channels and programs showing so it was in this format…

1-White Movies, 2-Nigeria Movies, 3-Sports, 4-Blue Film

So I asked the guy that checked us in to show me how to change the channels and boom!,they meant business by the ‘blue film’oo IT WAS REAL PORN!!! Showing 24hrs non-stop. I was in so much disbelief,never seen such but maybe its a thing in Benin.

I happened to have been on my period(menstruation) this weekend so I was a little cranky,had major pains and wasn’t really hungry but nahh the devil can’t stop me from chopping life in anyway I can. Decided to get some food and girl,was I disappointed. I am very particular about the places I get food from because of cleanliness,and Benin seems to have a lot of dirty restaurants which is such a turn off for me…ended up having cereal and packaged items for food mostly. The restaurant I went to with my friend had insects flying inside the showcase and not to even speak about the smell of the whole place…body odor of the guys in it and the food mixed together got everywhere sooo stuffy.

Transportation price is quite fair and if you not getting a cab yourself be prepared to seat 4 at the back of the taxi, cleanliness is 4/10,guest house/hotels are quite affordable, they have little or no available ready to go shops or supermarkets to buy the basic things from,they have just one mall and you always had to remind them to clean the room. I ended up leaving the city to go visit my sister in school which I thank God was a much more better space to feel safe and clean at.

I had a not so good experience honestly but I’ll still love to check it out with someone who’s familiar with the city just to give it a fair shot…I just made a new friend named Fola who offered to visit some places with me so I’m looking forward to more chills.

Next stop on my Naija visit tour-Abuja,Warri,Bonny(Rivers state). In the mean time,I hope you enjoyed this read and try going to the nearest city or even street just to have idea of how living conditions/lifestyle could be different.