MY Lagos Diary part 1: Places to visit in Badagry (Sultana beach, Whispering palms..)
By ifiokakpan - May 05, 2016
As soon as I landed, I went straight out for my tourist duties, and when you have a sister that also makes for the best handbag travel buddy, it just makes things so much easier, for some reason, I feel a bit awkward going around by myself in Nigeria and taking pictures, because not only will you get all kinds of stare you also get asked unnecessary questions, but I’ll come to this later in this post.
So first stop was to go to badagry and see all I could see there in one day. This part of Lagos is more on the outskirt, it does have a lot of fab places to see but because of where it located, people on the island (which is more like the city centre of Lagos for the high and mighty) won’t make their way here a lot but really, it’s a good place to visit, with lots of cultural history, first buildings and long-time slavery memories hangs around here, it’s one of the oldest towns around.
One piece of advice, make sure you have a car to move around the places am going to be listing below because it’s not the easiest thing moving in public transport (cabs will cost an arm and a leg, buses don’t go around here, bike or keke maruwa (aka tricycle) are other alternatives).
One piece of advice, make sure you have a car to move around the places am going to be listing below because it’s not the easiest thing moving in public transport (cabs will cost an arm and a leg, buses don’t go around here, bike or keke maruwa (aka tricycle) are other alternatives).
Sultana beach aka coconut beach. So I visited the beautiful coconut beach also known as sultana beach. Entrance fee is 500naira (Nigerian currency) which is about £1.50 ( maybe one pound, because the rate at which the value of naira is dropping now, is ridiculous (sorwi excuse my french)) so this beach has small huts and for people to chill and have a drink, you also have people that sell food and drinks at the beach, they try to persuade you to come to their stall and patronise them. You also have people that take your pictures and print it for you almost immediately, the business venture here is real. this place is a sight to behold, the pretty coconut tress scattered everywhere just gives a different feel to it. I kinda understand why its called coconut beach.
Whispering palms, I remember when I was much younger, in secondary school to be more precise, my school organised a French student holiday somewhere called French village, I think it was cotonuo or Benin, and one of the places we visited whispering palms this is close to the border of Lagos linking Nigeria to Benin republic. Whispering palms did have a lot more animals in the zoo at the time, but things seem to have changed much since then.
This place also has a family pool, couldn’t take pictures of this place because they were people in the pool. They also have hotels for you to stay overnight incase you decided to spend the night or the weekend. The centre has somewhere they call game centre, not sure what happens here.
This expanse of water where you can have a boat ride. We didn't get to do any of this as the boat didn't seem to have been anywhere in sight, these places buzz more at weekends. I also remember visiting this place not too long ago with one of more chikers (this is a Nigerian colloquialism for a guy that’s on your matter, erhmmm simply put, a guy that wants to date you.) we had a meal and the coconut drinks and it was so so tasty, I guess that’s one of the things that pulled me back to see this place. Piece of advice, come on a weekend, more activities are in full swing.
Next Stop
There are many
other places in badagry that's great to visit but I didn’t get time to do all
of this, didn't start the day on time (landing in Nigeria and touring on the
same day doesn’t give you all the time you need, but I was able to source for some other location pix.
3. The first multi storey building and the slaves point of no return
Thanks for reading.
Stay Blessed
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