Trip Report, Nigeria 2011 Part 2 – In Nigeria

This is the second part of my trip report to Nigeria, the first of which was my outbound IAH-LOS flight, and the final part will be my return LOS-IAH flight.

Customs-

I had no trouble with customs as I was just carrying two duffel bags (I had one small carry-on duffel and one large ~50lb checked in duffel).  So it didn’t look like I was trying to ‘smuggle’ anything in… If anything I probably looked like a western expatriate or off-duty military.  This was interesting because the last time I came to Nigeria I had conventional checked in luggage (full sized rollers) and was dressed ‘way’ down (plain sweats; I like to dress low profile when travelling to/from Nigeria), and all of my bags were searched.  Thoroughly.

Lagos time! -

For the first couple nights I stayed at the Governor’s Hotel in Ojodu, Lagos.  The rate was 12500Naira/night (decent rate, ~$80/night USD) and I was very pleased with the hotel.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone that happens to be in Lagos and needs a relatively safe, clean and amenable budget lodging. 

Amenities:

• 24/7 Electricity & Water (omg Instant Win!)
• Working, clean Air Conditioning (Thumbs up)
• Free Wifi (wasn’t working the first night but was working from my first morning there).  My speedtest results showed the download bandwidth ranged from 500kbps to 1Mbps.  Which is fine (even by western standards) for all browsing purposes, but wouldn’t be good for streaming content.
• Free  Breakfast!  The complimentary offering of the in-house restaurant (I’d call it more of a Café) varied from day today.  One day they served bread with scrambled eggs & stew and one day they served yams & scrambled eggs.
• HDTV (~40 inch) in room!  Albiet the only channel offering HD content was Supersport (the Sports Network).  A ‘basic cable’ offering was present.  I was able to watch EPL matches, news, music videos, Nigerian soaps, etc…  If I had brought an HDMI cable I would have been able to watch my movies on the TV. Nice.

Hotel Breakfast

The room (I’m a slob, I know!)

Anyway, once I got settled in.  I immediately setup my SIM card so I would be able to communicate while out there.  Setting up my prepaid MTN SIM was a snap.  There is something to be said about the cellular network infrastructure in Nigeria.  I was using an unlocked T-Mobile (US) Galaxy S II.  In Ojodu I was on a 3g network, and in Ikeja & Victoria Island the network had HSPA+ speeds! (That’s 3.5g or 4g  in the US, depending on what provider you use)  I had speed tests as high as 6.5Mbps down in Victoria Island.  That’s more download bandwidth than the majority of landline broadband connections in the US. (I’m impressed)

After a couple nights at the hotel, I spent most of the rest of my stay with a friend in Ikeja.  But for Christmas, I wanted to travel to Akure to visit some family.

So, on Christmas day we took the public bus from the station in Lagos to Akure.

Trip Facts:

• Distance from Lagos – Akure = ~185 Miles
• Cost: 1550Naira/person each way
• Travel Time = 7 (SEVEN) Hours

This might have been the most lolbad roadtrip I’ve ever taken in my life. For sooooo many reasons…

1. We were packed like sardines in a can.  The “public bus” was really a compact minivan/minibus (Toyota HiAce) w/a seating capacity of maybe 8.  We had 14 people & and their luggage.  To make matters worse, I was tallest passenger and had to sit in the back row in the middle. 
2. Did I mention the bus had no working A/C?
3. What about the girl sitting beside me that had to sing along to every song in her mp3 player? (Audition4NigerianIdolplz)
4. How about the old lady seated in the row in front of me who proceeded to take a swig of her bottled water, gargle it, then open the window and try to spit it out the window. Fail. I had a nice ‘saliva+water’ drizzle.  Thanks ma’am.
5. But the kicker was that the driver had to jump start the bus before we left the station in Lagos. (?????????????????)

Wow.

On a lighter note, the drive was quite scenic. (Nigerian ‘Interstateways’ are nice.  During the day.)

And I saw  Ferarri  wtf….

It’s [Insert Caption Here] time!

• “Brand New???”
• “Merry Christmas, Baby.”
• “Damn, Nigerians got mad $$$ yo”
• “WTF ARE YOU GOING”  (-Katt Williams)

But seriously, where was it going???  I don’t really care who owns it, but rather why it passed us up (blazing on the flat-bed tow truck) and where was it going heading eastbound away from the greater Lagos area on Christmas Day?!

Anyway, the rest of Christmas was great, and we ended up getting a private car + driver for the return trip back to Lagos.

On my last day in Lagos we ventured into Victoria Island for a little sight seeing.  Victoria Island is a very affluent part of Lagos.

We went to the Galleria, a mall in VI.  It was a nice, standardish mall, even if most merchandise was overpriced by American standards. 

I also got to see some VI residential real estate and beaches.  WOW.  Next time I come back to Lagos I definitely to spend some more time checking out some of these areas (Any super rich 9ja LF friends???)

Overall, I had a great time in Lagos and will hopefully be going back sooner, rather than later.  If you have any questions about travelling to Nigeria please let me know.

 

 

A couple extra notes.

1. There were a lot of hip hop artists/celebrities/comedians in Nigeria during the time I was there. Cool!  In the time I was there Rick Ross, T-Pain, Fabolous, & comedian Mike Epps all had their own shows/concerts.  Next time I come I will definitely check one of these outs if they are in town and having a show.

2. KFC!!!  Did I really just fly ~6500 miles for fried chicken? (lolsterotypes)

Trip Report, Nigeria 2011 Part 1 - IAH - LOS

Happy New Year! … So I haven’t blogged in two years (no big deal), but who cares. Let’s get started!

I decided to use this blog as the means in which I would write my trip report for several reasons:

1. I’m gonna copy this to some of the frequent flyer forums I subscribe to (flyertalk/milepoint)
2. Several people have asked me how my flight/trip was. I wanna tell them all every detail!!! …but I’m lazy. With this blog I can just type this up and have them read the entries to see how my trip was.
3. I need to get rid of all these pictures!

I’ll be splitting my trip report into 3 parts. Two parts for the flights and one part for my time in Nigeria.

IAH-LOS

I arrived at the airport ~3.5 hours before departure. In retrospect this was not necessary. Keep in mind I was flying BusinessFirst (BF) and didn’t have to wait through economy check-in and general security, but in the future if I’m travelling internationally on any itinerary where I have elite access benefits, I’ll probably come to the airport closer to departure.

Continental (CO) started non-stop service between Houston (IAH) and Lagos (LOS) on Nov. 16, 2011. This route is rumored to become of their most lucrative due to the large population of Nigerian nationals in Houston, the large amount of American expatriates working for companies in Nigeria, and the fact that both cities are oil centers. Add the fact that Nigerian’s grossly over pack when travelling internationally (excess baggage revenue anyone?) and you have a veritable cash cow for CO.

I have no better proof of this luggage issue than what happened to me when I arrive at terminal E. First off, for the LOS flight tonight they had a scale at the beginning of the check-in queue and CO had a couple staff weighing everybody's bags before they got in line to use a kiosk. While my instincts tell me this is probably standard for this flight (I don’t fly IAH-LOS everyday…), it was funny seeing all the Nigerians trying to negotiate (??) with the staff about their bag weight trying to get to a kiosk.

Anyway, I walked up, and one of my bags was >50lbs (Pot, meet kettle?), and the attendant was quick to tell me I needed to lose some weight to check that bag in, but after finding out I was BF she said its ok and forwarded me to EliteAccess check in (baggage allotment on CO for intl BF is 3 bags @ 70lbs max each).

Now a pretty young lady saw this and had the audacity to ask not only me, but the guy in the EliteAccess line checking in behind me if we could check in bags for her. This is an epic fail for so many reasons:

1. She had 6 (SIX) bags to check-in. Who goes to an intl flight checking in SIX bags? I’ll tell you. Nigerians. (ilovemycountry!)
2. She had all of her bags laying on the floor in the middle of the terminal. Smart. Very smart.
3. She came up to us right in front of the CO clerk. The CO clerk laughed at her and said something to the effect of “You know, if TSA catches you you’ll be instacuffed.” I LOL’ed.

Aside from that the rest of check-in went without hitch and it was off to the United Club for me to chill (drink) until boarding began.

BusinessFirst is CO’s premium cabin offering in their international routes that use metal fitted for two cabins. In our case we were on a Boeing 777-200ER. Now this is my first time flying a transoceanic flight in a premium cabin, so my review of the hard (seat) & soft (amenities, service) product might be a little biased as I don’t really have anything to compare it to.

Prior to boarding, a clerk came out to all the BF customers waiting in line and scanned our boarding passes before they started the official boarding process. Is this a nice touch as far as hospitality is concerned or are they just trying to keep people from boarding prematurely? I have no clue, but I like to be positive so I’ll take it as an extra touch of hospitality/service

-The rear of the BF cabin

-My seat. Right side, window.

-Thinly veiled brag? (lolvanity)

When I had taken my seat my attendant:

1. Took my coat
2. Offered pre-departure beverage
3. Brought out dinner menu & took order

-One of the monster GE90-94B’s

-Amenity kit. I’m not going to go into the amenity kit, there are several sites/blogs on the web that review airline amenity kits. I’ve linked the images to CO’s page for the kit.

Let me say, there is a HUGE selection of movies on the AVOD, by my count it was ~190 movies, and you still have music, TV shows, and games available to you. Really awesome AVOD. Internet would be a plus though, especially on such a long flight.

Soon after departure, dinner began. (Excuse the picture quality, remember this is a night flight)

-Appetizer (Chilled lobster with fresh dill and Du Barry sauce. Air-dried beef garnished with melon and oranges)

-Main Course (The Chef’s Selection: Braised beef short rib with red wine sauce, spicy aji amarillo mashed potatoes, fine green beans, baby carrots and cherry tomato).

Dinner was great. I watched a movie and then decided to force myself to sleep as we would be arrive in Nigeria about 1:40pm local time (GMT+1)

As far as the seat is concerned. It wasn’t that great for sleeping. From what I’ve read, CO’s BF offering is definitely not the best when it comes to intl business class offerings over all and that includes the ‘flat-bed’ seats. I’m about 6’0, 200lbs and I wasn’t able to lie comfortably in a ‘bed’ that’s allegedly 6’6’. This is partly because the seat, when laid out in bed mode, is almost like a canoe in that it is wide in the middle, but narrows at the head and feet. In short, the listed dimensions are deceiving and you shouldn’t have problems sleeping in this seat if you are <5’8’ish and/or sleep on your side.

A couple hours before landing we had breakfast! I LOVED IT. I also had 87345687 croissants, no big deal.

-Fresh seasonal fruit and yogurt/Smoked and peppered Atlantic salmon with cream cheese and salmon roulade

A couple final notes:

• The FA’s brought us all bottled waters in our sleep, just a nice touch to wake up to IMO.
• Again to touch on the AVOD…The Programming/Movie selection is so exhaustive I could actually see people packing lighter because of this. I don’t know if people still actually use portable DVD players, but you definitely don’t need to pack one if you plan on using it for just the flight.

Let me know if you have any questions about the hard or soft product or anything else related to this flight. Happy holidays!

Wise man say...

Empty your clothes pockets before doing laundry.

G1 Wireless Tethering? Oh My!

• I have fallen in love with my phone all over again.
• Being a nerd is fun.
• I'm a badass.
  

After a brief stint of disappointment with the G1 due to decreased usability (primarily as a result of an uncalibrated battery), I have recently given my phone a true 'makeover' and truly stepped up my poweruser game.

With the help of the geniuses at xda-developers I acquired knowledge and software enabling me to 'root' my G1.  Android is linux based operating system, but access to the root directory (like going to C:\ in DOS) is blocked by default by Google.  The basic idea being that giving software access to root increases the number of things  you can do with software while at the same time increasing the vulnerability/decreasing the stability of the system.  IMHO, I think its was a safe (and prudent) move on Google's part to do this.

In earlier versions of Android (pre-RC30 for us in the U.S.) there were some software security holes that could allow a savvy user (or hacker, tomato tomAto) access to root, thereby giving him/her increased usability and other amazingultrasuperpowers.  But Google has patched these out in recent OTA updates.   

So of course, I ventured to xda to see if anyone had ripped the ROM off an early build of Android or even directly from a unupdated G1, and lo and behold I found a whole series of threads in which people had rooted their phones and installed ripped and cooked versions of the OS!!  

How-to Root and Flash HTC Dream thread on xda-developers

After going through this long and tedious process of flashing my phone to a root access-enabled version of Android (lengthened by some telnet command issues.  It's really a shame that i'm not familiar in linux) I am now able to do many interesting things, such as:

• Install Linux distros on my phone (cool, but not useful for me)
• Run Apps that require root (the most important thing, because this is the only way we'll ever get to harness the full potential of Android)
• Customize my own ROM (will be come very cool/useful as more apps/widgets come out)
• Full system backup (A feature that Google should seriously consider releasing)
• Install Apps to the SD memory card (to keep more space free in the partition that holds the OS, always important, in ANY OS)
• Turn my phone into a wireless router (omg, really?)
• And last but not least, wireless tethering.  (O. M. G.)

The last of these is hands down the biggest reason to root your G1, and of course this is the first thing I did.

After installing Apps Installer, a free app in the market that allows you to install non-market place apps (*.apk files), I then installed Wifi Tether for Root Users, written by harry_m at xda. Setting up the app was a snap (the interface is very userfriendly)

http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

DOWNLOAD

I am actually typing this blog entry right now on my laptop through a tethered Wifi connection to my G1.  I no longer have to pay for Wifi access at hotspots like airports and cafe's, I can browse the web while i'm on the bus or the train, and life as I now it is just a little better. :)

Taken

I just saw Taken, the most recent Luc Besson film starring Liam Neeson. 

It. Was. Awesome.

If your a fan of Nikita or The Professional (Leon), are into Krav Maga, are an action movie fan, are a father or a mother, or have divorced parents, you should see this movie (Seriously).

Probably the best action movie to come out since The Bourne Ultimatum, but that's just my opinion...

How many Wayans are there?

A funny comment I read today in a utube clip of the upcoming "Dance Flick" trailer.

how many wayans brothers are there? is there a barack wayans, osama bin wayans, boutros boutros wayans, haley joel wayans, ol' dirty wayans, notorious W.A.Y.A.N.S? 

i heard they kept having kids till one of them was talented.

T-Mobile G1 vs. T-Mobile Wing

So it's kind of a let down that i'm really into cell phones yet I have yet to make a post regarding the G1 or anything cell phone related for that matter.

So here it is:

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Short Version:  The early G1 is the 'ying' to the Wing's 'yang'.  These phones are both strong in the areas where the other is weak.  If you need a smartphone with a large userbase, strong call quality, and consider the features of the phone only bonus, then stick with the Wing.  If you actually use a cellphone camera semi-frequently, don't have a GPS in your car, have multiple cell phones, and/or need quasi-constant access to the net, then you should consider the G1.

Long Version:  Well let me first iterate that this article is not totally about the G1 vs. the Wing. It's more of a discussion of the G1 and how it fares against the range of HTC Windows Mobile phones.  I just happen to be using the Wing for the comparison.

As most of you know, the T-Mobile G1 is the first commercial device to run Google's Android platform, an operating-system suited for mobile devices.  In theory, the potential for this OS is limitless.  Since it's from Google (the good guys), the OS is open-source, meaning anyone (you included) can go download the SDK or source code for the OS free at google.com.  This is great because it allows for a very transparent user-developer relationship.  Down side to all this is, the G1 is the first, so out the box its gonna the device will  seem very '1.0'ish.  

So, in my opinion, here are the pros/cons of the G1.

Pros to the G1:

Feature Implementation-In general, any feature in the phone is integrated seamlessly into the UI, you don't have to download or otherwise generally configure settings to get things like the GPS, browser, etc... to work properly.

GPS-GPS (or aGPS to be specific), is great, at least for a noob to GPS systems.  Would someone with Garmin or the like care to comment?

Google Maps-With the exception of the ability to tag locations like in the browser version it is zippy and bug free, IMO.

OTA (over the air) 'Gsyncing'- Haha, I call it Gsyncing because the G1 syncs all of your Google Contacts, Calender, and Gmail with your google account.  This is one of the huge features in the phone that I feel Google/TMO failed in marketing very well.  Android represents a huge step in the direction of cloud computing (wiki it if u don't know), which will be a huge paradigm shift in the way we use computers from day to day.  The fact that you don't have to 'check your email' is huge.  It is just pushed to your phone when it's received on the server.  So now you can finally operate and manage your emails and calendar in the same way you manage your SMS and MS Outlook, all from your phone.  Keep in mind that this is all seamlessly integrated into the OS, no need for additional software.

Google Market-Very similar to the iPhone store, it allows you to search, browse, and otherwise manage 3rd-party apps on your device.  And right now its all free!

Desktop/UI-Very polished.  Negligible lag, Customizable Wallpapers, can put widgets and icons to any apps on it.  The home screen is much more like Windows/MacOS than any other phone system, even WinMo.

Browser-With the exception of the iPhone browser, this is the best mobile browser, its not even close.

Hard search key-In the qwerty keyboard there is a search key, where your 'Windows" key would be on a normal keyboard.  This key has been integrated seamlessly into all of the Google apps (maps, browser, desktop,market,dialer, etc...), but is not integrated into a lot of the 3rd part apps (the ones you download from the market).  This was another feature that I think google (or it might be more HTC's fault since its a hardware thing) failed to advertise to developers.  But still, its a great feature.

Cons:

Camera-It is REALLY slow to start up ~10-15 seconds, and even if your patient enough to let it start up, theres no flash?!!  Both Google and HTC are to blame here.  Whats the point of having phone in your camera if you can't even capture impromptu 'kodak' momemts?  Come on.

Battery life-This is the biggest flaw in the phone, and for the most part its HTC, not Google's fault.  The battery life on my G1 is so bad, I've had to disable a lot of the features on the phone just to have moderately usable usage.  Features mind you, that were the whole reason I bought the phone in the first place.

Keyboard-Another HTC faux pas here.  The keys are almost flush with the bezel, and the phone sports this 'jay leno chin' to the right of the keyboard, where the hard call send/end, home and menu keys are.  This leads to a pretty crappy experience if your a heavy texter.  But again, this isn't Google's fault, HTCs to blame here.

Call quality/reception issues-  The good news is, it will probably be fixed via a hotfix from Google OTA in the near future.  Bad news is, for the time being all dropped calls are on my end.

No 3.5mm headphone jack-For a phone with so many features, you would think a headphone jack would be standard right?  No you have to use a extUSB-3.5mm adapter to use your own headphones with the device.

So there are the pros and cons (again IMO) of the G1 on its own.  I've had the phone for about two months now and am also the owner of two other HTC WinMo phones, the Wing and MDA.  Given the amount of time i've had with the G1 and my familiarity with WinMo I think I can fairly make a comparison of the two, with the only bias being that towards the features that I use the most.

Here are the areas inwhich the G1 and Wing excel in.

G1 Wins:

Feature Implementation-You can hold the homekey to see the most recent open apps for quick app switching.  You can make hotkeys to open your favorite apps.  All the native google apps incorporate the HTC's search key.  The user experience for most of the phones features is very polished.  And this is the first device.

OS Potential for improvement (namely, how will these devices fare against the market in 1 year? 2 years?)- Two words, open source.  In two years WinMo as we know it will still only be changing when a large set of the userbase has a complaint, but Android will constantly be evolving.  Anyone (albeit with the requisite programming knowledge) can develop software for Android.

Camera- They both suck, but the G1's sucks less.  It's 3MP as opposed to the Wing's 2MP.  A big wag of the finger to HTC for shafting TMO and Google on their flagship device for 2008/09.  As for the software issues, they'll be worked out overtime by Google.

OTA Sync-Seamless is the keyword here.  While you can use MS Exchange on your WinMo phone, and there are several other OTA 'providers' out there on the net,  it is far from seamless, requiring you to go through  so many chutes and ladders just to get yourself setup.  With Google's system all you have to do is put in your Google account info.  

Wing Wins:

Call Quality/Reception - No brainer here.  But keep in mind it might be due to the fact that the G1's radio supports both 3g and 2g signals, meaning that the phone is constantly switching between 3g and 2g, which operate on different frequencies.  Whereas the 2G WinMo phones don't have to switch as much and have a more prevalent coverage area.  

The software side to this (radio firmware) will be fixed over time, and the coverage side will be fixed over time as TMO adds more towers to the 3g network.

Battery Life-I will more likely than not be buying an extended battery for my G1 very soon.

User/Software base- Right now WinMo wins, but as more providers and cell phone manufacturers jump on the Android bandwagon, this will change.  I would like to ask this question again a year from now too see how far Android has come.

Technical Support-  This is totally/directly dependent on the user/software base.  So right now WinMo wins both with official tech support and forums like xdadevelopers, but i'll be taking the 'waitandsee' approach on this one.

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As you can probably guess, I'll be sticking with my G1 for right now, as its the newer device, Google's constantly having updates, it has a better camera, and gives me constant access to my gmail.  But I will most definately be looking for a good extended battery in the near future.  

BTW, this is my first review/comparison so feedback would be greatly appreciate as I hope to do this in the future with other gadgets I pick up, restaurants I goto, etc...