The bus ride to Kano was long, im not sure how long, but over 12 hours. Long enough for you to forget what life was like before you got on the bus. The journey started pretty comfortably a few prayers from the obligatory preachers, who then turned into pharmaceutical salesmen for the first two hours. Any chance of sleep was pretty remote, as far as im aware all Africans snore, a bus load full snores pretty loudly.
We arrived in Kano early morning, I jumped on a bike and off to the dreary Kano State Hotel, were I got some shut eye until midday. On my first day I just wandered the new town. Being the third biggest city in Nigeria it is still home to well over two million people, its super crowded and the air pollution is crazy. Like many towns in the Muslim north it is under strict Sharia’ law, so no drinking or smoking for the muslims. No problem however for a tourist like me. There’s supposed to be a special Sharia police force, if there was they just looked like the other police officers (criminals in uniform).
Day two and I attempt to visit the old town, starting with the Emirs Palace. Dressed in my best ‘Muslim Friendly’ clothing, I have to stop three bikes until one knows where this building is (probably the most important in Kano), after a five minute drive he drops me off at the ministry of works and housing! Im not impressed, eventually we have a nice group of people discussing if they have heard of the Emirs palace, finally a street kid selling bags of water remembers where the most important building in the city is and directs my retarded taxi driver.
Granted when we got there I wasnt too impressed, but walking around the old town I got to see some impressive examples of Kano architecture. The city used to be an important stop on the Saharan trade route and dates back over a thousand years. See the photos.
I had planned to visit a few other places in Nigeria, but the Muslims and Chrisitians were busy killing each other following a certain Danish cartoon, this meant many cities were under curfew or a bit dodgy to visit. Instead I got a small bus towards Madaguri and the Cameroon border.
Madaguri is the ‘home of peace’ in Nigeria, or so it says on the number plates. To be fair it was a pleasant place but had very little to do. In my hotel I noticed Porridge on the breakfast menu - awesome. I went to bed dreaming of a big bowl of honey and porridge before tomorrows journey into Cameroon. Next day the chef informed me the porridge was off the menu, in fact everything was off the menu, except for Liver and Chips. Not the best breakfast fodder in the world, so I just opted for a coffee. No coffee either, he was the chef and couldnt make drinks, only the drink manager could do that!? but he was ill today.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:28 am
hollo my friend . ! Madaguri is the ‘home in Nigeria, benin is the home of pace