If you have time flexibility here are a few things I do, to get the most bang for buck when traveling.

1. Travel during shoulder season. I’m not a fan of low season because there’s a reason it is low season. Things are closed, weather most likely not great etc 2. Regional travel. I typically will have an anchor country and then visit other countries within the region from there. Flights, trains even ferries of an average of $50-100 each takes you to multiple countries easily.

How it started.

I shared pictures from our Culture Sunday in Osun and then got this in my mentions. The serendipitous part of this was that we had planned to go to Badagry that week so I sent a DM

https://twitter.com/mochievous/status/1931657725684879623

I reached out and spoke about what we wanted to see and @JuwonJesus was kind enough to provide some direction on how best to explore Badagry on such short notice. My friends were really interested in the Atlantic Slave history part of things so we mapped out an itinerary

on my flight, I was sat beside two kids. The hostess came up to me and asked if i could do her a favour. She said, the kids (8 & 12) were traveling alone and if I could please watch them especially when we touch down. The plan was to hand them over to ground staff. my travel partner was seated in front of me (i only ended up on that roll because check-in desk failed to seat us together). My partner chuckled when they overheard the conversation and offered to switch seats with me. They love kids. Me i’m usually so-so

I became a lawyer 12 years ago and here are some career pathways some of my colleagues who graduated with me have taken.
ps: these are from my circle.

1. Finance: They opted for an MBA instead of an LLB and are now a VP in one of the biggest investment banks in the world. 2. Tech: Me with @VaziLegal

3. Academia: They are now a professor on tenure track in an Ivy League

4. Compliance: They are now a leading compliance expert working with an agency of the US govt

Just to let you know that Korean pseudoreligious cult are now in Nigeria and are actively recruiting Nigerians. They lure folks through “experience Korean culture” packages that look harmless on the surface. In October, I meant someone in Lagos who was a victim. I’ll briefly mention what she told us. First of all, I met her bcos we were playing k-pop quite loudly and she came to knock on the door. I assumed it was a neighbor coming to tell us to keep it down. But it turns out she is a k-pop nerd so she was excited to hear familiar sound

As promised, here’s a thread on how to get a visa to the Republic of Korea from Nigeria.

Overall verdit of the process: simple & straight forward.

Cost: N20k for a short term visa (less than 90k)

Timeline: 10 -15 working days (depending on how busy they are) You can apply for the visa from either Lagos or Abuja. For Abuja, you’d need to book an appointment with VFS but for Lagos, you can do a walk-in. I chose to apply in Lagos.

A woman comes out to narrate her experience of rape. The alleged perpetrator is immediately defended by men to whom he is a stranger. These men do not care about the stranger, they care about a system that allows them to commit sexual violence against women unchecked. if a person tells you they were robbed and even shows you signs of their bruises, would your first reaction be to look into whether all the lines in their story “add up” perfectly. No. It is done to women who speak up because they are trying to protect themselves too. Rapists

I think Nigerian food is elite. It is my favorite anytime. Nigerian food means comfort and home. My only “criticism” is that we lack varying textures. Everything is typically mono or at best dual-texture. But even that I don’t mind. Nigerian food is bae fr 💚 My next fav is Indian cuisine (my comfort food) then Thai (because of species) then Japanese (because of the meticulousness of preparation) then of course Lebanese cuisine (those have texture on lock). Honorable mention for Armenian food gosh!!

Tips for first time travelers.

1. Make sure you research the visa policy of the destination country. Print it out or at least have it handy.

2. Make sure you have your complete travel documents (as stated by the destination country) 3. If you are transiting, make sure to check that you can transit through the transit country without a visa. Send an airline an email about this and keep their response handy. Also check the transiting rules of the country you are passing through from their own immigration

Airport staff are just … oppression everywhere. When I was boarding my flight to Doha, some guy was in front of me. He was traveling for his masters. The ticketing officer checked his valid student visa and then was now questioning him. “where is your return ticket?”
R: “i am going to school”
“you already have one degree, why are are going to school again?”
R: I’m going for masters
“show me your university certificate”

I think in my lifetime i’ve been to over 50 airports (this is being conservative) but the Lagos airport is the only one I’ve seen where customs officers actually beg you for money. I have never witnessed this in any other place and it is so embarrassing

As an African woman traveling solo, i’m never alone

“my husband comes in tomorrow”

“yes, my friends are in a hotel at the city center”

“i’m here for a wedding. Meeting the crew in a bit”

“on my way to meet my brother who is an olympic boxer”

“just taking time alone” If you know, you know. Lies saves life

Some countries that you didn’t realize had e-visas/visa on arrival applicable to Nigerians.

1. Vietnam
2. Bahrain
3. Hong Kong
4. Indonesia
5. Singapore
6. Malaysia
7. Dominica
8. Fiji
9. Montserrat
10. Morocco that’s 10 countries for folks looking to build up their travel history or just explore off the beaten path.

A key provision of our Electoral Act that needs to be amended in order for us to have free & fair elections is Sec 60(5). It gives INEC too much flexibility to manipulate results. Also the Act is silent on what would happen if INEC itself doesn’t follow its own procedures. It is problematic because if the mode of transmission of results is not codified by law, the electoral commission can technically decide any mode of transmission that they deem fit on the day of election. This is inherently dangerous and should not exist on our law books.

Actually yes. Before I moved to the US, I had multiple folks helping me around the house. Hardly swept a floor or lit under a pot. When I moved to America, I had to open Youtube to learn how to cook jollof from Sisi Yemi. Because of course I could not afford a cook.

https://twitter.com/uxcynn/status/1634838638692532225

In Nigeria, a lot of folk can afford to pay for multiple domestic staff without necessarily being wealthy because there’s a class of people whose labour is grossly exploited.
Now there’s a counter argument on how those jobs create a source of livelihood.

I was going to end my one year of travel in a particular country, went to the embassy & they said because of my passport I needed to do the following:

1. Apply for an approval from their immigration in their country

2. Book my travel through a tour agency within the country 3. The agency had to sign that they will have a tour guide with me at all times. As in to follow me around everywhere.

In all my travels, i’ve never seen this type of thing before.

Japa is just one step. As a Nigerian passport holder, the outlook internationally is not great and this is just facts as it is.

Ask frequent travelers, they will tell you. I have multiple visas on my passport, been to about 50 countries but some immigration officers still give me a weird look when I bring out my passport.
I’ve been delayed on more than one occasion for no reason other than my passport.

I travelled for a full year on a Nigerian passport and only applied for a visa that required me to go to the embassy once. And even then, they didn’t hold on to my passport. Everywhere I went to was either visa-free, visa-exempted or e-visa. And I did at least 15 countries. If I was going to be constantly on the move, I knew I didn’t have the luxury of time for my passport to sit in one embassy for three weeks. So I forced myself to ignore places that had stringent visa reqs for Nigerian passport holders and it was the best decision I made.

Since September 2021, I undertook to traveling the world full time & as that time comes to an end, I’m reflective and decided to do a thread on my journey so far. I hope this inspires someone 🤷🏽‍♀️ I’ve now been to almost 50 countries (I don’t know the exact number) but one thing that most people don’t know is that I only started traveling frequently in 2015. Immediately prior to that, I was living in Lagos, working at a boutique law firm & earning circa N150k.

I earn relatively well but when I was in Nigeria, the prices of things were scaring me. I complained and kept thinking about others. My goodness, things are bad bad. I entered a supermarket and assumed the most i’d spend is N20k, when the bill arrived LOL. But it is not funny. We need to get it right.

Had the most pleasant conversation with an elderly couple this morning. There’s about 20 years between them but it is obvious they are so so in love. When he asked her to pass the map, he said “my love, could you pass me that?”
they are retired & now traveling the world. I told them I was a lawyer and they told me three of their children are also lawyers. I randomly asked the woman the first time she fell in love and she said in her 30s. Wow.
anyway, the gist is your life is only just starting ❤️