Travelling to Nigeria | The Giant of Africa | Travelling Mantra | Nigeria Part 1
I am at Addis Ababa Airport... After Nigeria I will travel to some west African countries too. Flight's tickets are very expensive. Going through African Immigration is not an easy task. There a difference of 4hr and 30 minutes in IST and WAT. All the Indian teach some abusive words to foreigners.
Hers notes are accepted even if it is teared in 2-3 pieces. General Election will be conducted here in January 2023. Jai Hind! Namaste! I'm your friend Manoj Malhotra and welcome to another travel series.
We explored countries like Syria, North Korea,... together. Although these are one of the most dangerous countries of the world. But the country I will travel to in this series is much more dangerous than all. Nigeria... a west African country where terrorist attacks, murder, kidnapping,...
is very common. Even the governor and President of this country is not safe. Kidnapping is a flourishing business in this country. Let's explore this country! I'm starting this journey from my hometown Delhi. I will fly from the T3 of IGI Airport of New Delhi. This time some special people have to see off me and they are my family.
my kids... my little one is sleeping Where are you... She is my wife, Pooja Malhotra and he's my elder son, Yash. He likes saying that... And my Shin-chan. Our driver, Mr. Tiwary likes coming in the videos.
I will fly with Ethiopian Airline. There's no direct flight to Nigeria from here. So I will first fly to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and then from there I will take another flight to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria. I've checked-in. The lady there co-operated a lot. She changed my aisle seat to window seat after my request. This is rare but they helped me.
They checked my Nigerian Visa and if you're fully vaccinated then you don't need any PCR test to visit Nigeria. But you'll have to fill this form. I had filled this form in advance. Keep you vaccination certificate with you. I've taken 3rd dose of Covid too, so I'm fully vaccinated. Now let's move toward immigrations...
Done with the immigrations and security check. They didn't ask question there... just checked my visa. I've to go to Gate no. 12... I've boarded on flight... Nigeria is 7500 kms away from Delhi. We are flying to Ethiopia first which is 4500 kms away from here.
We will cover this distance in 6 hrs and 50 minutes. This airplane is Boeing 787-8/9. This is the entertainment system. I was worried to fly in Ethiopian Airline but till now my experience is quite good. Check-in was also very smooth at the Airport.
They didn't ask any irrelevant questions, they just checked my visa. I had an excess baggage weight too but they allowed me to carry it. They didn't ask for the return ticket. After a long time my experience at check-in counter was so smooth. Sometimes at check-in counters the staff becomes an immigration officer, custom officer...all of it.
Thanks to the Delhi staff members of Ethiopian Airline. This flight was scheduled to takeoff at 2:30 am and at the exact time it is moving towards the runway. It's been 1.5 hrs since we took off. They have already served food. This is what they have served. Some rice, chicken and vegetables.
Some salads, and a cake... Our flight is landing at Bole International Airport of Addis Ababa after around 6 hours. The flight was supposed to reach this airport in 6hours and 50 minutes but it has covered the distance in just 6 hours. We are at the Addis Ababa Airport. It's a very busy airport.
There are many connections from this airport to Africa. Our flight is at 9:20am. ET951 which will fly from Gate C10.
Let's go to that gate. There is a difference of 2.5 hours in IST and Ethiopian time. It's 7:53am here.
And in India it would be 10:30am I will fly to some West African countries as well after Nigeria. So stay connected with us. There are some lounges, but none are connected by priority pass.
It's 8:13 am and boarding has started. Time of the flight was of 9:20am but here the departing time is 8:45am So never rely on the info given on your ticket. Go to the boarding gate as soon as you can. Don't calculate everything in your mind and miss the flight for minutes. I've seen people missing the flight who take it very easily. Indians, you can get on arrival visa in Ethiopia. And this airport is very close to the city center.
So if you have long layover here, then you can explore the city center also. Let's board our flight. I've boarded the flight and now we'll be flying to Abuja, Nigeria. It is 3500kms from here and flight duration will be 4hours and 40 minutes. This airplane is also Boeing 787-8/9. The flights are good. They have good infotainment system, charging port,...
Flight's ticket price have increased significantly and I'm flying to Abuja, Nigeria from New Delhi for $728. This flight was supposed to departure at 9:20am but this flight took off before 9am I'm not sure if the information on the ticket was wrong or they do this thing regularly. It's been 2 hours since we took off and they have served some food. They have served some chicken and pasta, a bun, a dessert, ... biscuit, some butter,...
Water and whatever drink you want to have. And if you're vegetarian then you should mention this in advance while booking your ticket. So that they get something for you as well. Vegetarian food is only available on order.
The flight time mentioned on ticket was correct, they took of early because they planned to fly to Kano, Nigeria first then Abuja. We are in Kano and it will take around 1 hour more to reach Abuja. This is a common thing in Africa. There is no regularity. So let's see what else we will experience. Finally, after waiting for 1.5 hours... This flight is ready for another take off...
And the journey to Abuja will be 1 hour long. After an hour-long journey, we've reached our final destination... Which is the Nigerian capital, Abuja. Many passengers have still not deboarded this plane.
Looks like this flight will also go somewhere else. Now, this flight will again go back to Addis Ababa. These peoples here have a quite tough and long jobs. This is my 2nd visit to a country in the African continent.
My first one was Egypt. Egypt is more like an Arab country than an African country. Nigeria is a proper African country comparatively. And now I'd be facing the toughest task here... As I've heard that Africa's immigration are... Very tough to pass through.
So, let's see If we'll face any problems or not. This is the line for immigration. I've finally crossed the barrier of immigration, but... It really is a very tough task to cross Africa's immigration.
Either you bring money with you, like... In denomination of Dollar, Pond or the local currency... You must've otherwise you'll face lots of difficulties here.
As they themselves ask from money from me. They were asking for it in a friendly way to give them some Naira. I said I don't have any Naira on me right now. But, I had some friends here with me and... They send some from the ministry of tourism here... And he had come here for my smooth sail from here...
And the people who called me here. I mean that, I've been able to come here only because of them. One of them is Zakir and... The other one is this man, Rohit Dahiya. He has become a dear friend of mine... And this is Mohammad Kuddu.
He is the one who has brought me to Nigeria as... He gave his own documents to help me in getting my visa. We'll be able to tour Nigeria only cause of him as... Getting a Nigerian visa is a really tough task as... It took me a month to get my visa...
And the fee of the visa... After adding the fee I paid to the agent... The total cost of the visa I incurred is ₹35,000($441). This is the most expensive visa I've gotten in my life.
Apart from this, I've to go there twice to give my fingerprints... And even then it took a month for the visa to arrive... And it would not have been possible without them and... Think of it as my blessing that I got to know them.
It was Mohammad Kuddu who... Gave me his number. That he is a friend of him and... When I saw his name, Rohit Daihya...
I felt really good as I got an Indian brother to show me around... Especially here in Nigeria. He has also advised me to keep some money in my pocket... Roaming around here.
And if someone stops you, then... Put some on his/her hands. That's the solution here. They've built this quite a nice wall here.
The faces of preceding presidents of this country... Have been shown here, that's what I think. Presidents of Nigeria and Many other.... Famous personalities of this country have been covered here.
It's a painting or a mosaic. This is the current president of this country... Muhammadu Bukhari is his name.
I've bought a sim just now, which... I've brought this from the MTN store here. There was only this one counter of MTN here... And there is no other counter of any other company here.
There was only one counter and I've bought the sim from here. There is a piece of important information... If you ever want to come to Nigeria.
I've been told that you can't buy the sim in the city outside. Rohit, please tell us why this is the case here. The process is that to buy a sim card in the city here, then...
You need NIN for it. NIN stands for Nigerian identification number... Which also works as a voter id card... And if you want to buy it without NIN, then... You can only buy it from the counter in an airport.
So, there is an MTN counter on this airport. There are three major service providers here... Airtel, MTN and Glow. The best ones are Airtel and MTN.
So, take your visa to this MTN counter. They'll give you a form after you've shown them your visa. You'll have to fill that form. That's all and then they'll provide you a sim card for 500 Naira. 500 Naira are equivalent to $1.18.
And if you divide it by 7, then you'll get ₹85 So, this was a very important piece of information and... Our friend Kuddu has a channel of hos own on YouTube. He works very hard. If you want to see anything in Nigeria, then... Even if you want to see different parts of Nigeria, then... Make sure to visit Kuddu's channel Kante Quest...
I'll also provide a link for it in the description. He is a very kind person and he has helped me a lot in... Getting my visa and... Played a big part in my coming to Nigeria for this tour.
What do you say here, Naiza? It's okay. I should speak in English only. Should we go then? Yes, for sure.
The difference in time between India and Nigeria is... Around 4.5 hours. Nigeria is 4.5 hours behind India. So, the current time in India is 7:30 pm in the evening and... The current time here is 3 pm. Soon, it'll be 24 hours since I've left my home.
And now we'll have to travel for an hour to Rohit's flat... And then it'd be 24 hours of me leaving India and coming here. You've to say sannu to greet someone or say hi to them. And sannu is equivalent to hello in the Housa language... I've been told by him... And he is teaching me much more about their language, like...
"Mujhe" means "let's go". He told me that I'll see a lot of people saying "mujhe" here. Whoever says "mujhe", means that it's time to go. should we "mujhe" then? Kuddu also knows a bit of Hindi. Yea, a bit.
Yea, only a bit of it. However, he knows all the slangs in Hindi. So, he knows when someone is using a slang.
And he himself uses slangs a lot. IYou know the slangs in Hindi, right? Indians teach all the slang to the foreigners first. Abuja airport is named after an ex president of this country... And his name is Namdia Asikue. So, this aiport's full name is...
Namdia Asikue Abuja international airport. I've read somewhere that Nigerians are one of the most... Well-behaved people in the world. They really are very well behaved people. As everyone is greeting me with a smile. The city center of Abuja is...
Around 50 km away from here. And our destination is also 50 km away. These are the types of taxi that operates here. There is nothing here in the name of public transport... That can transport you to your destination from the airport.
There's only Uber and these taxies here. Is service of Uber alright here? Yes, Uber is okay. Tell us one more company that operates here. Bolt is also a good service provider. So, Uber and Bolt provide there service here...
and these taxis also operate here. However, taxis are the same all over the world in... Charging much higher fares than normal.
Should we go then? Sure. Let's go then. Even if this note gets torn into 3 pieces, it'll still be acceptable...
As a currency, if you give all the torn parts. However, you need to have all the torn pieces with you. Yes, you need to have all the pieces with you.
They'll glue them back themselves. Yes, they would do that themselves. Is it valid here? Yes, it is. Incredible.
They don't accept torn currency back in India. They don't even accept stitched currency in India. That is the old building of this airport. The building we've exited is the new building... And this all here is the Parking area. So, Nigeria is called here as Naiza.
So, there is a short form for everything in Naiza. That's why they call Nigeria as Naiza. There would be general elections happening here soon... In January 2023. Nigeria's official name is the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
This name has been given by an English Journalist Flora Shaw... After the river Niger that that flows through here. Nigeria got independence from Britain in 1960. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. The population of this country is around 220 million... And it ranks 6th globally in terms of population.
However, it only ranks 32nd in terms of area. Its total surface area is 9,23,769 sq km. People of Nigeria are known as Nigerians. 53% of the people here follow the faith of Islam and... 45% of them follows the Christian faith...
And 2% of the people here don't follow any faith. The capital of Nigeria is Abuja and it's official language is English. The currency of Nigeria is Naira. $1 is equal to 424 Naira. After a 23-hour-long journey...
I've reached my destination in Abuja. Our friend Rohit has a flat here. I'll show that tomorrow as it's a big flat of 4 BHK. So, that's it for today as you've already seen my journey to here. I'll cover everything as you know I'll not let anything be missed I'll keep informing you to the best of my abilities and...
I've also got Rohit with me, he's very knowledgeable as... He's been living in Nigeria for many years. We've got Kuddu and we've also got Zakir...
Who referred this place to me and... Introduced Kuddu and Rohit to me. Thank you very much Zakir and I thank you all as well... Who have watched this video to the end. So, we'll meet again in the next video tomorrow. Now, permit me to leave and thankyou very much.
Good bye.
2022-08-19 16:25
