Arrival in Lagos at Saturday 4th July 2009

The Emirates flight, contrary to what we thought were quite full, mostly by Africans. This must indicate the extensive economic links with the Middle East.

The 7.5 hrs flight was ok, movies great but the food is rather mediocre.

We were helped through immigration by protocol and then we waited quite a while to collect our luggage as only 1 carousel was working and there were 2 big flights that arrived at the same time

It is quite evident that a lot of trading goods are coming in through the airport. Apparently due to high transportation costs (taxes are low), many ordinary foreign goods in Nigeria are very expensive. Apparently too, margins are high.

Our first encounter with "extra charges" was with an officer outside the airport apparently checking baggage tags against check in receipts (to ensure no one takes baggage that doesnt belong to them). He claimed Loon Tong did not have all the receipts and asked for money. He didn't get it.

A coach was waiting for us outside. Note the healthy looking huge lalang !

More interestingly we have 2 Police Sargeants with well worn AK47s who has been assigned to look after us for the duration of the whole visit to Nigeria. They spoke good English too!