Chris Saul's Blog

Wednesday August 15, 2007

Speaking at VMworld

I've just had confirmation that I'll have a speaking slot at VMworld, VMware's annual conference, being held this year in San Francisco.

I'm sure my talk will be the highlight of the week, so make sure you're there to hear a 40 minute technical talk on two of Sun's recent VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure wins in Sun's Southern and Eastern EMEA region.

Can't wait..!

Lagos trip

Today's the last day I need to take Malarone, having returned from Lagos last week - a timely reminder to write up my visit.

I was a little apprehensive at going to Lagos, having heard lots of stories of stories of robberies, traffic jams and other disasters - fortunately my trip passed without any major events. The Sun people I was there with, both based in Johannesburg, gave me plenty of information on what to expect, made sure I was met at the airport and was well looked after. Emirates fly direct and the flight there was fine, even if checking in at both ends was a little chaotic. Nigerians tend to be larger than Europeans, so the seats and aisles were quite full.

My hotel was the Protea Victoria Island - a little scruffy, but all I really want is a comfy chair and desk, a bed, internet access and a hot shower. The Protea had all of those, even if the shower only seemed to have a boiling hot or freezing cold setting. AC in the room worked fine - the weather was sticky, but its most useful function is keeping out the mozzies.

Power outages are a regular occurrence in Lagos. I counted about 20 during the three days I was there, both in the hotel and at the customer. Regulars don't even blink as the lights go out, the generator rumbles and the lights flicker back on again. I showed myself to be a complete Lagos newbie, staring around in surprise everytime we were plunged into momentary darkness. Apparently one of the Sun partners has a meeting room with no windows. When the power goes out, meetings continue as normal in complete darkness, as if nothing had happened, as everyone knows (or hopes) that the generator will kick in after a bit.

I drove a little bit around town, rather than just straight to the hotel, customer and back to the airport. What struck me was the number of people walking around, the thick traffic with ocadas (motorbike taxis) whizzing around and the general pollution. We were always in a car supplied by the partner, with a local driver, although apparently it's not unknown for the Sun guys to get stuck in a traffic jam and hop on the back of an ocada to get to meetings on time.

Public transport, as with other African countries I have visited, consists of lots of mini-busses. Whilst Ghana had old Mercedes vans, the VW Caravelle seemed to be the Lagos standard. I can understand why Japanese models are popular in right-hand drive East Africa, but what makes one make takeover in other areas? Needless to say, all the vans were pretty old and in rather advanced states of disrepair.

Some companies have armed guards move them around when visiting. The Sun guys I was with felt this isn't really necessary. Apart from attracting unnecessary attention to yourself, the armed guards often get stuck in traffic and you find yourself arriving on your own with your driver at the airport with your 'protectors' running late, twenty minutes behind you. I can imagine people get pretty fed up with guards driving inches behind them in large Toyota Land Cruisers bristling with machine guns, shoving them out of the way.

Everywhere we went I saw people being 'enterprising' - selling on the street, running a barber's shop under a bare bulb hooked on the wall by the side of the street, hawking vegetables on a corner. The local people I met at the hotel, customer and partner were all very welcoming, pleasant people, who seemed to know their stuff well. Service in the bars and restaurants I went to was a little odd - you tend to need to ask for things one at a time, as orders with more than two 'items' tend to get lost in translation.

During my last Africa trips I took doxycycline based anti-malarial drugs without any side effects. This time I was in the UK before coming back to Dubai and almost straight on to Lagos, which meant I was able to get hold of Malarone in London. Unvailable in the UAE, Malarone is more effective and only needs to be taken for another seven days after you arrive home, compared with twenty eight days for the others. It made me feel a little odd after taking it, but I found that I could avoid the few minutes of unpleasantness by taking it just before going to bed, missing the side-effects after falling asleep pretty much instantly.

In summary, if you need to go to Lagos for work, make that sure someone in the know guides you through what to expect, that you stay at proper hotels, don't drink the water and only eat in restaurants that others know are unlikely to serve food that might disagree with a whimpy English stomach. Be as careful as you would in New York or in London and I'm told you'll be fine, these days.

I expect to be back sometime soon - we have an excellent customer there and an excellent partner, both working on a big desktop project.

Can't get to YouTube right now to post my traffic videos here, but here are some photos for now. should show you the videos.

Informative sign. Missing railing on the right of it - be careful, pedestrians!

Roadside barber.

Purported sons of Sonny Abacha beware.

Nearly new, one European lady owner, only 20,000 on the clock, Guvnor.

Informative roadsigns.

This is a rescue truck, still in active service and in a better state than others I saw. What state is the car in that this guy calls if he breaks down?

( Aug 15 2007, 10:42:23 PM GST ) Permalink Comments [2]