Starwood point jackpot!

I connected to Benin via Lagos. During my night in Lagos I stayed in the most expensive hotel I have ever stayed in and paid for. (The only one that would top it, my night in a ludicrously luxurious villa in Phuket, was free.) The Sheraton is not bad, but it’s not up to U.S. Sheraton standards. Nigerian hotels of Western safety/quality are heinously expensive, because they are close to an oligopoly in this niche market – in the capital city of Abuja, for example, the Western options are a Sheraton or a Hilton. This means less than you’d get in the U.S. for close to double what I paid in a NYC W hotel.

The upside? Starwood points are accumulated on a point-per-dollar basis. The downside? They aren't connected to the Starwood computers (a few days with the infrastructure and you realize why), so I have to convince the people that I have Starwood preferred status.

A shot from the car.

Benin is hard to describe in words.   The part I have seen is pretty flat both naturally (topography) and artificially (no buildings taller than 4 stories -- not even the "Ritz Hotel").  It is lush and green, with plants continually threatening to swallow up everything man-made.  There are many more street vendors here walking among stopped cars than in SA -- drive-thru groceries may not have hit it big in the U.S., but here you could probably by all your basic grocery needs straight from your car during a half-mile drive.

Any permanent building has a wall around it, but tin and wood shacks line the edge of the road in the no-man's-land between the walls and the road.
 They are mostly stores, but some are houses.  I could pick up dresses (well, maybe not), Arsenal towels (or Manchester United if you are Bret), and all sorts of foods from the side of the road.  Or I could take a leak there.  I saw a BMW driver stop at a shack for something and then relieve himself against a wall nearby.  (Flashy cars are rare here, but they exist.)