Clogged arteries but Lagos' heart throbs

Despite its traffic jams, Lagos is still a rewarding city to visit.

A vendor sells souvenirs at Bar Beach in Lagos. Akintunde Akinleye for The National

Clutching a pair of garden shears, the man taps the grubby windscreen of the battered Mercedes.

Its occupant in the driving seat obliges and haggling follows before a cash-for-shears exchange takes place.

Welcome to rush hour in Lagos, the pulsating commercial heart of Nigeria, Africa's most populous country.

Only there is no rush "hour" in Lagos. The roads are always chock-a-block with cars and lorries.

While the jams can be frustrating for anyone trying to make a meeting, the chaos does have a flipside. Drivers and passengers can take their pick of everything from garden tools and shoe racks to newspapers and gossip magazines - presumably to read while going nowhere - from the traders weaving their way through the lines of traffic.

Once you do finally beat the jams, Lagos is rewarding in other ways, too. A trip to the fruit and vegetable market in Ikosi can reward the visitor with the plumpest mangoes and juiciest papayas.

The bullet-riddled car in which the former military ruler Murtala Mohammed was assassinated in 1976 has pride of place at the National Museum. The eclectic mix of exhibits also offer a glimpse into Nigeria's rich cultural past with carved ivory, ceremonial masks and statues depicting genital deformities.

Bar Beach is also worth a visit if you can shake off the mob of "lucky lucky men" likely to hound you to buy bracelets, mobile phone covers and other paraphernalia. The white sand and sea air offers a refreshing detox from the suffocating mix of fumes and heat in the city centre. You will also be able to spy a glimpse of cranes building Atlantic City, an ambitious mixed-use development taking shape on a spit of reclaimed land jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean.

A perfect way to end the day is to enjoy the sunset while sipping a cool drink at the Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel's al fresco bar on the edge of the Lagos Lagoon and watch as moneyed Lagosians cavort on luxury yachts against the backdrop of Lagos's burgeoning city scape.