Kai Amarya is the conveyance of the bride (Ilham) to her matrimonial home to be received by the groom’s (Ibrahim’s) family in Katsina.
Walima is a ladies-only event hosted by the groom’s mother to welcome the bride to her new family.
A couple of friends went with her to Katsina while the rest of us started leaving to our various destinations especially some of us who had to go to work the next day.
I went a day after my Abuja friends via Max Air and we decided to return to Abuja by Land. The journey was in 2 parts – car (Kano to Kaduna) and train (Kaduna to Abuja).
At first, I was skeptical about traveling by land at all both for the first trip and the return. The horror stories that we read everyday about the Abuja-Kaduna road was enough to discourage me. Even though I lived in Kaduna (Zaria) for some months in 2016 and traveled along that road severally, I’m still scared of that road.
My friends convinced me the train route was safer and I wasn’t going to be alone during the return trip. I thought about it and it made sense plus the extra cost it would save.
I was really tired from all the weekend’s activities plus the busy week I had from work, etc. I didn’t take lots of photos on this day but I had an unforgettable experience.
The journey from Kano to Kaduna was a smooth and fast one. I don’t know if it was because of the day of the week (Sunday) or the better road. Apparently, the trip to Kano was a long one because that part of the road was bad.
We chartered a small car which was comfortable for all 4 of us (one person in front and 3 at the back). It cost about 11,500 naira total (2,800 naira each) while the trip to Kano cost them 16,000 naira (they were 4 too). We left just before 8am.
On getting to Kaduna, we paid the driver an extra 2k or 2,500 to take us to the train station. We got there at about 10.40am to catch the afternoon train. There were a lot of people on 2 queues (one for women and one for men.
It was so sunny and I just wanted to rest, if only I knew what was coming. They made an announcement shortly after we arrived that the queue was for us to write our names after which we would be called by names to purchase tickets with any valid means of identification.
That didn’t make sense because it would have been easier to sell the tickets at once with each person showing their means of identification before being sold to. Anyways, we queued and continued till we got to the front despite all the pushing and struggling from supposed adults.
We were told tickets were finished but one of the staff (I think) asked us (the people that had been in front) to follow him inside. He told us to go inside the train and find where to stand.
This was it! What?? We will have to stand throughout a 2-hr trip. That was our only option as there were no more flights from Kaduna to Abuja and going by road wasn’t an option either.
We found some empty seats to relax while the other people were still boarding. The guy came later and still collected the full ticket price from us.
As the train got filled, we saw fellow “Standers” like us, lol and we were sort of consoled. Eventually we gave up and spread a big scarf on the floor and that was where we sat the entire trip with people moving up and down.
Can you imagine that? I’ve had to stand in trains when I was in Uni but those were short stops not inter-city travel.
Despite that experience, I was glad I had a great time in Kano and I would totally do it all over again.
What’s the craziest travel experience you’ve ever had?