Life in Luanda

How is it to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world?

Luanda has a heart-beat

And it beats loudly. Each morning while the remnants of last night's clubbers drag their feet back home and the faint echo of house music or traditional Kizomba music drifts on, the candogueiros (Luanda's mini bus cabs) blast their way through the streets taking Angolans to work. With few traffic lights, pot-holes and no rules of the road, a trip around Luanda can be a hair raising experience. However, two years in, I am now used to the lack of left hand turns, honking the car horn to get someone to give you way, and spotting potholes early enough to avoid a burst tyre. It's all part of the crazy life in Luanda.

Yes it is super expensive and most Angolans live on less than a few dollars a day making daily life a real struggle. Yet I find Angolans rarely complain and have an extremely positive attitude. Decades of civil war, poor infrastructure and high prices surely take their toll, but most Angolans seem to get on with life, celebrating it with an incessant appetite for partying. An eye opening lesson for us spoilt Europeans.

WHY IS Luanda SO EXPENSIVE?

While there is some local production and an emerging agriculture industry in Angola, unfortunately the destruction of basically all of its infrastructure and industries during the civil war means that most things are still imported at great expense. Transportation of goods is difficult due to poor roads and bureaucracy. And regular power cuts mean that industries such as manufacturing are just not viable at present. Couple this with the large amounts of expatriates living and working in oil rich Angola and prices inflate. That's not to say that the situation is hopeless. The Government has pledged to bring prices down and there are certainly pockets of innovation and some great local enterprises. Roads are slowly improving and both home grown and foreign investment has resulted in more construction projects.

SO WHAT IS THERE TO DO IN LuanDA?

If you're here for a quick visit, culturally, Luanda is home to some important Angolan heritage sites which are worth seeing. The Fortaleza sits above Luanda and is a dominant reminder of the city's history. It was one of the earliest constructions built in 1575 by Portuguese Governor Paulo Dias de Novais and is now Angola's national military museum. The National History Museum of Angola and the Neto Monument are also options for an Angolan culture fix. The Neto Monument houses the mausoleum of Angola's first president Agostinho Neto following the country's independence in 1975. He is very much the national hero of the country as well as legendary Cuban leader Fidel Castro who supported Angola's independence from the Portuguese.

Once you've ticked off the national sites and monuments, you could take a trip on boat to Mussulo, which is an Island across the bay of Luanda which has a couple of nice places to relax, eat and swim. Locals often hang out here too. It can be nice to do this at weekends, which we often do to escape the city.

You can't really leave Luanda without having a caipirinha or two which is the local tipple of choice. Like Brazil, people here love this cocktail made with local cachaça and mixed with different fruits such as passion fruit or múcua which is the fruit from the amazing Angolan baobab trees. The restaurant scene in Luanda is extremely cool and diverse with every kind of food you can think of from excellent sushi at Cais de Quatro to Ethiopian food in one of Luanda's favelas. And as mentioned before clubbing and dancing is a national pastime here so there are many bars and clubs to keep you busy.

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As someone who lives in Luanda, the heavy traffic, rubbish and lack of green spaces can sometimes get you down, especially if you're used to being able to stroll around a local park or clean paved streets at home. And if you're not working, it can be difficult to find things to do once you've ticked off the museums. In saying that that there are a couple of swimming pools and a stroll down Luanda's waterfront called The Marginal is pleasant. If you can work while here I would say get a job! If this is not possible (and this is often the case with Angolan working VISAs being difficult to come by), find a volunteering opportunity or learn Portuguese.

There are plenty of worthy projects to get involved in and there are also thriving communities such as the Centro Cultural Brasil-Angola, a hub celebrating Brazilian and Angolan culture and Angola's Viking Club which is a place where both Angolans and foreigners living here can learn about what's going on in Angola from a conservation perspective to politics.

My advice is jump in and find out what's happening in the city. There are often art galleries opening and live music nights to indulge in. On the face of it , the city can seem daunting especially as an outsider. It's not for the faint hearted but you need to integrate yourself and make the most of the opportunity to witness a city on the up.