I had a really nice sleep at the Picorna. No mosquitos for the first time in days and real AC. So nice! I decided to sleep in and see later on if I could get a bus to Kumasi. If not, I'll just get a ticket and spend another night in my sweet room.
I headed out at about 9:30 and went the the motor park. I found the bush taxi minibus to Kumasi about to leave. GH¢7.50 for that, but I'd have to wait for the next one to fill up. And that's about 30 people. So I went to the Intercity STC (called VanefSTC in Lonely Planet) at 10. They have a bus at 11. Yikes! Not much time. I got a ticket and hurried back to the hotel. I washed up a bit, packed, and checked out. I got my heavy luggage (which seems to grow heavier on every stop) to the station at 10:40. No bus yet. I sat down.
Man, there are a lot of white people in Ghana. It hadn't even been 24 hours and already I've seen as many in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea-Conakry combined. What is it with white people and Ghana?
The bus let at about noon. I got charged GH¢2 for my luggage and started to get on, but the security guard came and told me that the way the system works is that the people already on the bus get to reboard first and then the new additions go in next and take the available seats.
The bus was new, modern, and ice cold. It actually went from refreshing to too cold. There were 4 or 6 other white people on the bus. They are everywhere here. The bus even had 2 working flat screen video monitors. It feels like cheating. Ghana does first world standards. This is not Guinea-Bissau.
They showed 2.5 movies. The first was called "What Women Want" but not the Mel Gibson reading Helen Hunt's mind one (thank goodness!). Rather, if you take a bunch of failed after-school special wannabe writers and have them write a remake of Steel Magnolias for Nigerian actors and then cast the movie with a bunch of talentless hacks, throw in crappy directing, editing and sound work and you pretty much would have the Nigerian "What Women Want".
The next 2.5 movies were "The Bet" and "The Bet 2" which is not actually a sequel but a continuation. They are not self-contained. And the worst part is the first 15 minutes of The Bet 2 is just the last 15 minutes of The Bet and it's boring as hell--several minutes of drawn out one sided cell phone calls and a guy changing his shirt. And I don't get who the audience is supposed to sympathize with--he is in love with a Bible reading girl and tries to woo her even though he runs around with all sorts of trampy women who he tells outright lies to. Again, the actors are talentless as is the direction and production.
We got to Kumasi and stopped at the Suome circle just south of the big hat museum. At the circle, a bunch of people got out. I thought maybe I should ask, but didn't. Then the bus, instead of going south to the STC station, went east and went way east. Then it stopped in an STC station out in the middle of nowhere. I wasn't sure what to do but a taxi came up. By now it was already dark and we seemed pretty far out of town. HE offered to take me to the Guestline Lodge for GH¢8. I thought we were pretty far out and the traffic was horrendous--and I don't negotiate when I'm tired, so I accepted. We dropped off another person on the way. We were pretty far out but not as much as I thought and traffic was heavy in parts, not all the way. When we arrived, I realized I should have paid quite a bit less. But we agreed on GH¢8 so I paid it.
At least he carried my bag into the hotel. And fortunately, the hotel was cheaper than I thought it would be. My room is only GH¢9 though there are more rules than I've ever encountered in a hotel. The food delivered from Vic Baboo's down the street, is pretty cheap and tasty too. And the beer and water are cheap. So I can spend a few days here for very little money. There are some cool things to see as it is the capital of the Ashanti kingdom. There are a drawbacks with this place though 1) the non-load bearing walls are thin as hell--in fact there are signs warning the guests to not touch or lean against the walls, 2) the advertised internet cafe on site is non-existent, 3) when I flushed the toilet, the tank did not refill and the sink tap did not produce water. In the morning I should find the internet and see what has happened with the election in the past couple of days.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008 21:53 Ghana local time
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2 comments:
See..mosquitoes are the reason why I'm hesitant to visit Africa. I'd love to, but mosquitoes LOVE me. I'm like their favorite meal. They fly for miles because apparently, I'm just that darn tasty. And since I have slight hypochondriac tendencies, I'd probably obsess the whole time that I have malaria or yellow fever and wouldn't enjoy a darn thing. So I'm enjoying your blog because I don't know I will ever do it, for fear of the blood sucking terrorists.
Yikes! That reminds me I haven't taken my Savarine in a couple of days. I better do that first thing when I get back to my room. You aren't supposed to miss doses of the anti-malarial. :-/
Yellow fever isn't a problem. You get a painful vaccination for that. The real health risk in Africa is not the diseases but the uncovered holes in the street. ;-)
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