Kumasi To Takoradi: I'll Try To Not Have Leftist Drivel, But I Write This Watching John Hagee On Ghana TV With His "The Oil Crisis & Armegeddon" Show

I woke up and did some interneting. Ken lamented that a perfectly good blog post was ruined by a left rant. Ken, I'll back off on November 5, provided the election turns out right. Then it'll be back to just travel in Africa--well maybe some celebration, but no more attacking will be necessary. Sorry you are getting the Fox News treatment of contempt for one's political adversaries. Perhaps you should consider joining the forces of good. ;-)

So after tinkering on the internet, I headed back to the Guestline and there was enough water pressure to take a shower. Whew! I scarfed down a meat pie I bought on the way home and showered. Then went back to the KPS coffee shop where I got a pretty bad hamburger--the meat was OK, but the bun was hard and chewy.

Then I headed out to get my noon bus. I had to get some luggage tags for my baggage and the woman of Intercity STC asked for my ticket. I held it in my hand and put my hand through the window. The woman was annoyed that I was trying to hand it to her. She shouted at me to put it down. I did. Then she shook her head and blasphemed "Jesus Christ" which is something I didn't expect in Ghana (issuing officer on the ticket is 109, BTW). I got my 2 tickets for GH¢0.80. Then the guy there carried my bags to the bus. There he asked my country I was from. I told him the United States. Then he demanded--not even requested--a tip. Man, these Kumasi Intercity STC workers are rude. The rudest people I met in Africa so far. I guess I'm not too surprised though since there are a lot of white people here and they are probably sick of us. Still--no cause to be rude.

So, I got on the bus and we left at about 12:20. The bus trip, these STC buses being new, was sadly uneventful. At least there were some more Nigerian movies. There was a horrible movie called, I think, Every Coconut Contains A Stranded Lake. It was a long drawn out boring movie about a guy who lost a bunch of money and then had to go to debtors prison unless his wife lived with the debtee for a week. Just plain boring. The second movie--or rather set of movies were Too Late To Claim and Too Late To Claim 2. They stared my new favorite Nigerian actress Ini Edo. It was pretty long and drawn out. But it featured the themes found in all the Nigerian movies so far: the men are total assholes who verbally abuse women and can't deal with their pasts.

The woman who sold me the ticket told me that there was no bus to Cape Coast but to Takoradi. Or so I thought. Well, we passed through Cape Coast on the way to Takoradi. I figured I'd stay on the bus to at least see Takoradi and see the end of Too Late To Claim 2.

I arrived in Takoradi just after dark and it was clear where I was on the map. What wasn't clear was the distance to the hotel. On the map it looks like 2 blocks, but it is actually much further--especially with heavy baggage. I entered the You 84 Restaurant to see if they were also the reception to the You 84 Hotel. They weren't and the waitresses took my bags and brought them next door. I gave them what they were probably fishing for--a GH¢1 to split between themselves. The You 84 Hotel, according the Lonely Planet, is budget. But since then, they've added AC to all their rooms so there are no cheap fan rooms anymore. Just GH¢25 rooms with TV and AC. Oh well. The AC is nice.

I went out to the You 84 Restaurant. I ordered a Star beer and spaghetti Bolognaise. The worst they can do it over-cook the pasta. This was the second place in Ghana that uses a plastic caddy to transport the beer. When the spaghetti came, it was indeed overcooked. Oh how I miss the Francophone countries. At least the French taught them how to cook.

Oh, and I can't do a leftist rant because of the John Hagee show. It's too comedic to generate anger. It's like a Colbert-ish caraca....mocking of a religious man. He even has his own commercials interrupting his own show. This is literally how one of the commercials starts out (this is not made up): "If you're not an Islamic fascist, then you need to see 'Obsession'". How can this stuff make you do anything but laugh? I suppose Palin should make me laugh too. And if you've been paying attention you might have seen me make fun of Palin in this paragraph. ;-)

Thursday, October 17, 2008 20:57 Ghana local time