Two Days In Kumasi

I spent two days in Kumasi. The first day was a day of rest and relaxation--and a good solid afternoon nap. But the second day was 3 museums.

I started out the first day with two hours in the internet cafe making sure things were going as hoped in the Obama campaign, checking email, and other various internet activities. After that I was ready for a lunch so I went to the Queen's Gate Restaurant from where I watched a busy intersection of Kumasi. It was quite interesting. The service was slow and not terribly good and the food was OK but not great. Again, I had ordered a salad hoping it would come before my main dish and it didn't come out until long after. And again, I needed to ask for a serving spoon.

After that I returned to my hotel. I tried the water. Still no water pressure. I asked and they said they would turn on the pump later and there would be water at about 5. I hadn't showered since Ouagadougou and needed a shower bad. They said they could get me a bucket and I accepted. So I did the bucket shower. Then I slept for a long time.

When I woke up, it was late and I decided I better go to the Intercity STC to see if I could get a ticket to Cape Coast on Friday. They didn't have one, but they had one to Takoradi which is pretty close. So I got that for GH¢9. After that I checked out the local A-Life supermarket. The "super" in supermarket is a bit generous. I got some junk food. They had Skippy peanut butter for GH¢6.50 and "ground nut" butter that looks like peanut butter for GH¢2.50 at the other end of the shelf--not next to the Skippy. So I'm not sure if a ground nut is the same as a peanut. They both come from ground. They looked the same. But I didn't buy it. I can buy it somewhere else if I need it.

Then it was already pretty late so I went to the hotel and got a Four Season's pizza delivered from Vic Baboo's delivered. The way pizza works is that you order a "half pizza" or a "full pizza". I got a "full pizza". Well, when it comes, it doesn't come in a pizza box like you might expect. Instead, it comes in the plastic clam-shell takeout boxes rubber-banded shut. The difference between a half and a full? A half pizza gets you one plastic clam-shell box while a full pizza gets you two clam-shell boxes. OK, now I am an American. I know pizza like the Inuit know snow. And I must say that this pizza was in the 1st percentile. Do NOT confuse that with the 99th percentile. This was among the worst pizza I had in my life. Do NOT EVER get the pizza from Vic Baboo's. They have a good cheeseburger. And a lot of other items on their menus look good, too. Stick with those and stay away from that so called "pizza". They list all the ingredients on their pizza and they all have something called capsicum. I've heard the word before but I don't know what it is. Is it the pink pasty stuff they use instead of tomato sauce? Who knows? But I don't really want to eat anything ending in "cum".

That done, I went to bed.

When I woke I stayed in bed for a while enjoying my semi-conscious state. Then it started to rain. Oh well. I listened to some music on my iPod. My right ear bud is now bad so it at least matches the left ear bud. The rain ended soon and I was able to go out. I went to the KPS coffee shop and got a cappuccino and a vanilla yogurt. Gee, service is slow in Ghana! The coffee was OK as was the yogurt. I just hope the yogurt cultures are the needed cavalry in the microbial battles taking place in my gastro-intestinal tract at the moment. That bill with tip was an even GH¢5 and then it was off to find the Ghanan National Cultural Center--easier said than done. To get there, you need to pass close to the Kejetia Market. On the map everything looks pretty clear, but once in this market area it's total chaos. You quickly lose your bearings and nothing is as it seems. Is this the road where I'm supposed to turn? Who knows? I slowly made my way through it and went in the right general direction. I found myself in the motorpark where there was an elevated road to the south. I figured I wanted to be on that road so I sought a way to get on it and eventually succeeded. I just got on and headed right. I came to a big intersection and kept going straight. Then, there it was! Whew!

It's a really nice place. It's on a huge grounds. My goal was the Prempeh II Jubilee Museum. I found it. GH¢3 later I was in. It comes with a guided tour. It's a small museum, basically 3 outdoor displays arranged in a square (the fourth side being the entrance). The guide seemed like she had done the tour thousands of times. Each time saying the same thing over and over. It was all "This is the King's ...", and "This is the ... used by the King for ...", and "This was used by ... when they ... the King". Basically that pattern. But it was interesting. I got a couple postcards. Then I got a coke. Well, one museum down--two to go.

Next was the Armed Forces Museum. This was GH¢5. OK, I can deal with that. Again, a woman named Christine provided a guided tour. The museum ground was a fort built by the British and in which the British residents were besieged in 1900. Now it houses the war booty captured by the West African Forces (when they were under the Brits) and the Ghanan army (after independence). They fought in Togo in WWI where they captured German stuff, Burma and Ethiopia where they captured Japanese and Italian stuff, and more recently the various UN peacekeeping operations. They have a company flag captured from a Japanese company. I pointed out the guide the names are all women's names and were probably the wives of the soldiers. She didn't know that.

They have a room dedicated to the men who did the coup d'état against the first president. Apparently they are considered good guys. You never know.

So that being done, it was time to head back to the hotel and rest up for the last museum. I stopped for the internet for an hour and then got a meat pie on the way home--the best meat pie so far. If you come out of the Buzy Bee internet cafe, turn right, go about half a block and cross the street--that guy has the best meat pies. :-)

Back at the hotel, I studied the map. This last museum is on the other side of the Kejetia market and if I got lost skirting the left edge, I had to make sure I knew what I was doing trying to skirt the right edge. But I had it figured out and took off.

Of course, I got hopelessly lost. I just sort of walked semi-randomly and after about an hour came upon the Manhyia Palace. Whew! And I was just about to give up. Again, this is a GH¢5 museum with a guided tour given by a woman who has done the same tour thousands of times and probably dreams about doing tours every night. This was the villa built by the British for the return of the King from their forced exile of him to the Seychelles about 100 years ago. It contains such things as the first TV in the area, life size wax figures, called effigies buy the guide, and originals and reproductions of various items and gifts.

It was mid-afternoon and I returned to the hotel. I got a beer and a water and after when I went to pay, the hotel clerk made me giver her all my coins except 3. I hate it when a large enterprise things the burden to make change falls on the customer. Ugh!

My meat pie was about done, so it was time for dinner. I went to the Sanbra Hotel restaurant. They had CNN on in the lobby reairing the debate. I was transfixed by the Ohio undecided voter impression graph. Very interesting. I was pissed when the women line didn't nosedive when John McCain mocked the health of the mother exception to abortion bills. The partial birth abortion is never done except in extremely rare and medically bizarre circumstances where the life of the mother is in jeopardy. It's not done because the pregnant woman just got dumped by her boyfriend in the eighth month and doesn't want the baby anymore. And yes, as I read on the internet, the Joe the Plumber thing was goofy.

Eventually I made it into the restaurant. Lonely Planet says they deserve several Michelin stars, so I had high hopes. But then I ordered the Four Seasons Vegetable pizza. OK, it wasn't as bad as the Vic Baboo's pizza. But it wasn't far behind. Definitely a lowest decile pizza. It was about as good as the pizza I made the first time I tried to make my own pizza dough from scratch. The bottom was not golden brown, but dark brown. The cheese was barely melted--not at all liquidy and gooey. They just got the temperatures all wrong.

So I have decided to give up on pizza in Ghana. Unless I see French "pizza au feu de bois" (or Pizza Hut) I'm not touching the pizza in Ghana anymore. Period! At least it was cheap. Adding a pasta salad (which thankfully came before the pizza) and a beer, it came to only GH¢11.

I returned to the hotel again. There was a pretty women with an Amy Tan book writing something into a notebook. So, I got my journal and sat down in the bar area and did some writing myself. I ordered a beer. The clerk got a beer and opened it. When I touched the beer I was pissed. There are about 20 Star beers in the fridge and she picked the one that was put in last and wasn't cold yet. Damn her! And she had to know when she felt it that it wasn't cold. First she takes all my liquidity for a second time in 2 days and then she gives me a warm beer knowing full well it was warm. I decided to let her know I disapproved in a passive-aggressive way. I went up to my room and cut an empty 1.5L water bottle into two and brought the lower half down. Then I asked for a small water. When she came to get me a water, I told her I wanted the coldest one. She said they were all the same. I opened it and placed the beer bottle in the bottom half of the cut water bottle and poured the cold water to fill up the rest of it. She watched and offered to put the whole thing into the fridge for a while. I let her. I hope she never gives another person a warm beer again.

Thursday, October 16, 2008 22:30 Ghana local time