The Trip to Ghana: Strayed from the Itinerary Slightly

Ok, well the trip to Ghana didn’t turn out exactly how we planned it, but I will come to that.

Day 1 – April 24, 2010: Arrival

The four of us, Lorena, Matt Hix, Matt Whalen and I set off from the PeaceCorps office in Lomé at 10am in a taxi headed for the Ghana border. I was under the impression that it was a lot farther away, but it actually only took a couple of minutes. If I didn’t have some heavy bags I could have probably walked there in 30 minutes. A few weeks before, April 12^th, I had come to Lomé to buy a multiple-entry visa to Ghana for 60,000 cfa which is about $120. It was pretty expensive, but will allow me entry into Ghana for the duration of my PeaceCorps service. Otherwise each time I would have to travel to the Ghanaian Embassy and get a one-time entry visa for 20,000 cfa.

We crossed the border with little difficulty and while fending off an ample amount, but not an overabundance, of a variety of hawkers preying on tourists we located a small bus that was going to go to Accra. Each of us paid 6.5 cedis ($4.65) and we were on our way. The difference between taxis in Ghana and taxis in Togo is that Ghanaians seem to understand that one should only have the number of passengers a vehicle has been made for because, well, for a myriad of reasons ranging from safety to comfort. Therefore, it was a relatively pleasant 4 hour ride. It is interesting, after 10 minutes on the road you could already see the difference between Togo and Ghana. Everything looked a little tidier and I realized as I traveled further into Ghana discarded water sachets and plastic refuse that mars the landscape of Togo gradually vanished into lush surroundings. In addition an hour or so on the road, the normal Togo Route Nationale type road gives way to a stretch of unblemished pavement which ran for the rest of our journey to Accra.

When we arrived in Accra the sky was already getting cloudy and the air felt heavy with the impending rain so we quickly got into a taxi and headed to our prearranged lodging, Joska Lodge. When I say prearranged, I had heard that it was good place to stay by a volunteer I mean on the taxi to Accra I found it in a West Africa travel guidebook that Matt Whalen had brought along and because of its close proximity to a number of delicious sounding restaurants I thought it was a good place in which to be based. However they only had expensive rooms left, so we decided to try the place where Matt Whalen stayed at before. The rain was just starting to come down hard so on the fly we decided to scratch the hotel for now and head to Tip Top Chinese restaurant and wait for the rain to stop. It turned out to be a great choice.

Afterwards we headed to the New Haven Hotel. There turned out to be two rooms available and each of which had both air conditioning, a fan, a small fridge and a television. Then a few steps down the hall were two showers with hot water and two flush toilets…pretty wild stuff. Each room cost 40 cedis ($27). Once we had showered and donned our apparel we took a taxi back to the Chinese restaurant to start our exploration of Osu. Osu (pronounced oh – sue) is a section of Accra where the majority of Western and Eastern restaurants are located. In addition there are computer stores, an upscale supermarket, a free-trade store called Global Mammas (www.globalmammas.com), expensive liquor stores, etc.

In the first taxi we had taken into Osu we saw a brightly lit, fancy looking place where it claimed it sold gelato. So we set out in search of it. We were not disappointed. It was delicious, with flavors ranging from the mundane to the exotic. They even had donuts. After I had polished off 3 scoops of ice cream, each of which was of a different flavor and costing a total of 7.50 cedis ($5.50), a few of us, Matt Hix and I were feeling a little peckish after we left the ice cream shop and so we decided to try a chicken sandwich at the Chicken Republic which was a few doors down. Matt Whalen got a few pieces of fried chicken and Matt Hix and I split a sandwich 5.50 cedis ($4). It turned out to be so good that we decided to split another. The place felt and looked just like a fast food joint in the states, it even had air-conditioning. It was a little bizarre and with everybody speaking English it seemed even more abnormal to us.

We left the Chicken Republic in search of something to wash down the immense amount of food we had consumed within a few hours. We found “Hemingway,” illuminated in a pink light radiating from its name in neon above the door. When we walked in we saw 3 or so roulette tables and a number of slot machines that took up most of the room. The rest of the space was taken up by the bar and a couple of round tables where one could presumably sit. It was definitely a step down from Tip Top Chinese Restaurant, however it was an interesting establishment with orangey pink chandeliers hanging above us that looked to me like they belonged in a brothel from the 1800s. In addition they maintained the illusion of a much larger space with walls of mirrors surrounding us as we sat and drank.

We didn’t spend much time in there. The drinks were overpriced and the atmosphere didn’t seem to encourage such activities so we took a cab from Osu back to our hotel. The New Haven Hotel is located down the street from a relatively expensive one, called the Paloma Hotel where I have heard rooms cost about $75 a night. In the Paloma there are three restaurants, one called Champs, which is an American Sportsbar, another one which the name escapes me, and an outdoor restaurant. We attempted to get into Champs, but there was a mandatory open bar that night which was 20 cedis, so we decided to relax at the outdoor restaurant. I ordered the local Star beer and then seeing that there was a freezer with different ice creams, I chose one and ordered it. Surprisingly, beer and ice cream don’t go very well together, but I stayed the course and finished them. Then we left and walked back to the hotel.

Ok, now I assume that as one reads this they are becoming more and more disgusted with the amount of food and ice cream that I ate. This of course continued for the rest of the trip and when Matt Hix departed for Lomé, Matt Whalen and I picked up the slack, much to Lorena’s bemusement. However, in my defense, besides this being vacation, for the past 11 months I haven’t had either ice cream or chicken sandwich. The bizarre thing is that in The States, while I did like my ice cream, I never cared too much for fast food chicken sandwiches. I liked them, but never would go out of my way to find them. Interesting the things Togo does to you.