Good Bye Beyin, 3 Tro Tro/One Fan Ice Kinda Day, Big Blue Yutong Short Bus, Big Boobs and Yutong Preacher (Beyin, Ghana)

AND ANOTHER NEXT DAY

good bye Beyin

There are two choices for leaving Beyin.  There is a direct tro tro to Takaradi at 4am.  What, 4am, hell no.  I would rather take 5 tro tros and accidentally end up in Cote d’Ivoire than leave at 4am. 

As you might have guessed I choose the long way.  I had to take a tro tro to the ‘cross roads’ so I headed out with my pack in that direction just waiting to flag down the next tro heading my way.  Some guys at a chop bar told me to grab a tro going the other direction into the next town where I would get on another to Takaradi.  Apparently it takes longer to get to the town as you are backtracking but there is more chance of catching a ride.  Decided to kinda hang out and to just jump on the next tro no matter which direction it was heading.  The longer way won. 

The first tro took maybe 45 minute to get to somewhere.  There I jumped off and jumped on one going to Takaradi.  As usual the locals on my first tro made sure I was set up on the next one before they left.  It’s an entire country of nice people.    The next ride was a couple hours and I asked then to drop me before the station if they saw rides heading to Cape Coast along the way. 

I got dumped off on a street corner where there was a Big Blue Yutong Short Bus almost full.  Yippee for me and all on board…between myself and one other  and the beast was full.   This mini Yutong is actually going to Accra but will pass through Cape Coast.  Hope they remember I wanted to get off. 

A heavyset woman with a baby was sitting next to me.  Her boobs were gigantic.  Granted I am a wee thing and a C cup seems big to me.  Her baby was fussing because he was hungry and she was having trouble in the crowded bus with breast feeding so I helped her out a bit.  Just gave her my elbow to rest her tatas on to make things easier.  I felt so needed at that moment.  The Yutong had some ac and was only a One Fan Ice Ride. 

Oh, just remembered on big thing.  The Yutong Preacher singled me out to yell Amen.  Everyone was quite amused but I do what I am told.  It very well may have saved our lives that I did that plus I sill had my Good Luck Preacher Stone from that Big Yutong back in Kumasi.  Get me there safe and I will give you all the Amens I can muster.

Got back safe and sound, grabbed a cab to the Prospect were there is still no water and grabbed a bit to eat with Obehi.  He is like family now, the Nigerian brother I never had.

Beyin Beach Resort, Stellar Mac N Cheez, Alone at a Resort, Happy Soul

Beyin Beach Resort

Yeeeha! Back in a Tro Tro to Takaradi (6 Cedi).  Once I got to Takaradi I had to grab a taxi to another Tro Tro station to get to Beyin in the far west near the border of Cote d’Ivoire.  Ended up paying 4 Cedi, which is too much but I really didn’t care.   

 The station for destinations West was pretty crazy…loved it.  Once again I was the only white chick around and as usual everyone was incredible helpful.  Everyone assumed I would likely be heading to Beyin so they led me to the correct ticket booth.  In no time I had sorted a ticket and found my Tro Tro for Beyin (6.5 Cedi). 

One of the young guys waiting or the Tro Tro spoke pretty good English and is a guide to Nzuezo, the stilt village that makes this area famous.   It is a much smaller destination and it can take a long time to fill a Tro but I got lucky and it was full in about a half hour.  Grabbed a couple chocolate Fan Ice for the road cuz it was scorching hot and it was a two Fan Ice kinda ride. 

The ride to Beyin was super hot but lovely.  About an hour or less out we hit a dirt road for the rest of the journey.  I felt like I was getting well away from it all.  At one point a huge clear-cut area appeared with construction going on.  It didn’t take long to figure out it was a Chinese outfit.  It was insane the amount of building going on so far off the beaten track.   I later found out it is yet another oil drilling project.  

 As it turns out Beyin is a sleepy little coastal town.  Only way in is a dirt road for a good half hour.  As we rolled into town I knew there would be limited trips back out.  I was the last one on the Tro Tro and the driver was kind enough to drive me to the edge of town where the Beyin Beach Resort is found. 

After jumping out of the truck and following the direction of the driver gave me which where something like ‘go that way and have fun’.  I headed towards the beach on yet another dirt footpath and asked a couple people where to go and Voilà! I was there. 

my hut

The resort is absolutely gorgeous.  An elevated, wooden footpath leads to an open-air bar/reception area surrounded by thatched roof seating areas with tables for dinning.   I am the only guest as it is the off-season and the middle of the week...a resort to myself.  Apparently this joint was packed out just the day before with weekend vacation seekers. 

Following the wooden footpath leads to shared toilets and showers and eventually to the sleeping huts.  I booked into a two person shared hut but I remained the only guest so didn’t have to share the digs.  Thankfully each room has a fan but like a lot of Ghana the power was out about half the time.

The deal with places like this is you put in your dinner order before five so it’s ready to go by six or seven.  The Beyin Beach Resort has a stellar menu so I decide to do something I haven’t in a long time…each Western food.  The first night I order up some Mac N Cheez.  Time will tell if this is a good decision or not. 

Two hours later…. OMG the Mac N Cheez is off the hook.  Such a happy tummy.  

Spend a bit of time enjoying the ocean night sky before heading to bed.  The power was off again and even though I was alone at this remote resort at night I felt comfortable leaving the door open for that cool ocean breeze to act as my fan.

Tour Kumasi, Largest Market in Western Africa, Lost on Pimped Out Tro Tro, Best and Worst Tour Guide Ever!

Breakfast at Treasureland Hotel in Kumasi, Ghana

The included breakfast at the Treasure Land Hotel is fantastic.  They give you three Nescafe sackets, Milo, tea, toast with butter and jam, a Spanish omelet and fruit.  What up with that…. love it.

Met Laura (she is from the States and living with her Ghanaian husband in Kumasi…met her in Accra) at the hotel and we took off to tour Kumasi.   I assume that Laura knows the ins and out of this city…. oh, how wrong I was…. and the adventure begins…. Laura is the Best and Worst Tour Guide Ever…got us totally lost several times but that is what travel is all about right…the adventure of it all.  Getting there is half the fun my friends.

Kumasi is the second largest city in Ghana with a population around 1.5 million.  It feels much bigger than Accra to me.  It is a busy, active city to be sure.  Kumasi is the only modern capital of the Ashanti Region and was the capital of the Ashanti State for three centuries.  The center of town in called Adum and has a crazy, busy market place than you could and should spend hours lost in. 

One thing I loved about Kejetia Market (the central market) is the old, abandoned railroad track that is now the walking path through parts of the market.  Kumasi is the first place I have felt at all hassled by anyone but still nothing like many parts of Asia.  Kajetia Market is the largest market in all of Western Africa.  There is also a major tro tro station at the market and it is out of control.  Dodging tro tros and Yutongs is quite the feat but good fun in the maze of Kejetia Market. 

The area was so busy that I didn’t want to take my camera out to get a shot of the old, abandoned building painted three stories high with the OMO logo.  It was very cool indeed. 

We decided to go to the National Cultural Center for a break.  Took a tour of the Prempreh II Jubillee Museum (5 Cedi with a guide).  It is a tiny museum but with the guide telling of the Ashanti history it was well worth it.  The grounds of the National Cultural Center are a bit of an oasis in this noisy, bustling city.  My friend Laura spent some time shopping, as there are a number of art markets on the grounds of the Cultural Center. 

We headed up Roman Hill to a beautiful old church and happened to find a tiny tro tro station behind it and as it turns out one of them was heading our direction.  So the deal with tro tro is that you yell or hit the minivan wall or ceiling to let the driver know you want off.  For a traveler like me I don’t recognize where I want to get off so I either find tro tro that finish at my destination or I ask the driver or someone to tell me when to get off.  It usually works. 

I assumed Laura knew where we were to get off as she has done it on a regular basis for several months.  As we passed an area that looked familiar even to me she turns to me and says, “hey that’s Tech” (our stop) as if she is just showing me the sights.  A bit of time goes by and the city has turned into suburbs and lots of green rolling hills.  She has missed our stop by a good 15 minutes and we are well on our way out of town.   We ask a girl next to us and after some time figure out we are on a tro tro to another city. 

After passing through several villages I stop laughing and we tell people on the tro tro that we should have gotten on 30 minutes ago.  After many good laughs by all the pull off the road in the middle of nowhere and put us on a tro tro back to the city but it is broken down and night has set in. 

Not much time passes and another tro tro goes by and we are off again.  It was a wicked fancy tro with what looks like a stripper pole up front (my first Pimp Tro).  Our driver wearing sunglasses at night and driving like a mad man (this is my favorite kind of tro tro driver by the way) we get back in no time. 

Well after dark I get back to the Treasure Land Hotel to have a beer and tell all the tales of my day with the Best and Worst Tour Guide Ever.  Thanks you dear Laura…it was a blast.

Bloodsucking Road Demons, Tro Tro Evangelist and 'A Tro Tro Killed my Kindle'

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Heading to destinations North today.  The STC is a super nice way to do a trip to Kumasi but as it starts in Takaradi my chances of getting a seat are limited, as they don’t do pre-sales for the Cape Coast to Kumasi leg.  The tro tros leave from Tantri station not far from my hotel and right next to the Indomie Lady

Me and My Tro Tro, Takati Station /  Cape Coast, Ghana

Got a nice cramped spot at the back of the tro tro and began the waiting for it to fill.  As we waited a very round woman with a bright turquoise dress began chanting and praying on the bus.  It was so loud it actually hurt my ears.  I came to find out that the ‘dodgy’ forms of transportation in Ghana (maybe all over Western Africa) bring a religious person on to pray for our safe journey.  I have no clue what she was saying as it was in Twi but I am thinking it was something like ‘God will protect you from the blood sucking road demons…. and on and on’.   After about 15 minutes of praying for our safety on the crappy tro tro our Tro Tro Evangelist prayed, asked for donations and left.  I will experience this again and again and again.

The 3 1/3-4 hour ride to Kumasi was fun.  The driver was channeling Mario Andrei and weaving in and out of Mac Trucks and passenger buses as the rain pounded us (leaking into the cab and into my pack).  We made good time and because of our Spiritual Healing back in Cape Coast we survived. 

Arrived in Kumasi around 5, jumped in a taxi and got to the Treasure land Hotel in no time.  As usual the power was out but the hotel turns a full on generator on at dusk that even runs the ac.  Pretty cool. 

I had a small dinner and a beer in the Summer Hut (a little outdoor hut with a table and chairs).  I decided to open my Kindle to unwind as a gift to myself after a long travel day…as it turns out the tro tro ride was a bit bumpier than I thought.  ‘A TRO TRO KILLED MY KINDLE’.  I keep my important things like my camera and laptop on my person when I have travel days but didn’t really worry much about the old Kindle.  The inky, computer generated goo that makes your screen look like a book broke (I guess that would be an LCD screen). Very sad state of affairs.  Looks like I will be reading crap ass books I find along the way.  As it turns out I was right…High School Musical 2 Exercise Book is about as good as I have found.

'On a Freaking Tro Tro', beach dogs, another power outage!

Oh, how I will miss these dogs.  The little one sat right under my feet for a tummy rub while I had my coffee this morning.  In the end I paid 312 Cedi for five nights, all dinners, several breakfasts and beers ($150 US).  I can handle that.  I think I may come back for the last few days in Ghana. 

Sunday is a great day and terrible day to travel.  There is very little traffic but there are also very few buses running. The only options in little, out of the way places like this is to pay quite a lot more to taxi out.  I knew this when I decided to stay an extra night so no big deal at all.

Got a taxi right from the Hideout all the way to Takaradi (45 Cedi) then jumped on a Tro Tro back to Cape Coast.  I thought I would wait a very long time for the Tro Tro to fill.  As I got in there were only four people and they all shrugged their shoulders like ‘yep, we are here for a while’.  Just as I sat down a family straight out of church and dressed in their Sunday Best filled the remaining seats and off we went.

Tro Tro:  Old, broken down mini vans that hold 14 people and depending on the driver can be a lot like riding Space Mountain at Disneyland.  They don’t leave until they are full.  The benefit to a Tro Tro over a bus is that they are always going so you don’t have to wait for a specific bus time to leave.  The guidebook says not to take them between towns but I keep finding myself bumping down the roads of Ghana of my beloved Tro Tros.  Actually I quite enjoy a good Tro Tro ride.

In a freaking' Tro Tro

Text from Obehi the day he left Hideout Lodge:  “On a Tro Tro, a Freaking Tro Tro!!”

Tro Tro dropped me right in middle of market close to the hotel.  The market is amazing and pumping on Sundays to be sure. 

Another blackout upon my arrival lasting until 11pm.  Room 115 was taken so had to move in next door to 116 and it sucks.  Shower doesn’t work, toilet doesn’t work, fan doesn’t work and I got bit to shit by bed bugs.  Ended up wearing long sleeve shirt and pants to bed to avoid bits. 

Obehi and I watch South Park on his computer until the power on it ran out as the rooms were wicked hot with not fans or ac due to the power outage.  If you walk the streets late night here you see many people sleeping on the street even if they have somewhere indoors to rest, as it is so much cooler.

Note on power outages:  I came to find out that at the end of the Month (April) the power in Ghana, Togo, and Benin should be better as the Nigerian government has slowed the oil coming here over the past year or so and that is about to change.  I have learned that whatever happens in Nigeria has a HUGE impact on these countries.  (Posting this on the last days of April and power has been steady for two days now…. the Nigerian pipeline is flowing again I guess).