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Well i am feeling a lot more positive now since my last blog entry, i think i had reached a point of exhaustion by the time i reached Accra !I was feeling quite nervous about my visa situation, I haven't got a visa for Cameroon and I need one before I get there but none of the countries I am going to have a Cameroon embassy but I found a travel agency on the internet in Douala and there is a lady there helping me get a visa so that is a big relief, otherwise I would have just had to fly there and hope they would give me one on arrival and probably have to pay a big bribe!!Also I finally discovered that there is such a thing as the Visa Touriste Entente, it is a 5 country visa that gives you a single entry into Togo, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso and Cote D'Ivorie.I couldn't get it for Burkina Faso but I managed to get it at the Togolese Embassy in Accra.I wanted to get it as I am thinking of going up to Niger from Benin, the sahel is definitely calling me back, (I need to check up on the internet first as I think there has been bad flooding there recently in the towns I want to visit)!!And I don't have enough pages left in my passport to get a visa for Togo, Benin, Niger and Cameroon, so that was a big relief that I could get that visa which only takes up one page, and they did it within the day for me which was great!That evening I had a few drinks and dinner at a bar at the top of a cliff looking out over the ocean, which was really nice and finally felt a lot more relaxed!!On Tuesday I got a tro tro to Hohoe in the Volta region, it was so nice to leave Accra, the scenery on the way there was beautiful, I saw a sign for the hotel I wanted to stay at so told the driver I wanted to get off, then I realised that I wasn't in Hohoe, it was still a couple of kilometres away!So I started walking and was quite glad for the exercise after sitting in a cramped bush taxi for 4 hours.In the midday heat I soon realised that I wasn't going to be able to walk the whole way there, I met a man with a taxi and he took me the rest of the way.On the way we picked up his son who was walking home from school and looked sooo cute in his school uniform, he kept on turning around from the front seat to stare at me.Since it was only just after noon I decided to visit the Wli Falls which are supposedly the highest waterfalls in West Africa, the man from the hotel I was staying at was really friendly and walked me to the tro tro station and found a car for me to take to the falls.It took about half an hour to get there, once there I had to register at the tourist office and then they gave me a guide and him and I walked to the falls which took 40 minutes along a nice forest path.The falls were really nice and had about half a million bats hanging from the rocks near the top.It is a really beautiful area with high mountains covered in lush tropical forests.That night I think I was the only tourist in the whole town, there was no one else staying at the same hotel as me and when I went to the other hotel in town for my dinner I was the only person in the restaurant.That night I decided the next day I would cross the border to Togo, so I was going through my money to decide how much to change and I noticed that I was missing 150Euro and CFA5000!I think it was stolen from my bag in my room at the hotel I stayed at in Accra.It is the first place ive stayed at in Africa that I felt nervous about leaving my stuff there, each time I went out I kept thinking I hope my stuff is alright!!I just had a really bad feeling about the place, but the day I came back from getting my visas nothing had been touched, that was the last time I had looked at my money, when I went to the bar on the cliff I think that is when someone stole it, that was the only time I didn't lock my bag.The doors at that place were so flimsy and there were always lots of people sitting around doing nothing and watching your every move, I have no idea who stole it but it was definitely someone from that place.So in Hohoe when I realised this I asked the hotel man if I could use his phone to call the Accra hotel and ask them about it, he felt so bad for me and couldn't believe that had happened, I used his phone (and he didn't charge me which was really nice) but they didn't know anything about it at the hotel in Accra which wasn't surprising.I now have no Euros left, I only have my credit card and 100euros in travellers cheques.It makes me feel a bit nervous not to have any euro cash on me, it is a really good backup for when you are somewhere that you may not be able to use your credit card, also I wanted to take some with me to Cameroon as apparently it is near impossible to change TCs there, but the travel agent in Douala that im dealing with told me I can get Central African CFAs in Cotonou so that's a relief, otherwise getting my visa at immigration would have been very difficult!!!In Cameroon they have a different type of CFA to here, and taking my West African CFA will be difficult to change when I get there.So aside from Hohoe my experience of Ghana was not that great, I was sick from the border with Burkina to the coast, people were rude to me all along the coast and I had money stolen in Accra!It is not like that for most people, I just had bad luck, most people go to Ghana and love it and say how friendly the people are, and I did meet a lot of friendly and helpful people, especially in the Volta region.But I have to say I wasn't that taken with Ghana, there wasn't much there of any interest to me.It is very different to the other countries I have been to so far, it seems a lot more developed which is really good for them, one thing I couldn't believe was how many cars are on the road, and nice ones too, the cities were all clogged up with them as well.Also there are so many aid agencies and NGOs, you see signs for them everywhere, that's why there are so many foreign volunteers, also there is a very strong American influence there.I couldn't help but think it would be nice if some of that aid was shared to their neighbouring countries which seem far poorer than Ghana.Ghana reminded me a lot more of East Africa, you see the kids all going to school in their bright coloured uniforms, the cars everywhere, the religion, the western clothes that most people wore and the fact that there is definitely more money floating around.In saying that, most people still live in extreme poverty, I guess it just looks like they are getting more help than people in the other counties are.So on Wednesday morning I have to say I was not sad to be saying goodbye to Ghana.Although I would like to add that I finally figured out their currency, typical, that had to happen a day before I left the country!!The hotel man was ready and waiting to walk me to the tro tro station at 5:30am, he found me a van and I stood around in the early morning mist with the other passengers while we waited to depart.Before long we were off, didn't take long to get to the border and formalities were very straight forward, it was quite scenic and to get between the Ghana and Togo border posts we had to walk along a quiet road with the tropical forest overflowing onto it and over a bridge with a nice river underneath.By mid morning we arrived in Kpalime, I went straight to the bank to get some CFAs out but the connection for VISA was out so I couldn't use my credit card and the man wouldn't change my travellers cheque so I had to use the last of my euros there, which wasn't much, so that's why I have none left now.While in the bank I met a French girl who was working in Lome but her parents were out from Paris to visit her so they were visiting some of the countryside and were heading to a town called Klouto which is where I was also heading and planning on spending the night.So I got a ride with them, I had to sit by her father though and he was a big fat man all sweaty with a red face and he sat with his arm tight around me for the whole trip and kept on putting his other hand on my legs, it was so disgusting and embarrassing, his wife was sitting on the other side of him and he was practically hugging me!I was really glad when we got there, went to the hotel and checked in for the night, it was really basic, just a bed in a room and bucket showers and the toilets were like western toilets but you had to pour a bucket of water down it to flush it when you were done.After checking out the room and leaving my bag there I went for a walk in the surrounding hills with a local guide from the hotel, he spoke a tiny bit of English and told me all about all the trees we were passing and what they are used for.The hills around Klouto are really beautiful, the scenery is similar to that in the Volta region of Ghana as the border is very close.The hills are famous for their amazing exotic butterflies, there are heaps of them and they have the most amazing patterns on their wings!We had lunch at a nice waterfall before heading back to the hotel.Me and my guide had both put this red stuff on our lips that the local women use as lipstick so when we got back all the other guys that were lingering around the hotel thought it looked very suspicious that we had just come out of the bush with matching red lips, one of them said to me 'what have you done to my brother??!!'We sat down for a rest and they sang and played the African drums which was really nice.Later that afternoon my guide and I went for a walk to the top of a hill which had amazing views of Kpalime and the surrounding mountains and small villages, the walk was not demanding, but I really enjoyed doing some exercise and hiking in the hills, it was really beautiful and all the people we met along the way were so friendly!I felt pretty tired that night, one of the guys made me a really nice dinner and then I had an early night.This morning I woke up at about 5:30am because of the roosters, but that was fine cause I wanted to go to Lome today and wanted to get here early.So I got a moto from Klouto to Kpalime which is about 12km away down a windy hilly road with amazing views.I was picked up just before 6:30am and going down the hill was so nice, the air was cool, the views were stunning and he went down the hill in neutral to save petrol so there was no noise, it was beautiful!In Kpalime he took me to a car that was going to Lome and I squeezed into that.They had 4 people in the back seat, I shared the front seat with another guy, and the driver shared his seat with someone, so there were four of us across the front, it was quite funny, to change gears the driver had to reach across the guy sharing his seat to get the gear stick which was jammed between his legs and mine.The drive was really nice, if a little nerve racking at the speed he was going!On arrival in Lome I got on a moto and asked him to take me to the bank, eventually he stopped cause he didn't know where he was going so I got on another moto and got to the bank, got out some CFA from my credit card but I could only get half as much as what I wanted because the ATMs didn't have enough money in them, so I am going to try another bank after I have used the internet.Today is a public holiday here, I think tomorrow is too, I think it has something to do with the beginning of the harvest?Im not planning on staying in Lome tonight, after ive used the internet and tried to get more money from another bank I will go to the gare routiere (bus/tro tro station) and go to Agbodrafo which is only about an hour from here, it is a small town on Lake Togo, I will spend a couple of nights there probably, I desperately need to so some laundry, I have been wearing dirty sweaty clothes for the last 2 days and I feel really gross!!My next update will probably be from Benin as I don't think there is internet in the other places im going in Togo.xoxo
PS: i am on an ancient computer again with no chance of putting my photos up - maybe ill have more luck in Benin?!
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