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wow this has been a hell of a long week! i've done so much travelling every day since friday. last weekend me and cassie wanted to go to this backpacker place called Green Turtle (an eco friendly backpacker lodge run by some english hippies --probably cornish) but didnt really estimate how long it would take to travel there! friday was spent working, then a four hour tro ride to Accra, 2 hours to get to Cassie in rush hour, 2 hour wait at the station and then 4 hours cramped on a bus to Cape Coast! didnt arrive till midnight and we had to find a hotel, the truck driver offered but we said no so he called a cab explaining "maybe you are scared of me, take a taxi to the hotel" which i thought was pretty amausing.
i left cassie in cape coast so she could do some sightseeing, whicle i left for takoradi. never in a place have i been so harrased yet. was so annoying. the little kids im ok with but when its older men who grab you and dont let go of your wrist its so frusttrating when theyd ont take no as an answer. i asked this guy where the interent cafe was so then he spent the next 2 hours, taking to me the interent cafe, going to the bus staion to check bus times and then putting me on a tro to green turtle. you just dont get people that have so much time to help a wandering lone traveller that often. im going to get to the next place and be like excuse me why isnt anyone taking me to where i need to be! ive been so spoiled.
green turtle was idillyc and so peaceful. i met a girl that had been hear 2 years volunteering so had lunch with her and swam in the sea. was funny cas her aunts lived in shaldon so shes been to devon to visit them. i also met a couple from Plymouth which was cool too. all the couples ive met have been women volunteering and there boyfriends that come out to visit...like all of them!
sunday was spent travelling from green turtle back to my village which took about 12 hours, the tro back to Vakpo was filled with luggage and a chicken shoved under my seat, i felt so sorry for it, i wanted to hold it on my lap but i dont think the people next to me would have really liked that!got home and am always welcomed with open arms by esther, the aunties and grandma which is also nice to come home to though i only worked half the day on monday and left again for Accra on monday night and arrived pretty late, luckily there was a nice guy who paid my bus fair and walked me to cassies house. i shouldnt be so trusting of people walking me places but its really hard to know but everyones very protective to keep the young westerner safe ive found while travelling everywhere.
the trip to Kumasi on the bus was slow and tiring but we took a luxury bus with air con and white people. we met a couple from the US --one volunteer, one visiting and got talking to a german doctor who was pretty interesting. he comes over with suitcases of medecin illegally and has to memorise every disease the medecines are for so if he gets questioned bu customs he tell got to list all the illneses he apperently has! haha. he also thought the reason why africa has never had any long term plans of a sustainable future was because there are no seasons so they have never had to prepare for a winter like western countries once had to. i thought that was such a true observation. after arriveing in kumasi we got totally lost...we eneded up in a suburd called Odum when we were ment to get to Adum in the city. we ended up asking one perosn and within 3 minutes, 10 - 15 people had gathered around the Bradt guide arguing about directions! it was such a big hoha! but kumasi itslef was a great place.
we took a hell of a long walk to the cultural centre in the morning through the biggest open air market of west africa which was pretty cool. we passed another white person on the way and she gave a big smile and shouted theres not many of us around are there! you find it really hard to pass a white person and not say hello and get into "oh so where are you from". we even went to the zoo which was a depressing display of caged animals and lions prowling in their cages, they did have a huge bat colony though which was really weird, and people out on the streets shooting them and roasting them on a street bbq, they looked awful.
we then tried to make our way up north to Tamale, harder than expected. we were taken in a mad rush to the other side of kumasi where the tros leave by a man who couldn't speak any english. he was the fastest ghanian walker i like i will meet and after a 20 min walk up hill in blazing hot sun i was exhausted. we found a bus they were loading up with cargo and only had to wait and hour and half for that to fill up so we began our "6-8 hour" trip. after a near fatal crash out of the city and after i dopped a daggar (i bought in the market which i was using to peel carrots) on cassies leg --oops!! we were on out way the the most cramped bus ive been in so far. literally no space to move at all! so sat in the same place for like 4 hours till rest stop, which was a place to urinate (ghanians dont understand word toilet/bathroom/loo --you have to say i need to urinate) and they give you an empty coffee tin of water and handfull of washing powder to wash you hands and feet. was such a good system. after that it was only an hour till we were stopped by the police and they had to inspect all the cargo on the roof. cassie fell down a hill...so about 10-15 people gathered round to inspect her battle wounds...shes not having a very good time but she can see the amusing side to it at least. we arrived in Tamale last a night, got a taxi to the hotel after arguing and getting larry about the price. found the hotel was booked, walked a mile back into town going to every guest house on the way and they were all full up of "our people" (white people) we were told. and between us we didnt have any credit/battery to call hotels so we were wandering around the city for about an our and half, we managed to use someones phone to call a guest house that had rooms, we found a taxi that took us on a wild goose chase around town, dropped us at the place which was one of the shabbiest places yet and was expensive at 12 bucks a night... no running water, doors didn't lock and no flushing toilet. at 1.30 am i wasnt going to complain! so just waiting for the bus to Mole National Park to leave so we can high tail it out of here. Tamale is a nice place, full of volunteers and reminds me of amsterdam...everyone has a bike here, theres bike lanes and bike traffic lights...pretty funny for africa.
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