TRAVELOGUES OF THE FORMER GOLD COAST (DAY 5:DEC 20, 2011)

After numerous calls and internet searches, my hostesses and host finally find out the Bobiri Forest and Butterfly Sanctuary (which was highly recommended by Astro, my landlady's daughter) is in Kubease. My landlady's son 9whose name I don't yet know) was especially nice, calling his office to notify them he would come late so as to ensure I get on board the bus that would take me safely to Kubease on the outskirt of Kumasi.

I get to Kubease and brace myself for the one hour walk to the Butterfly sanctuary. It is a very long, lonely and scary walk as I keep imagining that a wild animal will jump out at me from the forest. Of course, while I fear most animals, I realise the most dangerous of them is the human animal especially these days when people will do anything for money.

I finally arrive at the sanctuary after a walk (8 kilometers!) that took almost an eternity because of the distance. Not for the first time, I wonder what the Ghana tourism board is really doing and whether they know that by failing to ensure easy access to and from their tourist sites, they are losing quite a lot of money.

I was shown all the trees in the sanctuary. Disappointingly however, the butterflies, my main reason for visiting the sanctuary,were no where in sight! The few butterflies I saw were those I had seen during my interminable walk down to the sanctuary from the road. My walk down was really not lonely, I've always enjoyed taking walks so long as it is not under a scotching sun and there is no danger of anything suddenly leaping at me from anywhere.

Trees at the Bobiri Forest and Butterfly sanctuary

I get to the sanctuary and I'm told it is not the butterfly season and I might not see many. Well, at the sanctuary itself, I saw none! I was shown some trees which did not really interest me though some of them have some interesting stories surrounding them like the last tree ( a liana actually)I was shown, I forget its name now but my guide told me that anyone who cuts the tree knowing its story that it should not be cut would die. The tree is said to be medicinal and primarily to cure madness. It is said that the medicinal part of the tree is the bark which before it is cut, the person cutting the tree must pour some libations on it in form of egg and some other thing I don't remember now.

My guide further told me they don't work on Fridays particularly Fridays which fall on the 40th day (every 40 days which is a Friday). He says on this fortieth days, they hear drumming and singing which they believe come from this liana.

The Liana with the interesting story

I was quite fortunate on my way back because just as I was about to leave, a couple also on vacation from the Netherlands were also about to leave the sanctuary and fortunately, they had their own transport. And so I was saved not only the long walk back to the road from the sanctuary, I in fact followed them all the way to Kumasi.

After leaving the Bobiri Forest, I made my way to the Manhyia (pronounced Man-shia) Palace Museum where I, along with a group of tourists from Norway(and their Ghanaian host, a medical doctor who did the translation for the Norwegians), were taken round and shown historic relics. An interesting story told was about some chairs which were supposedly gender-specific. It was said the chairs for men could only be sat on by men and any woman who sat on it would immediately become barren while any man who sat on the chair for women would become impotent.

Sign in front of the Manhyia Palace Museum

The Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi

Yours truly at the Manhyia Palace Museum

My next stop after the Palace Museum was to the Kumasi Zoo. Before going there, I had been warned by Randy that there are too many animals to see and so I go there with no illusions whatever. I did see some lions but not too many other animals that would raise my hair or some such thing like that.

Lions at the Kumasi Zoo

From the Zoo, I go next door to the Cultural Centre where I visit yet another museum, this time, the Prempeh II Museum. I heard quite a lot of the story I'd just heard at the Manhyia Palace Museum but saw a few things I didn't see at the Palace Museum but of course the Palace museum is a much bigger museum. The two museum told the story of the Asanti Kingdom and how Kente was made the national cloth of Ghana and of course, the different designs and improvement made on the kente cloth over the years.

Statues at the Cultural centre

Entrance to the Cultural Centre

The Statue of the Prempreh II in front of the museum

By the time I leave the cultural centre, it was already getting dark and I didn't get back to my lodge until a bit late because it took quite a while for a bus going to Edwinase where my lodge is located to get to the park. Eventually, I arrive, all tired but fulfilled!

TRAVELOGUES OF THE FORMER GOLD COAST (DAY 4:Dec 19, 2011)

JOURNEY TO KUMASI


I leave early for Kumasi with the hope of getting there in good time as I'd read it's a journey of between 5 to 6 hours from Accra by road. The bus I entered however flagged off the delay in my getting there on time as it took literally forever to fill up. When we eventually depart from Accra, the first hour or so of the journey was done on dirt roads.

Dirt roads on the way to Kumasi

I'd noticed that what we call bumps or speed breakers back home are usually written on the road signs as "rumble strips". I'd idly wondered why they were so referred until today when it occurred to me it might be so called because of the way most drivers over there drive over them making the vehicles to rumble. I get the same feeling virtually all through the time the vehicle travelled on these dirt roads.

My bus takes its time and finally we arrive at Kejetie at about 4.30 pm GMT but it takes me quite a lot of phone calls and time to get a cab from the park as I have the dual handicap of not being able to speak the local language and not knowing exactly where I am going.

A Roundabout around the Adum Business District in Kumasi

It took more phone calls back and forth for the driver of the cab I eventually take to get me to my hostel.

My hostel doesn't appear to have a name yet but though I was initially aghast at the distance, the road and traffic we had to go through, the place itself is so nice that it makes up for my initial dismay at the distance and bad road we had to traverse.

My Landlady and her daughter seem to be quite nice and I spend hours chatting and gisting with the daughter before finally and reluctantly calling it a night.

The daughter, a post-graduate student at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology also went to a great expense, calling her friends in a bid to find out for me, how to get to the various places I'd penned down for visit during my stay in Kumasi.

When I mention that Kumasi seem to be very crowded compared to Accra, she replies that it's because of the festivities and that I should be very careful with my money and valuables when going out the following day because of the activities of pick-pockets during this period.

TRAVELOGUES OF THE FORMER GOLD COAST (Day 3)

DAY THREE: DECEMBER 18, 2011

BOJO BEACH

I decide to go to Bojo beach and probably the Kokrobite beach today since both beaches are along the same route and from what I have read, not far from each other. I head out to the beach sometime after 9 am. I need to get credit for my phone but see no seller possibly because it's a sunday and everybody has gone to church.

I stand at the bus-stop for over an hour before deciding to take a direct to the beach. The taxi drivers are demanding prices which I consider too high and just as I was trying to decide whether to go to the university in Legon instead, I get a taxi which agrees to take me to the beach at a price I still consider relatively high.

We spend another hour or so in traffic due to the ongoing construction works around Mallam junction. Eventually, we leave the traffic behind but the road towards the beach specifically in the area called Aplaku is horrible. It is, like quite a number of the inner roads in Accra, a red dirt road which dirties everything and everyone on the path.

As we drive along, I see a sign which proclaims that Big Milly's Backyard is 8 km ahead and I silently offer thanks to God that the owner of the establishment failed to respond to my request for a possible reservation of the place.

The entrance fee inclusive of the boat ride to the beach is 6 cedis, an amount I consider a bit steep. Having however spent so much time, energy and money to get there, I definitely wasn't about to turn back.

The surrounding of the place where the entrance fee is paid is quite beautiful with trees planted to beautify the place and a water fountain as well.

I, along with a white lady, her (I think), Ghanaian husband and their three kids were taken in a boat (the Bojo cruiser)to the beach.

There were a handful of people on the beach relaxing under the sun and even fewer people swimming or at least pretending to. I sit for sometime under one of the shades, read for some time more while wondering why exactly I decided to come to the beach besides perhaps for the reason of being able to add the beach to one of the places I visited while in Ghana.

The Bojo beach was reputed to be one of the cleanest beaches in Ghana though, and this might have been the reason why I decided to visit it.

And of course my natural curiosity informed my decision to also visit the Kokrobite beach was reputed to be, er, not so clean. Well, that was of course before my experience at the Bojo beach forced me to rescind my decision to visit the Kokrobite beach.

When I decided I'd had spent enough time on the beach sitting and watching others swim or just relax under the shades provided (since I don't know how to swim and swimming was out of the question), I decided it was time to head out of the beach. I was however immediately presented with a problem, I did not have my own transport and the beach was so far from the nearest bus-stop that any thought of trying to walk would just not fly especially not under the scorching sun along the dirt road!

I told the officials of the beach my problem and they gave me a number to call for a taxi and another problem immediately cropped up; there is no credit in my Ghana phone though I have some money on my Nigerian airtel number. I therefore, short of walking or deciding to sleep on the beach, but to make the call with my Nigerian number.

I make the call which lasts exactly one minute and lo and behold, Airtel charges me N3,200 for the call! I couldn't believe my eyes and was sure there was some mistake, but alas, the only mistake was me allowing myself to run out of credit on my local line thus forcing me to use the fraudulent Nigerian Airtel network,

I add the amount Airtel fraudulently took from my phone to the already prohibitive cost of visiting the Bojo beach and I immediately jettison the idea of visiting the Kokrobite beach especially because I knew when the taxi comes, getting out of Bojo would be very expensive. The taxi man when he came, did not disappoint me with the amount he was asking. I eventually settle for him taking me to the Aplaku junction which happen to be the nearest bus-stop to the beach.

I was demoralised by Airtel's fraudulent act and I was even more pained by the fact that I could not call their customer care there and then.

I was beginning by now to learn that getting public transport to and from the places of interest for tourists in Ghana was going to be an expensive venture as some of the places do not form part of the routes covered by the tro-tros.

Ghana Travelogues

I admit the title above is not very original besides the fact that I consider it to be too obvious, I would much prefer a less obvious and far more creative title but alas, my brain is just not cooperating with my desire this night and so I shall leave the title as it is until something literally creative smacks me in the brain!

I had for years been mouthing my desire to take a vacation by myself and away from my normal hangouts and so when I finally made my decision in 2011 to go by myself for a two week vacation in the former Gold Coast, more than one person expressed scepticism at likelihood of my enjoying the vacation especially since I had admitted I had no friend in Ghana that could take me around and show me the country.

Because i'm just as human as the person next door, I sometimes allowed the doubts to get to me but I am ultimately happy that I didn't allow myself to be dissuaded from embarking on the vacation. I spent a total of 15 days in Ghana, and, my only complaint apart from the fact that I don't like their food, is that the days went just way too fast!

DAY 1

ACCRA

My first impression on getting to Accra and travelling from the Kotoka International Airport to my hostel at Darkuman was that Accra combined the beauty, serenity and wideness of roads that can be found in Nigeria's Federal Capital city (Abuja) and the crowdy, dusty and sometimes port-holed roads that can be found in Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria.

The roads were mostly well-ordered, neat and wide as we left Kotoka Airport and approached town almost up to Ring road. However, as we got to Ring road and left it especially as we approached the Kaneshie market (a massive building which housed mostly sellers of foodstuffs), up to the point where we got to Darkuman, the scenery changed to that of the ever-bustling Lagos. I only succeeded in taking a picture of the Flagstaff house and couldn't take pictures yet e with my Sony digital camera with which I was at this time yet to make a full acquaintance.

Interestingly, because the weather in Accra was so similar to that of Lagos that it lulled me into a false sense of still being in Lagos. During the journey from the Airport to my hostel, a sense of uncertainty started creeping in; would I enjoy touring and seeing all the tourist attractions in Ghana that I had seen on the internet and decided to visit? I however made up my mind to enjoy every second of my vacation regardless of the fact that I'm travelling alone.


After having rested for some time and not having eaten any real food except a piece of fish and part of a bar of chocolate that I had brought along with me, I decided to go out and do some exploring around the neighbourhood of my hostel. I take a very long walk (feeling like Janie Walker), trying to see whether I would chance upon any place or thing of interest; I didn't. I however did see a place called ANAMBRA FOREX BUREAU. Unless the word Anambra has some meaning in one of the Ghanaian languages, I felt very sure that the place was owned by one of my ever-industrious Ibo brothers. I felt like whipping out my camera and taking a picture of the place but was restrained by my not wanting to appear like the "Janie Just come" that I am.

The harmattan in the evening, seemed a bit more forceful than it was earlier in the day, and I noticed a handful of hawkers wearing socks in their slippers. Again, I resist the urge to take a picture of these hawkers.

Through my walk back and forth, I see no fast-food joint though I saw quite a number of food outlets which incidentally branded themselves as fast food outlets though of course not in the sense that we have in Nigeria. I finally enter one of the food outlets on the street of my hostel and ordered fried rice and chicken. Lo and behold, the fried rice is not like we have in Nigeria. The fried rice in Ghana has none of the vegetable that we put in ours in Nigeria. But at 2 cedis (equivalent of 200 Nigerian naira)for a take-away pack with 2 reasonably-sized chickens and a small amount of salad, I'll say it is food cheap (I don't want to say dirt cheap seeing as it is food we are talking about here).

Back at the hostel, I meet Angelic, a Netherland graduate of International Law who tells me she is in Ghana for her internship at a human right centre somewhere there in Accra. she seems real friendly and we chatted for quite a while about her experiences in Accra before we both decided to call it a night.
My life as a tourist starts tomorrow!