Friday, September 21, 2007

ADDY AND NUNU GO TO FIND SOME CHALEY'S IN GHANA -- PART 3

Addy and Nunu’s Excellent Road Trip Across West Africa To Ghana

Accra, Kwame Nkrumah’s City




We rolled into Accra around 8pm. We had spent practically 10 hours on the road. We first went to the hotel just in front of the presidential villa called The Africa Regent. Now look at that sentence again (in front of the presidential villa). That just screamed expensive but I was like let me just walk in and scope the place out and find out how much May be as the sliding doors open, I will be the dream girl that one Chaley has been waiting for. I walked up to the counter, there were two fine boys standing as though they were in line. Now I knew they were not in line, but read my sentence again (fine boys) . I decided to ask if they were in line, just so that they can hear how sweet my voice is and we can make eye contact. They said no and I went ahead to ask the lady at the counter how much a room was. She said $250. In my mind I was let me quickly respect myself and turn around before these boys feel the vibration of my shudder upon hearing the price. I made a u-turn quick quick. Back to the van. I was like ‘Messter George plis another hotel. It is not like I will see the president from the window.’ We made our way to the next hotel, La Palm Beach Hotel. Now here’s the part that stumped me and changed the whole sequence of our adventure. Just as the hotel door man open the door and I looked up, I could not believe who was walking out of the hotel lobby about to hop into the van behind ours. A Party animal co-worker friend and his FRIENDS who were in town for the weekend. We were all tripped and were like ‘WHAT DA HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE...AIN'T UR ASS S'POSSED TO BE AT WORK?’ After exchanging our Ghana digits I went to ‘FIND OUT’ how much this hotel was now that there was actually a compelling reason to stay there. Meeeennn…here’s where the story changed. So the lady said it was $200 per night, we had only $700 and we were going to spend 4 nights, travel around town, do some tours and buy Ankara, akosombo and Woodin. You do the maths. We needed a miracle to solve this problem. So Enuka and I put our heads together and began thinking. Considering the fact that my friend and his friends are true blooded Nigerian boys who get a major plus for generosity (just by virtue of what many often call 'traditional social roles in Nigeria') if we spend our money on securing accommodation, chances are that we would not only have fun hanging out and tripping with them, but we can also guarantee safety and that when they order their food they will include us, so feeding too would be covered. Not to make it sound like a parasitic relationship Lol. We can go to Tejuoso Market and buy Ankara. But then again how can one come all the way to Ghana and not go home with anything. The other option was to go to Hotel Wangara for $80 a night but that would mean we would have to transport ourselves, roll around town alone (unsafe). We decided to cut our days short and do three nights. That left us with only $100, which we would manage VERY VERY well. We would make sure we get to the FREE breakfast at the hotel on time and eat plenty of food, find the Ghana version of Bojangles or Mr Biggs and microwave our food in the hotel. At worst we'll chop Ghana bread and coke and go to sleep. By the way a meal there cost like $200 and the food was not that great. So Enuka and I said a prayer that nothing wil go wrong and it will all factor in and work out. Then I begrudgingly counted the money and gave it to the lady. At that point everything could go wrong but I swore that I would have a great time in Ghana and not THINK too hard. And as God would have it everything worked out perfectly. We had a great time with the boys at the empty club that night just cracking up and yabbing every thing and talking smack about some busted chicks we saw. There was one in particular that my friend insisted on calling ‘Ekaite’ because she looked like a housegirl. We all didn’t get back till like 5am and you can imagine how sluggish everyone was the next morning. But not us…we were up by 10am reading to have our breakfast just incase. After breakfast, we PSYCHED the boys, who ordinarily would not leave their hotel room at that time of the day (considering the fact that they'd done some serious SHAYOING) to follow us to El Mina Castle in Cape Coast. Why did we discover that the journey was 4-5 hours not 45 minutes. The Ghanaian accent must have confused me when I was getting that information. Upon further verification it turned out it was only really 2 and a half hours. We decided to go to the Independence square and the Kwame Nkrumah museum instead. We all got some education and in the short traffic made friends with the hawkers selling artwork. Those guys really saw dollar signs written all over our van because they kept bringing ugly masks to get our attention. It seem the uglier the better. The boys kept on buying and I did all the haggling. I took the opportunity to practice my bad ghanaian-slash-sierra-leonean-accent (the later courtesy of Desmina and her extended Salo family in the Triangle) By now it was already 3pm and we had walked around town a bit and everyone was pooped. We then went out to find Local cuisine and found Vic's Chop. The food was good and I swear it's the cleanest buka I've seen. I mean we could have gone elsewhere to a fancy middle-purse type restaurant but the shuttle driver didn't know anywhere esle. So we were like 'Oh well what the heck... we are experiencing the culture.'


We went back to the hotel and Enuka and I slept till the next day. Watching Nollywood films in between. The next day Saturday, the boys had to leave and we had some change left to each buy a 6 yarder of fabric for ourselves so we decided to go to the market. Now I came up with the brilliant idea to shop for the boys so they would take something back to their wifeys and girlfriends. Now ya’ll don’t get mad, there’s no way you expect a bloke to go and buy Ankara in the market. They have no clue what to do and are totally helpless in that department. I mean it was either that or a Ghana flag necklace from the airport. So i say ya'llowe me... 3 yards 'eash plis'. LOL. We ended up buying stuff for some who had given us money, but one or two didn’t. When they saw how pretty the fabrics were and their friends by now were rubbing it in and saying 'oh Sarahtu would love this...and Janatu and Elizabetu can share this', they got jealous and felt left out. Determined not to be outdone or 'out-ankarad' they ended up buying mine and Enuka’s for...get this... DOUBLE THE PRICE. Trust Igbo girls to find every opportunity to do business. We each ended up going home with 12 yards of 4 different fabrics (we split them into 3’s) instead of 6. Sounds like a hustle to me. Naaaah!!! I am sure they were just INDULGING us for the sake of it after all these are Nigerian dudes we are talking about. LOL. But that was so totally dope because they really didn’t have to and it meant a lot to us cos we were stumped that we'd come all the way to Ghana and were leaving with onext to nothing(THANK A LOT PALS.. YOU RAWK MAJORLY!!). Don’t worry when my tailor is done, I will show you the sturvs men…VERY lovely shiny Ankara fabric. When I got home my mom and my sisters were already bribing me with FOOD to trade my Ankara. Lol. Can you imagine? My mom was like ‘Addy, I will make goat meat pepper soup for you.’ My sister and her friends have decided to go to Ghana in two weeks to buy their own fabric, so I will definitely be buying more. The drive back was depressing so I will not share that part of the story. Well here's the best part we all love. Here the PICTURES FROM OUR ROAD TRIP and stay in Ghana. Where next do you think Addy should go. I am thinking I should do all of the ECOWAS countries. Or may be you’ld like to guess where my next destination will be. Ok why don’t we do that… the prize for the correct guess will be between a souvenir from that country or 5 yards of superior local fabric (eg Ankara, adire, woodin, printex). Make sure you leave your email in the comment section of this post.


47 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adaure,

Nwannem nwanyi, i must say i totally, totally enjoyed that read. Its my first time commenting on your site, although i read it from time to time. Its funny, i actually know the guys you hung out with, cause i saw the pics from one of them the week before.

Any, happy for you. I can be very spontaneous as well, so glad to see another Naija girl, enjoying her life while she's young and not waiting around for guys, or the same ol social stuff (weddings, owambes, [rolleyes])

So, how about you try Cape Verde or Gambia next?

Anonymous said...

Adaure,

Lovely pictures and very informative. I will try and visit Ghana on my next trip. Keep up the good work.

Out!
Tamedu

Anonymous said...

Adaure, you are truly an imspiration to us naija girls that live such sheltered lives. your sense of adventure, and living your life so freely, truly inspires me. I lived in nigeira for 13 years, yet i never visited the rest of africa, but made it a point to travel, 'abroad' 3 times a year. I never do anything spontaneously and so do none of my friends. I live by some stupid "traditional code" that I placed on my self, anyways enough writing, just wanted to say great post :)

Anonymous said...

Adaure,

You have said it well. We Nigerians prefer to travel to Italy, UK or the UK, forgetting that we have a treasure waiting to be discovered in our own backyard. Maybe we are waiting for a British/Western Explorer to do it for us? Keep up the adventurous spirit. Let me add to the list - Egypt, Ethiopia, Senegal, Uganda (Ehm, you can avoid the war torn areas such as Sudan, Congo, etc.). Unfortunately, married women like us will find it difficult to just travel on the spur of the moment. I wish I could take back those years of singlehood.

Well done sister.

Yankeenaijababe said...

Aduare, you truly are an inspirational writer. l love ya. love reading ur post and girl, you just started leaving ur life. I see you having fun travelling to southafrica, Ghana, here, there.............that is the real African life o jare. Independent and no-more a second class citizen. love ya.

NigeriaPolitricks.com said...

Mehn, I'm sure your mom must have asked you:"did you eat dog legs?". I used to hear that alot when I can't stay in some place for too long and travel all over Naija. But your spontaneous trip to Ghana is just mad crazy & fun...and so was your SA trip. I wish I can make those West African trips now!

You next trip should be to the Cameroon!...go through the East of Naija and the hills of Calabar and let's see the beauty of that part of Naija and West Africa.
You've made travelling and living fun...and that's what life is all about. We live once...enjoy life once.

You need to start your own TV Travel show .."going through Africa or West Africa by Road" - You can model it after those travelling shows on Travel Channel...it will revive tourism to Africa, shows the beauty of the African people and It must be fun to watch!!!

Unknown said...

lovely pictures....
i must go to ghana next year ooo...
love ur stories...

Unknown said...

ur next trip should be kenya...

Anonymous said...

Your next trip should be Arusha in Tanzania. You can do the safari thing and climb Mount Kilimanjaro!

Ms. Catwalq said...

Is the country still as clean as I remember?

Anonymous said...

adaure,

for real, you need to start a travel show and blog for us here. It will be amazing, Arusha is a great idea for safaris like someone else mentioned, but just doing what you did travelling to towns will be great, since the travel channel as done enough safaris for a lifetime. travel all over Africa, and show the rest of us, what we failed to appreciate about our neighbours.

ps. we can start a petition to have silvabird start this program :)

Anonymous said...

Chai! Addy i envy you no be small. Every year i keep saying i will go to ghana and the likes...see me see my life.

Cameroon wont be a bad idea at all. A lil travel club wont be a bad idea too(i mean LITTLE). Lemme no wat u tink.

Great pics

Stuck in my throat said...

the trip was awesome and adaure couldn't have told it better. i laughed at the ibo girls remark about us doing business.And i agree with Anon...we care too much about Europe, while many of us havent gonr to Obudu or yankari..much less the rest of Africa.

Anonymous said...

meanwhile...... addy, a friend's dyiinnngggg to meet you

u no like "i can give an arm just for u kinda thing"

Anonymous said...

Wow! I totally agree with an anon above. While we all think of travelling to other places, we neglect our own prior backyard. I for one continue to fulfil my goal to visit at least 3 different countries every year, but I'm ashamed to say, none of those have been in Africa. Why...I don't know...this is definitely food for thought.

KuesooM

Uzo said...

You went by road to Ghana? Interesting.....Now you got there and did your thing...Not bad. Next time - try The Golden Tulip Hotel...

Adaure Achumba said...

Glad ya'll enjoyed the reading about my adventure or shal we cann it misadventure. I really lie the sound of Tanzania. Gambia is actually top on the list but Cape Verde as suggested by Ms Mak sounds tempting. Hmh.. the mystery. We'll see about it soon. The tourism show is also a good idea

Anonymous said...

Chaley Ada
its was nice you visited my country oo, even i, i havent visited past accra or kumasi. Looking at this your nice photos and the ones from SA,make many of us feel we are wasting our complete time in this stupid oyibo land, seeking american dream. At least in future u got these photos to show your kids. My late dad travelled to EVERY SINGLE African and middle eastern country and sadly none of us (his kids) have followed his footsteps. Seeing this your photos have given me so much insipiration than you would ever know. I swear i am more inclined to relocate back home now. Thank You addy.

(ghanaian sista in Yankee)

kunle shobowale said...

Addy me likes your friend in the picture tres much.
Can you hook a brother up?

My Thots said...

Gosh Adaure, you and Nunu just reminded me of my without-a-thought trip to Cotonou.

One day during my service year in Ogun State, i woke up, told myself I had never been to Cotonou before and so I got on a bus and headed for Cotonou. A friend even came along for the adventure.

All we did was play on the beach, took pictures with some Benin lovers, walk around the market and returned to Nigeria.

Yummy Mummy said...

Hi Adaure,

New to your blog, and love it. Have never t hought of travelling through West Africa. Must do it some time

God's child said...

aww u visited my previous homes of Lome (and its beaches) and adopted home of Accra, wish u had also reached Abidjan my 2nd home (even better beaches than Lome)...
Lovely pics, I love my West Africa, thanks for sharing, brought back memories. I'm die hard Naija but very thankful that I got to live in other African countries.

God's child said...

Seychelles is lovely and so is Mauritius which is technically an African island

Anonymous said...

Nice Story Adaure.
Well,Negesti(Enuka) directed me here and its been realy worth my time.
Anyways,Id love to read more from you.Keep having fun.;-)

Tutsy said...

Okay, i am so ashamed of myself...look at u travelling to Ghana, S.A, Togo and all...i am so jealous. I am not even gonna front like i have travelled to any of these countries...okay maybe one...Cote de' Voire and that was ages ago on my elementary school trip.

Wouldn't mind visiting though, seems u guys had a blast..but mehn, i gotta give it to u...you got some serious balls...lol..i might be crazy but not that spontaneous..wake up and travel to Ghana...i'm way too chicken for that...lol.

Anonymous said...

Adaure...I totally enjoy reading your blog. You are such a good writer...keep doing you girl...ur Ghana pics are totally awesome...and ur narration of ur trip is wonderful..I dey jealous u o...lol...wish I cld go on a road trip like that...sounds like u guys had MAD fun...keep on rocking girl!!!

Anonymous said...

ADAURE GIRL THANKS SO MUCH FOR ENTERTAINING US WITH THE INFORMATION ABOUT UR WONDERFUL TRIP! YOU HAVE MOTIVATED ME AND LIFTED MY FEARS AND WORRIES, TOMMORROW I SHALL BE GOING TO CONAKRY, GUINEA FOR A VISIT AND PROBABLY EXPLORE SOME OF THE NEIGHBORING COUNTRIES AROUND THERE. IT'S SAD THAT I HAVE EXPLORED OTHER COUNTRIES AND CONTINENTS WITHOUT FEAR AND NOW THAT IT IS MY OWN COUNTRY'S BACKYARD FEAR DEY CATCH ME :) BUT I AM EMPOWERED BY YOU AND I KNOW I WILL ROCK IT AS MUCH AS I CAN!

t4 said...

Adaure, that picture with trays of food that u took on the border looked so good... i MUST visit all the ECOWAS countries myself. anyway go to senegal next :)

Unknown said...

Pls Adaure,do you know how I can access Bellabaija's blog?I miss that blog as hell!

Unknown said...

I mean bellanaija.

Anonymous said...

Girl..i thought i could talk but i can see you would give me a good run for my money.Full gist on your trip..way to go.Keep doing your thing.I just started blogging because of you and Bellanaija.

See my blog on www.http://xenainthecity.blogspot.com/

Ozymandias said...

real interesting and comprehensive summary..abeg, wetin be chaley, i don crack my head tire for that one?

Anonymous said...

Assy,

I m trying to get in touch with you to use one of your photos in a climate presentation. Please email me at robertamch@earthlink.net

Adaure Achumba said...

Yes indeed you can use the picture. Sent a response to your email but it bounced

Anonymous said...

ok....we've waited long enuff

U CAN UPDATE NOW!!!!!!

THANK YOU

ozaveshe said...

very nice post.

i been to ghana a numnber of times as well (by the way i next time u're off to there i can give u a list of fabolous hotels u can stay in for $50 - $70 a night with breakfast)

u tell a story very well, guess it comes to being a journalist. u're just doing ur job, kinda.

will definitely visit ur page more often.

Anonymous said...

Come Addy,

How is Nunu doing? I hope she is fine, please just tell her I am asking of her!!

Anonymous said...

You write really well and your pictures are great. I visited Ghana from the states and did a road trip from Accra to Togo and my pics are nowhere near as nice as yours.

Anonymous said...

to anonymous who lived in nigeria for 13 years without travelling around africa but going abroad, don't beat yourself up too much. All these travelling across africa has only recently been possible because people hae stopped fighting each other at least in most african countries so it has only just become safe in the last few years to travel within africa. also, the transport links have only just become good as well. and as they say, it's never too late. now we have buses going around, i'm already thiking, let's have train links like europe so we can travel in even shorter time across afica.

Anonymous said...

hi Adaure, i enjoyed reading about your travels. I spent my honey moon in Benin republic so i can totally identify with your shock on crossing the seme border as the roads are so smooth. in fact, the first thing i did was to cover my face in shame on behalf of Nigeria. In fact, we got used to the good life so quickly we were strutting out to see the manager on the only occason there was power outage. please note the hotel was not running on generator o. i think you should give Grand popo a try. it's a big village/small town in Benin about 30 mins drive to the togolese border. the place is serene and the locals are very frindly. lots of nice art & craft as well but don't buy the beads cos they're cheaper at home. we stayed at the Auberge de Grand Popo - it's a beach resort, really beautiful. the food at the hotel isn't great though - it's way overpriced so you're better off eating at one of the many restaurants along the main road. the funniest thing about the country was that after managing to communicate with the locals using my school french (showing off to my husband whose french is limited to 'pomme frites' - potato chips) and gesticulating, i would find out that the person could actually speak yoruba which is my native tongue. that was hilarious.

Anonymous said...

Nice Pics

shhhh said...

i would love to go to ghana, man. u had a ball

Unknown said...

hey pls m desperate can i get ur tailors number ASAP???????? n2ndly cani tag along REALLY on ur next road trip............?callmesweethear95@gmail.com tanx

Unknown said...

i was just talking to my friend this morning that i plan to tour six african countries this year. i am theresa and his name is jubril. he says yo look hot and he'll marry you.
well that aside i am ashamed of myself, i am african and i have never been to any african country but i plan to change that u are an inspiration. tessa tasha0809@gmail.com

NneomaMD said...

love the title...

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