So first of all, the picture is from kittens which are from the cat who lives around our house. Had no idea she was even pregnant as she was so skinny and underfed looking, but we feed her now whenever we have bones, and the kittens are very very cute!
But Easter, headed up to Kumasi, Friday morning decided to take a tro tro which was not such a good idea in the end as we spent about 7 hours in all getting there, tyre change included which took them about an hour, as even though they carry a huge amount of stuff on the tro tros, spare tyres do not seem to be one of them!
But we did arrive, and managed to navigate our way around to find somewhere to stay and visit the cultural centre before it got too dark. Cultural centre is pretty much a big space which is nicely landscaped but really is pretty empty looking, possibly it was because we were there on a holiday and later at night but not many people around.
That night we went in search of some music, but the bar we went to had music the night before and night after. But did have the best service ever so far in Ghana, waiter who actually found us a table in a crowded place, could carry more than 2 beers and glasses on a tray, and actually knew properly how to pour a drink into a glass, very hard to find here!
But highlight of the night was the amazing rotissiere chicken for only 8 cedis for a whole one, which is a good deal, in Accra I've seen them for 20, and the chicken was full of meat and actually had flavour so best chicken I've had here so far!
Next day we explored Kumasi a little, went to the palace which is kinda interesting but there's not really a lot there, if you come on a certain Sunday every 6 weeks you can see the King when he gets paraded around for some festival or something.
Then was on to Kejetia, which is the biggest open market in West Africa apparently, and it is huge, and chaotic, well to me anyway, to them I think it makes perfect sense, but generally in places like that I get in and move through fast, especially when confronted with the 'butchery' section, pretty much huge amounts of cut up meat hanging around on tables.....but to be fair it doesn't smell as bad as the fish section.
Out of that a break was definitely need to rest from the sun and regain some energy in the form of Coke, then back again to the cultural centre to buy a few more things, paintings are very nice here, and easy to carry around which is good.
Next was our journey to get to the Lake, easy to get on a tro tro and get to Kuntaase, but then a share taxi to a place called Abono, then lickily another taxi to take us to Obo, as carrying my bag 2kms would not have been fun (although coming back in the rain I got to experience....) and then the last 500m to the place we were staying. So maybe easier to get to with a car, but still not too bad, we arrived before nightfall so that was good, and the lake was ready to swim in as soon as we arrived to cool off from the heat of the day.
That night we walked to the next village in search of some food and to follow the music coming from the distance, the music turned out to be church so not so exciting, but the food of egg sandwiches was good, even though the usual crowd of children standing round chanting obroni obroni made it a little easier to leave and walk back.
Next day, walked back to Abono, 2.5kms without bag was fine, although very very hot, glad to find some shade when we got there. Walked back and again a nice relaxing swim in the lake, which actually got very very hot in the daytime, the shallow water was like a hot tap, had to swim out deeper to cool down.
Nearby was also a newly, in construction still really, bar and entertainment type area which had the added advantage of games and inflatable rings and beds for the water to add to the relaxing, they also made some good food.
Last day, we went for a walk up the hill, the lake is meteorite formed, and is pretty much circular and surrounded by hills everywhere, so we followed the path up one, it was luckily in the shade most of the time, but I did die a little when it got to the steeper part, sign I need some more exercise here I think, but made it to the high point to get a view of the lake. The most amazing thing is the woman who go up and down still carrying things on their heads as though they were walking along the flat.
So once back down, another last swim was very very much needed before we started to make the journey back to Accra.
However pretty much as we'd gone 50m down the road walking back to the bigger village of Abono, a thunder storm started, so it was a long long long walk, I was completely saturated in 10mins and for some reason all these bugs decided to hang out on me and my clothes, luckily they didn't bite but were kinda gross.
We made it to Abono eventually and with it still pouring with rain attempted to find a taxi, however for reasons I still don't know, like the entire population of 18-22 yr olds seemed to have descended on Abono, which is not a huge place, and had taken over the streets in a mass party, however they were a little more prepared for the rain as they weren't carrying around all their luggage like me! It did make it a little easier to get on a tro tro which had just dropped people off and was going back, luckily the whole way straight to Kumasi. Only when going out did we see the extent to how many people were trying to get into whatever was happening in Abono, as they were a couple of police barriers, and queues of cars and tro tros waiting to get in, made our journey out slightly longer as well, still not helped by the fact I was still dripping wet.
Made it to Kumasi and onto a bus this time, so space and air con, although air con was not appreciated at all in the cold and wetness but they don't seem to knwo how to turn it off, and somehow at the end of the 5 hour trip I was dry at the end.
So another good weekend, nice to be somewhere different to the beach, but still being around water was very very nice to cool off from the days. However if rainy season means more rain like we had then won't need too much cooling off!
http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/KumasiAndBosomtwi#
