It took me long time to get off bed. I am not rushing to Ghana. I went out, had my coffees, a sandwich with some meat inside, tasty, and I also stocked up on gauze in a pharmacy that after the long holidays was finally open.
I left maybe at 11am. There is little information available on how to go to Ghana. The man in my hotel said I should go to Treichville which a quartier next to mine (Marcory). At least I won’t have to waste much time. But then what? Go to border? Is there transport across the border directly from Abidjan?
The man in the hotel said a taxi should take 1000cfa. Ha.
First taxi driver just left when he heard my price. Second taxi driver said 2000cfa and left when he heard my price. Third taxi driver said 1500cfa and I reckoned it’s OK and we went. Traffic was heavy. The taxi driver knew where to go – gare du Ghana – and he even said it’s better that I travel on a big bus than in a small minibus. Great.
It took us over 30mins to reach the bus terminal. And yes, big busses are there. More, they are Ghanaian busses, a company called STC. Inside an enormous amount of luggage is waiting to be loaded, some people too. Do I want to cross the border with so much luggage? What if we spend 3 days with customs? The timetable is on a chalkboard, destinations even in Togo and Benin. It’s 20,000cfa to Accra, so quite a lot of money (€30). But the busses leave in the morning and I’m there at noon. No luck.
The gatekeeper tells me I have to go to Gare de Bassam from which minibuses leave. I walk. The minibuses are there going to anywhere in Southeast Ivory Coast except Ghana. Someone even tells me I’d have to go to last town before the border, Aboisso, and change there. But I’m a big white man around so finally someone spots me and takes me to the right minibus that goes directly to the border. I’m the first passenger, I take the front seat. The ticket is 5000cfa but the man demands 2000cfa for my bag. It took me a while of literally forcing a 1000cfa note on him to accept the lower price. Then the man who brought me to the minibus demanded money too. I refused.
We waited for a while for the bus to fill up. Next to me sat a woman from Benin, a gospel singer, we chatted a bit before she asked me if it’s better that I speak English. And then she told me that because of me accent (!) in French she has to concentrate hard (!!) in order to understand me. Thank you madame, I have to concentrate hard in order to understand anyone around.
The road – except he Abidjan part, which was heavy with traffic – was smooth and fast and green. We passed hills covered with palm plantations. It took us a little over 3 hours to reach the border.
It’s maybe 1 km walk between Ivorian and Ghanaian border posts. The guidebooks say it’s more and that a taxi is in order. The taxi drivers demand 1000cfa. I followed everyone who walked.
The Ivorian side was very easy: they did check if I had Ghana visa and stamped my passport without any bureaucracy. They also checked my vaccination card.
The walk is across the bridge, slightly downhill, along a line of trucks, some of the drivers set up makeshift tents in-between.
Ghanaian side is also easy, although I have to fill up a landing card and have a photo taken. There are also computers, first I’d seen since Senegal. Wow.
I am followed by money changers. My currency app, xe.com shows $1 fetching 5.13 cedis. The first price I hear is 4.85. Oh dear. I keep walking and the Muslim moneychangers keep shouting 5 cedis for a dollar, I hear one saying 5.05. Euro is worth only a little more than a dollar, it’s a dollar country – Ghana. I have some 100cedis on me so in worst case I’d be able to get transport.
The transport ain’t too easy though if you’re not going to Accra (capital), Aflao (border with Togo along the coast) or Kumasi (2nd biggest city, in the interior).
I’m going to Cape Coast and all I could do is join the Accra bus, pay Accra fare and just get off midway, around 4 hours from the border. The fare to Accra is 53cedis or 50cedis. I asked for the difference and the man said 53cedis is fewer passengers sitting.
Fewer meant 8 in a minibus. I mean, there were only 3 of us sitting in a row of seats. Three, not five I could stretch my legs. It made me even wonder how many passengers are there in the 50cedi bus, the difference in price isn’t much.
While we were waiting for the bus to fill up, I strolled the terminal. Of course everyone wanted me to change money and finally I obliged, 5 cedis to a dollar. When I showed the man the rate, he said it’s bank rate and here is black market. I always though the black marker gives better rates. But anyway, I pull out my 2006 $100 bill and they are not quite happy: “it’s old”. “Don’t you have a new one?” The one is with a security stripe. An inner stock broker wakes up in me and I said “new ones are 5.20 to a dollar”. And they agreed! I had to go back to the bus, get out my secret pouch, open it and take out the new dollar bills. I know not everyone likes the “old” dollar bills so I want to keep the new ones just in case and after Ghana I have 1 or 2 dollar countries ahead, the rest is CFA, so euros are easiest there (the rate is fixed).
I change $200 which should be 1040 cedis. And I have the feeling they didn’t want me to get the 40 cedis on top of the thousand. They handed me the 20cedi notes, made me count them twice and it was still 1000cedis. Then one of the moneychangers took the stash, counted it himself – I even thought he’d attempt some trick – and it was still 1000cedis. Finally they added the 40. And it was time for the bus to go.
There were surprisingly many police checkpoints, one was such that we had to get off the bus and hand over our documents to be checked. The other ones we were just waived over by the police.
On that serious police checkpoint I saw women disappearing in the bush. Over here it’s called “ease myself”. I never know what to do with easing myself. I mean, men do it literally everywhere. I saw a man Abidjan in the middle of the pavement just standing and urinating into a sewer crate. Here I have the bush littered with plastic bags and the smell is kinda indicating people are doing it here so I go for it. When we depart I see a big dual-language sign “do not urinate here, police”.
We arrived late, I was dropped at a junction near Cape Coast. Taxi cost 10cedis, down from 15 (the taxi driver said the price is not OK but he “will consider”) and soon I was dropped in front of Sammo Guesthouse. The price of the room 55cedis. Fan on the ceiling, very low, I was constantly scared it will hit me in the head. Water present.
I walked out to find food. It was 9-10pm. And there was no food. “Food is finished” I heard everywhere, only bread (the mushy English kind) and eggs left. I walked on and finally I saw a woman roasting a single fish – tilapia. 14 cedis, served with banku which is a cassava flour dough made possibly to only fill one up. I refused and walked on but it was dark and there was nothing. Gone were the Ivorian maquis open till morning hours, fresh salads with home made vinaigrette. I came back and had the tilapia and a portion of banku with a splash of ketchup and liquid chilli from a plastic bottle. No more hand made piment… If was quite OK anyway.
I also bought a SIM card and loaded it up with internet. I thought I’d buy MTN network but after the previous countries where nobody said MTN is the best I was no longer sure. The man only had AirtelTigo (2 networks that joined each other lately) SIM and I asked if it was good and he said yes. 4GB is 20cedis for a week, not bad, SIM card is 3 cedi. But the network in this town is not even 4G, I could not believe it. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. Ugh.
And then it turned out all the bars were closed around me and the only place left open was something that looked like a wholesale shop. I bought two small bottles of Guinness, 5 cedi each but because I wanted to drink in the guesthouse and the bottles in Africa are more precious than the drinks, I was made to pay 2 cedi for each bottle to make sure I return the bottles the next day.
Coming back to Maman 