early (for me) the next day it was time for the beach. And time for my first encounter with that legendary Ghanaian mode of transport, the Tro-Tro! Got to the Tro station, ask a few people where the tro to angona leaves from and get on board. Its basically a minibus with fold up seats in the aisles of varying sizes. They leave when they are full or more than full. People use them to transport themselves and everything all over the country. You wouldn't want to be in one in a crash as there is no escape, but if you [View Full Entry]

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I managed to crawl out of my sweaty room in time for a quick breakfast of chocolate spread on bread and milo. The woman looked at me like i was mad for wanting food at 11.30! I had decided to head down the coast, apparently busua was a backpacker mecca in Ghana, surely there would be parties and beach volleyball, chicks in bikinis and guitars around the fire. Perfect! I grabbed a taxi and headed for the STC bus station, after allowing several people to push in front of me, I shrugged off my stupid british way of queuing and got [View Full Entry]

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Next day I nearly managed to get up in time, but not quite. My jet lag from working nights at the weekend was still killing me, and I was still in that dump. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the country but it was kind of weird after SE Asia, with wall to wall tourists, to see only a few 'burundis' (white people) out and about. Still Ghanaian people would regularly stop and chat with me, taxi drivers were quite cool, once you established the fare. Woe betide anyone who jumped into a Ghanaian taxi without asking the [View Full Entry]

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I tried to get up early the next day and failed miserably, I was as lazy as the guy making my shake and pancake that I ordered before starting to write this! I was never going to get out of my dump of a hotel if I didn't get up. No windows, noisy fan, the shower was in a huge manmade tub you had to climb into to have a shower, and at 208,000 cedis (£14) a night, terrible value. I went for breakfast and then took a taxi down to Osu, which was a busier area than I was [View Full Entry]

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Later the next day, much later, i had a better crack at it. The hotel was a dump and I didn't want to eat there. After about two hours of walking I finally found the restaurant I was looking for. People were very friendly as I walked around confused, saying hello and waving, nice country I thought. The waitress at the 'Orangery Restaurant' was friendly too, I don't think the Ghanaians like to see people sitting on their own so we had a nice chat. A group of 3, then 2, white girls came in to eat, the first whites [View Full Entry]

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Flight was ok despite being delayed by an hour or so from amsterdam. Had to kick a Ghanaian guy out of my window seat. which is good preparation for the weeks ahead. Over mainland africa you could see the desert but it was soon swallowed up in dust and sand. the ground then just looked like a circle of fluffy yellow, with a few clouds. Immigration was a minor nightmare. I joined one queue out of the 5 going and one of the guys dealing with my line left for a break shortly afterwards. An hour and a half to get [View Full Entry]

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8.30pm friday, only 28 hours to go before Im winging my way back. :( Get your fake student ID orders in quick! Kinda happy/sad really, had a great time, but reality beckons and all good things must come to an end. Back in Bangkok after flying from Saigon this afternoon, felt suprisingly ok after the mad night we had, Bandy was *much* worse off :p Spent yesterday doing the tourist things, Museum of American War Crimes, Market, Cathedral, dodging the rain (and touts) and just exploring a bit. Met up with some people from the bus from Cambodia for dinner and [View Full Entry]

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still in Phnom Phen, Bandy has been ill (again). He was covered in the most horrific rash which slowly travelled throughout his entire body (or so he assured me). Looks like prickly heat I reckon, we went to a 24hr clinic, took his blood pressure, heart rate, then produced a massive needle to inject him. We declined, unfourtunatley the 'doctor'' didn't speak a word of the queens so we still dont know what it is. Doesn't look like ringworm, i just checked. I didn't help matters by joking that he'd been drinking lots of whiskey :p But then what do you [View Full Entry]

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We'd arranged to be picked up the next day by the motodriver that had hassled us all the way from where the bus had dropped us off to our guesthouse, but that wasn't until 4pm. Had a wander around siam reap, used the net, off loaded a load of photos onto my portable harddrive, got attacked by the rain, wandered through the market (all thoughts of bird flu momentarily forgotten (there are chickens *everywhere*!)), sat in a posh french cafe and had posh shakes (read same same, twice the price (you pay for the orchid)). Back at the GH the usual [View Full Entry]

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Up up and away early the next day, i really should have done some more research into what we were doing but I vaguely remembered from 3 years ago on the same road. There is a knack to getting to Angkor Wat without getting sucked into the nightmare of your average tourist. Its very easy to get scared and herded in with the rest, only to be subjected to imaginary delays, breakdowns at convienient restaurants, stops for no reason at all, all in order to get commision and herd you into the best paying guesthouses at 3 in the morning. Never [View Full Entry]

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