I had no problems on the flights and finally arrived in Phnom Penh which is 6 hours ahead of BST. I was very impressed with Incheon airport in Seoul, South Korea, where I had to change flights. Phnom Penh airport was also much better organised than I had anticipated, well certainly better than Kathmandu and Accra. Getting a visa on arrival was very straight forward, you just need one passport photo and 20 dollars in cash. The currency in Cambodia is the Cambodian Real (currently about 6000 reals for one pound sterling) but US dollars are effectively a second parallel currency here and just about everywhere happily accepts either. I finally arrived at my hotel in Phnom Penh at about midnight local time, 20 hours after leaving home. I had a short walk outside then went ... read more

Thursday 12th August 2010 Ada Foah is the town at the estuary of the River Volta - after it has left Akasombo it meets the Altlantic Ocean at Ada Foah. Just beyond the town of Ada Foah is an idyllic fishing village with lots of colourful fishing boats and clean sand. I made a day trip to here, about 2hrs 15mins by trotro each way. Friday 13th August 2010 The coast road going east from Accra passes through two towns called Teshie and Nungua. The weather was overcast but still quite warm and there was a nice breeze coming off the sea, so it was an ideal day for just wandering along looking at all the local shops. I took a trotro to Nungua and walked back through Nungua and Teshie as I'd heard that there ... read more

Accra - Kumasi - Bole - Larabanga - Mole National Park - Tamale My plan is to do a round trip from Accra, the main destination being Mole National Park. The park is normally accessed from the town of Tamale (to the East of Mole) as there is a bus from there direct to the park, but as that would entail doing that stretch of road twice, I decided to try and approach from the West instead, and go to Tamale afterwards. Monday 2nd August Had a lie in because there are plenty of buses from Accra to Kumasi. I packed and caught to tro-tro to the centre of Accra then walked to the bus station buying some food for the journey on the way. As luck would have it a Kumasi bus was just leaving. ... read more

Monday 26th July Togo is the country immediately to the east of Ghana, and the nearest one to Accra, so we decided it would be worth trying to visit it. Togo was originally a German colony but was divided between Britain and France as part of the war reparations in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The British part became part of Ghana but the French part remains the separate independant country of Togo. While the official language of Ghana in English (though for most Ghanians it is their second language), the Togolese speak French (which caused us a few problems!). Before describing our visit, it might be worth mentioning the currencies in Ghana and Togo. The main unit of currency in Ghana is the Ghana Cedi which is divided into 100 pesewas. When we changed ... read more

Wednesday 21st July We decided to take today out as a sightseeing day so off after a lazy morning towards the harbour area of Accra in a district called Jonestown. We first needed to take a trotro to one of the main central bus stations called Tema Station. Although ostensibly a bus station, Tema Station could easily be mistaken for a market. On all the bus stands there are market traders, more around the edges, and then there are the ones simply walking around carrying what they are selling in their arms, or, more commonly on top of their heads. the head carrying is done mainly by the women but a number of men do it as well. whata do they carry on their heads? almost anything. common items include the 500ml "pure water" sachets which ... read more