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Published: October 8th 2013
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OK. I thought Cambodia was rustic - this place is such a strange juxtaposition of modern, derelict, charming and dirty... It's still difficult to have an opinion. We started out day yesterday taking a cab down to Independence Square. This is where past presidents such as Bill Clinton addressed the people of Ghana. The square itself, resembles a soviet-era cement pad with a golden Arch. Kind of strange. It is situated right on the coast, however, all access to the views have been blocked. This is true of most of Ghana - they seemed to have turned their backs on the sea. In fact, there are only a few true beaches that are how you and I would know it - most of the beaches are littered with Shanti towns and are used as a public restroom. I suspect this is slowly changing as we are starting to see the construction of several large-scale resorts within central Accra. But wow.. what a shock. They don't even have a main promenade following the coast. What a shame for there is a lot of beauty.
We meandered a bit down the main street until we hit the commercial district. We checked out
a few local craft markets (now I know where I will get my shopping done) and headed into town. We finally had our first experience of Ghanaian food, it was surprisingly good! Mine was a sort of chicken, bean curry with plantains. It was really tasty. Barry had a chicken dish with a spicy spinach, pumpkin seed sauce. Very unique that is for sure.
After lunch, we headed towards the central market - now I have been to several markets in my lifetime, however, this one was WAYYYYY out there. There were stalls selling the absolute weirdest things... We saw fried Bats, Rats and other goodies. (I would have taken a photo, but the woman selling them looked like the devil! I was scared!) Turns out, as we found out later, Bat is actually an Ashanti delicacy... When we go to Kumasi we will probably see more. Anyway, there was some weird shit being sold down there. It is truly unfortunate, but again , we were faced with people expecting us to pay money just for the sake of being there. And unfortunately, they come off as being aggressive. Bottom line is hold firm and say no - I'm
not sure how much of this is a cultural thing and/or how it's evolved. From all the reading and research Barry and I have done, Ghana has the reputation as being one of the most friendly and welcoming countries in Africa! Hopefully this will hold true once outside Accra.
Now, we were supposed to be heading out tomorrow, however, we decided to stay an extra day in Accra and it's a good things too, because Barry the Seagull is now sick. So because I was too scared to go out for dinner alone, I had a chocolate bar and plantain chips from the minibar for dinner and called it a night. Hopefully he feels better in the am.
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