FROM NAIROBI TO ACCRA-GHANA

Things did not quite run smoothly for me this morning but I do only have myself to blame as I had dinner with Maggie and Lori last night and I had a few too many wines, getting me home at 11pm and then I had a pickup time this morning of 5.45am.  I had made it to bed at 1am after getting a few more things done and set my alarm for 4am, but I just couldn’t stop hitting the snooze button and I finally dragged myself out of bed at 5am and then it was a mad rush for me to get all my stuff together, shutting down the last of my house and then remembering the last minute items, which included my Kindle and also my phone charger, two important things.  I finally made it out to Steve at 6.05am, 20 minutes late and we were finally on the road.  I was feeling a little dodgy, but not hung over as such, and I am guessing that it was the excitement kicking in.  Thank goodness we got a good run through the unpredictable traffic, especially since I was 20 minutes late and made it to the airport at 7am for a 9.30am flight.  It is the first time I have been to the airport since the devastating fire that ravaged a section of the airport 4 weeks ago.  You could see the blackened flame marks on the outside of the affected building and there were tents set up as you entered the main carpark but Steve dropped me off at unit 3 and then I was just going to ask for directions and go with the flow.  So with a hug and a wave goodbye to my great mate Steve I was left on my own with my trolley and 3 bags.

There weren’t too many people milling about, so I went to the entrance of unit 3 and I figured that if I was in the wrong place they would tell me.  I had plenty of time up my sleeve now that I was at the airport and after only waiting a few minutes in line, my ticket was checked before my bags were scanned and then I was through into the terminal.  I was flying Kenya Airways and their check-in counters are to the left of the terminal and they have the self-check-in kiosks to use.  It would be interesting to know just how many people use them here in Kenya as mzungus have a hard enough time trying to use them.  There was plenty of staff around and lots of check-in counters staffed which was nice to see.  Anyway I checked myself in and checked my seat allocation, I had an aisle seat which I normally HATE, so I tried to change it and the aircraft didn’t have a single seat left.  Dang it.  I went to the bag drop counters and I am happy to report that my monster weighed only 17.6kg, which I think is the lightest that it has ever been and my second bag, which just contained my sleeping bag and mattress was 2.3kg-I do love Kenya Airways for the 2 piece system and it will certainly be a different matter when I come back in 10 week’s time with all the shopping I plan to do on my trip.  I double checked again with a staff member about a window seat and was told that the flight was full and so I was stuck with a dumb aisle seat for the flight.  After filling in the departure card and getting stamped out of Kenya in immigration I was airside and it was only 7.30pm.  Thirty minutes from drop off I had security checked, checked in and immigration and all through a terminal and not through a single tent.  I have to say a job well done to KAA for getting so far after the fire in such a short time and my check-in process has probably been the quickest yet.  Well done, especially for Africa. 

I found a spare seat to sit in as I basically had 1.5 hours to kill until we had to board, so I popped in my IPod and used my travel modem to surf the internet.  My mind started to wander and I started to do a mental check of things and I realized that I had left all my travel money at home.  I felt my heart drop and I must have made a noise as the guy next to me looked over and I must have gone white as a ghost.  My trip requires a local kitty to be paid, in euros, which I had obtained while I was in London in May and I also had my spending money, also in euros, in the same secret spot as the kitty money-BACK HOME.  Crap, poo, bum.  I got my thinking cap on and the first thing I thought of was to call Steve, get him to go to my place, get Charles to let him in and get the money and bring it to me at the airport.  The two things that them came up was firstly did Steve have time (it would be tight) and then secondly I had already cleared immigration and I wasn’t sure what sort of deal would be made with the officers if I had to leave and come back through again.  I took about 15 minutes to work out that it would be too much of a stress and really pushing the time frame for that option, so the only other way was to do some creative banking, transferring money into some accounts and I would have to pay the local payment in local currency.  What a goose.  The worst thing is I only have 60USD in my purse which I will need for my Kenya visa when I come back, so I literally don’t have a single dime on me and I would have to rely heavily on ATM’s for the whole trip.  I HATE that fact as when you have some cash on you, you have the flexibility to change it if the ATM’s are out of order, too far or non-existent and I will not have that luxury on this trip.  It really makes me feel a little nervous actually, but hey, I can’t change the fact now and I am ruing the previous night now after all those wines.  It also dawned on me that I left my ATM card behind along with my backup card for my main account.  Yes I have left the baking side of my trip in a little bit of a shambles to say the least, but I will be okay as long as paying my kitty in local money will be okay.  GOOSE.    

I took a small walk and saw that are only 3 working departure lounges in Unit 3.  There were duty free shops open and a café that had people waiting a mile long for their morning coffee.  I had to use the toilets and considering how many people they pump through the departure gates, there were only 3 toilets for the whole terminal!  To keep traffic moving they call 2-3 flights per gate and after your passport and boarding pass are checked you go through another security point and instead of waiting in the departure lounge like before you are shepherded outside into a massive tent, but to me it looked like a very large wedding marquee.  There were plenty of seats, the nice padded ones, all set up in a concert formation as such and then you just sat there until a guy came on a microphone to announce flights and when you heard your flight you had to wait at the front of the tent and then a staff member would walk you to your plane.  It was funny as you come down the stairs to the tent there was a 747 plane parked not even 15m from the tent.  The irony being that people are on their cell phones, cameras, TV’s and the microphone and there is a plane right next door.  If you were in Australia that would just NEVER happen and it makes you wonder just how anal our society has become when quite clearly it is okay to take that photo of the plane when you are on the tarmac (Virgin Blue) but a little surreal at the same time.  So I found a seat and just sat on my Wi-Fi until my flight was called at 9am.  Our plane was located directly behind the tent, so with us all gathered at the front we walked the 2 minutes to the plane where our boarding passes were scanned one more time before we were allowed to climb the stairs to the aircraft.  It was a full flight and I was on the back end of the boarding groups, but I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that my aisle seat was an emergency exit seat, the ones with the extra leg room, but you also have the added bonus of the pocket in front.  I HATE the bulkheads where there is nowhere to put your things and people stand around that area on long haul flights, but I could fast become an exit row lover, especially if it was also a window!!!  But today was an aisle and even though I was last getting on, I still had plenty of overhead room for my backpack which is also a worry when you are on the tail end.  There was already somebody at the window but the middle seat was free until a family of 5 boarded and the young children had been allocated exit row seats, which by law they have to be 16 or over with Kenya Airways and then there was a massive reshuffle of seats and the middle seat was snaffed up in a flash.  Dang it.  We only left 20 minutes late and for JKIA, I would consider that an on time departure, especially with the whole tent thing now, and maybe the upside to the fire is that KAA have pulled up their socks for the time being?

It was a 737-800 operating the flight today with a configuration seating of 3x3.  I liked this plane the second I sat down and my seat belt fit without having to ask for an extension belt and the other beauty of the exit row seats are that the leg rests do not move, so my chubba legs don’t lift the arm rests, which is embarrassing for me and the person sitting next to me when they lean on it and it pushes down.  Well not in the exit rows and I am especially glad for this flight as we had a an arm rest hogger next to me, even more so his elbow would encroach over the arm rest and jab me in the ribs.  I HATE that and normally I let it slide because of the leg lifting action I do, but today that was not an issue and I had to pull the swift jerky move a few times for him to get the hint and move his elbow from my side.  It was going to be a long 5 hour flight, but I was glad that I was SO tired and after lunch had been served I was hoping to sleep the whole way.  The flight did not have in seat TV’s, there was just the screen every third row and when the movie came on after we had taken of it was one I had seen before and got some shut eye until the meal.  I am a big plane foodie.  I generally love plane food, but I do have to say that the food on the flight was very ordinary, well the chicken that I had.  There was also a veggie option and a sausage option, so in their defence I didn’t see them, but I was ravenous as I hadn’t eaten any breakfast and I did manage to eat the whole meal anyway.  I was loving the extra leg room in the exit rows, but with the meals, they have the tray tables that come out of the arm rests, and I always find those tables very rickety and they are never that stable and today was no exception.  I had to hang onto my tray as I ate so that it wouldn’t slide off the table and the pickup service took forever for them to come back, more so that the 2 rows of exit people had put their trays on the floor.  The rest of the flight was uneventful and I slept for the remaining 2 hours waking up as we started our decent into Accra.        

We arrived into Accra 10 minutes early at 11.50am local time with a 3 hour time difference.  Our flight was actually continuing onto Freetown in Sierra Leone, so the people continuing on had to stay on the flight for 45 minutes as we deboarded and they picked up new crew and passengers.  There were busses waiting for us and we were driven for 5 minutes to the terminal and immigration.  There was a counter to the left that read ‘visa on arrival’ and it made me think if I could have got my visa here on arrival, but then I did remember reading that you could only do it on arrival if there was no consular representation in your country and you had to apply at least 14 days in advance.  Yes, I think I still did the right thing obtaining the visa in advance in London.  Before you could enter the immigration queue you had to show some staff your yellow fever certificate and I am just glad that I hadn’t forgotten that baby and I was waved through to the immigration queue.  Again I didn’t have to wait long and I was stamped into Ghana with no questions asked and into the luggage area all within 20 minutes.  It really is an efficient airport and a nice looking one at that.  The trolleys are free here, so I grabbed one and then spotted an Eco Bank ATM.  This was my chance to pull out some cash so I had something in case I needed to pay for a taxi or drink.  I had no idea on the currency exchange, so I asked a security guy if he knew the exchange to the USD which he did not, but he said he could find someone, but then I spotted the Foreign Currency Bureau and got the rate which was 2 to one.  I get confused on which was it works, so when I popped in my card and asked for 500GHS I wasn’t sure if I was getting 250 or 1000 equivalent but would work it out later and was just glad I had some local currency.  By the time I had done all that the bags had started to come out and within 10 minutes I had my bags on my trolley and I was on my way.  There is a customs search on your way out and it was a hive of activity with every single person getting stopped by a serious looking man who deemed whether your bags needed to be checked or not.  In some instances it is good to be a mzungu as I was waved straight through as people all around me had their bags open for inspection.  So I followed the crowd and after a small walk we got to one more security point where there were people checking bags again, I guess for anyone that fell through the net and with some people holding signs for hotels now appearing I was looking for my name on one of them.  I exited the arrivals hall to more signs, but NONE of them had my name on them.  I hate this part of having a transfer booked (albeit this one was a free one) but having them waiting for you is a true pain.  I had a guy come over to ask if I needed help and he was all very pushy and I told him I didn’t have money to tip him for his time (I did but only big notes) and after I told him that he vanished pretty quickly and I was again left to my own devices.  I pulled out my voucher to get the hotels phone number and started to call then with my Kenyan sim.  The phone kept ringing out, for like 7 times so I decided to wait another 30 minutes and I would catch a taxi.  Again I am normally more organized and I Google the cost of a taxi, just to have a reference and I realized that after 45 minutes that it seemed my guy was not coming and as timing would have it I had a taxi guy approach me offering his services.  He had on a security badge and I asked the cost and he said 30GHS (15USD) and I asked if that was a fair price and not a foreign price and he said that he could show me the tariff in the car.  I needed taxi; 15 bucks didn’t seem too bad, even if it was an extreme rip off and decided I would take the ride.  It also saved me heading off all the taxi guys when I finally left the terminal.  So he took my trolley and we exited the building heading for his taxi when I heard a whistle and I turned around and there was my guy with my name on the sign!!!  Why would you wait outside?  It made no sense, but I am glad he found me either way and I thanked the other guy as he tried to negotiate a price with my new mate, and his 30GHS must have been too much as we didn’t use him and made our way to the taxi parking about 500m away.  There were a lot of guys in the same shirt all trying to take the trolley off Mohammed to make some tip money and you really need to stand your ground with these guys otherwise you will get railroaded into paying a tip for their work, and that was with Mohammad, imagine if I had of been on my own!!!  So we negotiated a price for a proper taxi and when I told Mohammad what I was going to pay, he said that was for a private taxi which is double what a normal taxi is.  So it isn’t a rip off, it is just a better level of taxi. 

It seems Friday traffic in any major city in the world is horrendous and Accra was no different.  What should have been a 7-10 minute journey turned into a 40 minute ride.  We were also heading to the wrong hotel at one point as there are 3 Niagara hotels in Accra, and again this was all with Mohammad in the car!!!!  A local to boot.  There were a lot of sellers on the roads selling the usual wares of nuts, bananas, car accessories, sunglasses etc….. and when we had stopped at one point I asked Mohammad about Airtel credit here in Ghana.  I am on an Airtel sim card from Kenya and he wasn’t sure if Ghana Airtel credit would work, so we bought the cheapest denomination of scratch credit from one of the sellers, which was 2 cedi (1AUD) and found out that it didn’t work after all.  Normally I buy sim cards from countries so that I have some form of contact while I am away, but I don’t think I am going to worry this trip and I will just use my phone until my Kenya credit runs out and then rely on internet when and if we get it along the way.  To help kill time on the ride I got some local words from Mohammad to help me get me around.  That is one thing I have learned in Kenya, the locals are pretty impressed knowing a few key words and they win you some points when trying to haggle and talk to people and the words I learnt were thank-you=midasi, what a foreigner is in Ghana which is called an orbruni, bibini=good price, and mempowcha=I’m sorry.  These words will go a long way and I could see Mohammad’s attitude change as I was trying to learn more about his country.  Watching the city pass me buy, the Ghana people have a different look to the Kenyan people, and I have noticed the same kind of scar on their faces on different people.  I will have to ask about that when we start our tour.  We arrived at the hotel and Mohammad paid for the taxi, and the Airtel credit and then checked me in and carried my monster up to my room and I told him that I had no change to be able to tip him and pay back the credit, telling him that I won’t forget and checked that he would be working tomorrow and I would give him some cash then.  I felt bad, but I wasn’t going to tip him 10AUD, which is all I had after getting money from the ATM at the airport.  Sorry Mohammed.  My room is what you would expect of Africa.  An 80’s kick back but it was large, the bathroom massive and it would certainly do for the 3 nights I would be in Accra.  After dropping my bags off to the room I headed back downstairs to the outdoor restaurant, basically plastic tables and chairs under the tress for me to have lunch.  I was starved and needed to eat so that I could take my malaria pill.  It is an Arab feel hotel, with shisha available, next to a shisha bar and Lebanese food on the menu and I couldn’t help it and ordered a swarma for lunch with a plate of chips.  I did get a Ghana beer though, called Club, and I think this beverage of choice will do just fine for my time in the country. 

Service was slow, but I had the Wi-Fi password and was happy to wile away my time on the internet and sipping my icy cold beer which was a blessing in the hot humid air of the city.  The weather is definitely a lot hotter here, but then we are not at 1700m above sea level like Nairobi and apparently the hotel is only a 10 minute ride to the beach, so it was a lot different and I can’t complain after the dodgy weather that we had been having the last few months in Kenya.  I headed back to my room after lunch and found the switch for the airconditioner, found the movie channel on the TV and then settled in the room.  I decided to have an afternoon sleep at 4pm before heading out to dinner and that sleep turned into 7 hours with me waking up at 11pm and still feeling groggy and realizing I had missed dinner, I switched off the TV and the lights and then went straight back to sleep again.  I think my late night, well early morning caught up with me and the week prior to the trip was quite hectic and it all caught up with me. 

So I have arrived safely into Ghana and I like the feel of what I have seen so far.  It seems to have a great vibe; Mohammad said it is safe enough to walk around any time of the day or night and as we were driving it was nice to see that the houses and businesses were not surrounded by 10m concrete walls and electric wire like I am used to in Nairobi.  The country is full of colour, from their clothes to the pictures they are selling on the side of the road and they seem very patriotic with flags in cars, overpasses painted in national colours and people wearing t-shirts in the green, red and yellow.  Yes I think I am going to like it here very much.