My last post ended with me saying that I'd be heading off to the Africa Beach Resort for a nice European meal (mmm spaghetti bolognaise) as well as some Guinness Foreign Extra with live music. Well I got the first two...
The Bradt guide describes the Africa Beach Resort in Takoradi as a very upmarket accommodation, popular with businessmen and the well-heeled crowd, and well known for its "large" swimming pool and African bungalows on the beach. Well the pool was about the size of a US backyard pool and the decor left something to be desired, but, hey, it's Africa, so I've been able to adjust my expectations.
But my expectations did not predict that the place would be absolutely teeming with prostitutes. I had just gotten out of the cab and hadn't even entered the resort when some girl, maybe like 16-17, who was maybe like 30% dressed tried to chat with me while pulling up her skirt. It was a bit ... weird.
Anyways, I sit down to order food, which is supposedly quite excellent here (according to the Bradt guide), but I'm told to sit in this special tiki hut/gazebo section with the other foreigners, who consisted of these two older German dudes, who, from the sound of the English parts of their conversations, worked for a gold company in the Ashanti region (aside: these gold companies are a hot political topic given that they are destroying much fertile land for cocoa without proper domestic compensation. Yeahh...).
At first I just thought these German guys were working with/having dinner with a couple of female Ghanaian associates or something. Nope, they were hookers. I was sitting by myself watching the surf, hoping to be left alone.
Enter Alice.
Alice: Do you have something nice for me?
Me: What?
Alice: What is your name?
Me: Ummmm, John. (I did not realize the irony of this name choice at the time, but now it seems appropriately hilarious.)
Alice: Ooooh, that's a nice name. I'm Alice.
Me: Uhhh ... it's nice to meet you, too.
Alice: So do you have something nice for me?
Me: Ummm, no.
(awkward silence)
Yeah, so she ends up sitting at my table for like 10 minutes while I finish up eating. And then:
Me: Uhhh, waiter, I'd like the bill, please.
Alice: Oh, well I should go freshen up, then.
(she starts to leave)
Me: Waiter, keep the change. Alice, it was nice to meet you.
And that's where I decided to bail (and because a cab had just pulled up, thank God). Anyways, that was my first attempt at finding something social to do in Takoradi on my own, and it was a bit more than I expected. I got back to my hotel around 9pm, just wanting to watch BBC World News (thank God for the BBC). I suppose I'm here to do fieldwork so if my nightly entertainment consists of BBC programming (hey, at least it's intellectual, right?), then I guess I'm cool with that.
Of course, on the weekends, it appears that the BBC doesn't come on (many hotels in Ghana have South African dish network) until after the (apparently free...) South African porn is finished up. Par for the course, I suppose.
What a night ...
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