Thank you for shopping at the Kumasi Kwik-E-Mart

Hello from Kumasi--Ghana's 'second city' and the heart of Ashanti! I am here until Friday, and have been having an amazing time so far.

Quick recap:

I spent basically all of yesterday on a bus for what should have been a 4-hour ride. Ended up being 8. Didn't help that I also didn't get to leave until 3 hrs after I'd planned on. Yayyy for Ghanaian traffic! The two days before had basically been logistical nightmares, but I was lucky to be sitting next to this really nice high-school kid who was fascinated by the US and Harvard, so I was glad to make a new friend. Plus he bought me lunch. And just like that my faith in Ghanaian hospitality was restored.

The bus ride was so absurd that this one guy in the back started cursing out the driver. He just couldn't believe why we were approaching hour 6 of a 4-hour ride. Clearly he was not from around Ghana ... Yeah, delays are definitely a fact of daily life.

Anyways, I got to my hotel around 8.30pm, exhausted and starving. My room is basically a cottage, which was probably built during the British Empire. It's got everything you'd expect: the peeling imperial floor tiling, peeling yellow paint, a rickety ceiling fan (no AC), lighting is a lone lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and it smells of ... I dunno, colonial authority? The Bradt Guide describes the hotel as 'venerable'. Indeed. It is an experience.

I'll be spending two full days in Kumasi, and today was the first. I journeyed up to the National Cultural Centre in the morning, and it is decidedly less hassle than the one in Accra, though you still had your fair share of aggressive artists and hangers-on. I saw quite a few artifacts of Ashanti history, including the fake Golden Stool given to the Brits by the Ashantis, authentic royal kente cloth and the staffs/swords of office of the Ashtanti king. Very cool stuff.

I also did quite a bit of shopping at the Cultural Centre, and picked up a sweet drum (we are so gonna drive the neighbors crazy next year), an oil painting, two Ashanti masks and various other trinkets. Quite the haul.

On another note, today I had lunch at the fabled Vic Baboo's cafe, which is basically like an embassy of South Asian culinary heaven nestled in the middle of West Africa. Saw quite a few of South Asians there, rubbing shoulders with the Brits and other conspicuous non-Ghanaians. Ironically, I'd also been craving samosas, but sadly there were none. But the menu was the most extensive I'd ever seen--literally hundreds of dishes, ranging from continental to Indian to Chinese. Of course, I got the margherita pizza (VEGETABLES I HAVE MISSED YOU SO MUCH), and it was delicious. Probably the best meal I've had in Ghana.

Okay, gotta cut this short as it's getting dark and I need to get back to the hotel.

Thank you, come again.