I will Travel to Elubo Ghana Today

I will Travel to Elubo Ghana Today

I am in Takoradi, Ghana in the Amenla Hotel, rooms start at 14 GH for the shared shower, and I have one with a shower for 20 Cedis. This is about 13 dollars USA, not a bad room, it has a television not that that is important in Ghana, I have yet to have any stations worth watching, this reminds me of Brazil, always a television, but nothing relevant to a foreigner to watch.



This is the Amenla Hotel, extremely convenient, however the Modsen or something like that at the head of the street next to the STC bus is the popular one with Backpackers. The Lonely planet recommend two Hotels, I have yet to see: You 84 Hotel & Restaurant and Zenith Hotel.

The Modsen has more street noise, and they have the bedroom surrounded by concrete which is hotter for more money. However, with two people white folk and opt for AC and pay less than me as a couple, if going Dutch. Truly the architect was drunk, they put the toilets at the wall area that is normally for windows for air.

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Takoradi, Ghana West Africa --- Thursday, December 30, 2010
by Andy Graham of HoboTraveler.com | Read Gadget Profile
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I feel like a Giant around the White Travelers
I have seen more travelers, or NGO has and Project workers touring around in Takoradi than any city so far, Ho, Mampong, and Koforidua were vacant of foreigners compared to here. I walked into the Modsen Hotel, (Spelling?) and there was a young couple, I keep thinking to myself,
"Is there ever an independent traveler anymore?"
"I never meet a lone traveler."

The girl is sitting on the plastic couch, the boy comes up the reception guy that is friendly and showing me all the badly designed rooms in the Hotel. The little white, shy guy does not make eye contact, I look at the girl, she makes a slight contact, smiles and averts.

I say,
"Hello white people."

No response, maybe they are Euros, who knows, and who cares, talking to wimps has about the same social value as talking to Ghana people who do not speak English well. I am always on the look out for a good energy restoring English conversation, with a touch of intelligence, some mental challenge, and the warmth of personality. I wish I could tell you what type of intimate conversations is needed, it would be good to know, how to recharge my emotional batteries. Generally, if I stop moving, it I stop the word "Travel," then the battery will recharge because the number of problems to solve subsides, my cognitive dissonance takes a break.

I feel like a giant, both physically and mentally around many of the white people I meet in Ghana, in Togo, the expats are about the same as me, except for the Peace Corps kids. They for sure feel small to me; I guess there are small personalities on the planet.

I was amused, 95 percent of the time at 6 foot, I am taller than the Ghana men are, however that 1 in 20 is about the same height, and there is the 1 in 50 that is 6’3" or 6’5". Well, one of the 6’5" men walked by me yesterday, made eye contact, and I felt the power, the confidence he had because he was bigger than me, it truly felt good to meet a person bigger than me. I do not like feeling big or more, or able to dominate.

When two people meet, if they are mentally and emotional equals, the larger, taller one will win the arguments, by pure domination of size. This is the variable that Americans in a politically correct, too stupid-for-rational-man way, think; there is this truly delusional belief that all people are equal. Equal rights, is not the same as equal.

I am not the same as you, but you do deserve 100 percent equality in respect, tolerance and standing in line. I do not deserve to go first class, just because I am bigger, smarter or richer. This first class mentality, with other classes below is the major problem on the planet; it causes people to treat others as inferiors.

Yes, I feel like a giant with the other white people in Ghana, but I say please, thank you, hello and try my best to not scare them by shear force of personality. The art of life it to somehow wash away the differences, so I am on the same level, if only just for a moment, to find that intimate meeting of the minds.





Elubo Ghana Border Crossing
I am excited to go meet Cynthia from Cote d’Ivoire tomorrow, I know I only have about a 30 percent chance she will show up, but there is hope. She is planning to come to Noe, she will call me, and I will go the Ghana immigration side and wait for her to cross. We should be able to stay in communication by cell phone, hmm; I could change back to the Orange SIM card, so we are both on the same county Telecom.



If you search in Google.com for "Elubo Ghana Hotel," there will be from one to three pages of HoboTraveler.com that show up, because I stayed in the Osamadi Hotel on about August 10, 2006, maybe about five years ago.

Elubo Photos 2006
Elubo Blog Post 2006

Fun to read these old Blog posts, which was when I was truly doing just a Travelogue, and kept information short and simple. There is no way to give readers the big picture, I try to write in a way to frame the stories, but the truth is, readers assume that all Blog post are the first, I have been to Ghana about three times, and this is the third time I will go to Elubo, Ghana.

I am not looking forward to the Hotel situation I stayed in the Osamidi Hotel in Elubo before, I guess I paid about eight dollars, and on a Global, valuation of Hotels is was worth three. Now, the entire 10-15 dollar hotels in Ghana are truly five-dollar hotels with Global Valuation, very low quality for money paid here in Ghana. The 50 Dollar hotels are just 15-dollar hotels in Thailand, however the foreigners do not have the global understanding, most are just comparing to the USA or Europe, and think if about the same, this is ok, does not matter that labor here is 10 dollars per day, and Europe or America is at 10 dollars per hour.

I have done about one-two hours of Hotel searching for Elubo, there is another Hotel called the King James, I am hoping there is one Hotel in Elubo with a feeling of clean. Cynthia will be coming from Abijan, she will travel about 4 hours, arrive at the border, if she leave early, she will arrive around 11;00 am, if she does not, than possible 2-4 pm. Nonetheless, she may or may not arrive, and if she does, does she want to go another three hours back to Takoradi?

New Years Eve
I am truly baffled, what is she thinking, she is not weighing the drunk factors of New Years Eve, all over the planet, and the world gets drunk on New Years Eve. Ghana or Africans are not big drinker, imagine that, Blacks do not drink much in Africa, does not fit the American stereotypes. However, they do not, in the Latino world, alcohol is a danger, and not truly, a problem in West Africa, I almost never run into sloppy drunks, trying to be arrogant wanting money.

However, New Years Eve is New Years Eve, and I hide on Holidays in my Hotel room and watch a movie or read a book, unless I have friends, just a time to find problems, or they find me.

What is Motivating Her?
Cynthia is from Cote d’Ivoire, she is studying English, we have talked only a few times, she is nice, intelligent and above average in functional abilities for West Africa. Cote d’Ivoire culture and people are generally more sophisticated than Ghana people are, they just speak French, and that makes the white travelers diminish Cote d’Ivoire. I consider Cote d’Ivoire as more modern than Ghana, however dirtier, the government has been in turmoil for close to 10-20 years, this probably make infrastructure problem.

Is she coming to Ghana to escape turmoil?
Is she coming to Ghana to see me?
Is she coming to Ghana on a 10-day vacation from School?

I will debate with myself whether to put a photo of here up, I normally black hole any truly close friends photos, unless they approve. My life will go on, her life will go on, and couples split, there is no reason to keep a long-term record of failed mates or companionship. I truly think non-married couples whom Blog continuously together as a couple should try to realize, life changes, and anger can last forever.

On the other hand, love is maybe the best reason to come to West Africa, this area of the planet has nice girls. While Thailand and the Philippines normally associate with girls and men are just two brothel countries, seldom does a man meet a non-working girl. More or less the men clean up the women, deny they met them in a bar, and try to wash the bargirl off them.

West Africa close the coast is Christian, open to cross cultures and this is great, only the black / white problem. Not a problem here in Africa, but if I married a black girl from Africa, she would have to be very mature and hard if she came to the USA. I believe she could and would listen to tons of American Blacks trying to gossip and cause problems. I wish another 100 years would pass in the USA, and maybe the African American in the USA would get the burr out of their butts.

It is truly enlightening to travel in West Africa, these people do not see whites as the enemy like the USA, and they see us as helpful. Pretend you have a large club or church in the USA, and suddenly a generous and extremely rich person joins the club, there could be lots of extra cash on the table, because of the generosity of the rich person.

This is how I feel here, the people always know, if I wanted I could add more money to the pot than normal. On the other hand, a few can get extremely greedy and become horrible if they want, but this is an extreme minority. Takoradi is aggressive towards whites, it is obvious they have learned how to high pressure and scare the whites out of money here. Strangely the women in Takoradi are extremely forward and friendly, but the people are aggressive Many women have been coming up to me here, but I am abused in the market. I cannot take photo without a big argument.

I do hope Cynthia comes across the border tomorrow.

One of the most painful thing of traveling is the constant let down by locals. The world in general is irresponsible, there is no way to depend on people, there is no social responsibility to me, they know they will never see me again, so they do not care, none of their friends will look down on them for being a liar.

Moreover, there is little mental process that happens in the minds of people from underdeveloped countries. When they say tomorrow they will do something, they are not trained, or have not learned, this means I have to do something today, to get ready for tomorrow.

The make a commitment, but do not think of all the implications of that commitment. I think of the word sublimation, does an American save money for the future, what percentage of people stockpile money, what percentage can work today, with the goal of benefiting more in the future?

It is easy to be great, think about the future more than today, but live one day at a time.

I will Travel to Elubo Ghana Today