Amsterdammed

A three minute walk down to Kaneshi market on Darkuman takes you to Amsterdam. A 24/7 liquor and beer shop. From 20:00 onwards there is teras as well. Nice to escape to when Lovers closes. Stay away from the liquor or you may got Amsterdammed.

Amsterdam: 24 hour beers, liquor and terras

Kaneshi Car Part Market

Let’s check out some business, I was thinking, so I went with Clement – a local baba from Lovers – to the Kaneshi car part market. Incredible. The Kaneshi market erea is probably 4 to 5 KM-square. Everything you can think is available. Thousands of shops and stalls, visted by a vibrant crowd. The car parts section is one of the biggest in Africa and probably in the world. People from as far as Mali and Benin flog to this huge resource of spare parts, new and used. The funny thing is that the trade isn’t organised by car brand but by type of part. So every shop or stall sells just one kind part of parts or part category: axels, brake shoes, valves, bulbs, you name it.

Kaneshi car parts market - homokenetics (axels)

Kaneshi car parts - bulbs

Krokrobite (croccobeatay)

I spent the (long) weekend at Krokrobite, the beach side weekend escape from Accra for volunteers and backpackers alike. With good reason. Big Milly‘s is there. A resort blending decent food, a well stocked bar, beach front and a party atmosphere. Friday nights there Ghana style drumming and acrobats. Saturday is regea night featuring a life band. The set and setting faintly resemble an eco-lodge. Very well organized, though, with very tight financial control in place. Especially in and around the bar. For every drink you write a note with name, drink, room# and date. The bar guys (photo) consolidate this in the late (or better: early hours). The staff counts the inputs (beers, soda’s, liquor). An airthight system. Poor guys. First you have to listen to all the crap of the crowds. And when they are finaly at sleep, you have to go for the bookkeeping. You may overhear fearfull questions like: “How is this possible, I’ve counted only 10 brandy’s and the brandy bottle is empty”. Monday morning I had a swim – Goan style. 15 minutes out into the deep. Float for a few minutes. Back to the shore. This time was quite different though. I nearly drowned. A combination of underestimating the surf and a lack of shape. A lethal combi. Happily i am not really on a holiday. It’s sort of cynical when you drown while should enjoying yourself. And that on top of having your Panasonic T27 camera stolen the day before ….. and that really happened.