from la-palm royal beach hotel
well, it’s a new day and i’m ending it in a new hotel.
sunday, between the time we left the guest lodge to explore accra and got back that night, theresa discovered $200 USD and 100,000 GHCs (about $10 USD) missing from her room—luckily just a small portion of the total amount she had locked in her desk. she didn’t want to confront them and cause a ruckus, and she had no physical proof of the theft—she was even second-guessing having had the money in the first place.
bottom line, she didn’t feel comfortable staying there, breakfast sucked (toast and butter with tea/coffee), and internet was spotty/unavailable. so we decided to mention it to usaid and see if they thought we could switch to la-palm royal.
well, usaid got us their special rate, we showed up at the eastoment after work today, checked out with haste, got charged for a full night’s stay tonight (grrr), and took our leave. thankfully usaid had provided us with a driver which made it very easy to transfer our belongings to la-palm, which is opulent and luxurious and wonderful compared to the spartan eastoment—and it’s costing us the same amount!
the internet at the hotel, which i am using right now, is faster than at usaid! we’re staying on the ocean, the pool is amazing (apparently the largest in ghana), there is polynesian food at the hotel—which, by the way, is divided up into a dozen or so “chalets” each of which have about a 10 rooms.
this work that we’re doing is hard. it’s office/consulting work, and so a hotel that delivers a memorable experience is almost enough to make the entire journey worthwhile. theresa, who originally had opted for more modest accommodations on the advice of a colleague has completely come around to my way of thinking. and now she wants to go eat. so i may post more later—depending on how late this wonderful business center is open.
update: i’m back. there is a goodly amount of spaghetti in my stomach. we sat by the pool with the ocean breeze and ate and complimented each other on our good fortune. i hope everyone back home is well and looking forward to an exciting tuesday.
Note: These photos originally appeared in my photo galleries.
gee, Africa sounds lush!
Just one question: are you going to be able to watch the game, er, I mean the election, tomorrow night?
I hadn’t thought of that! You better have A: early voted and B: Early voted.
Make sure you let us know how the coverage is in Africa. I’m curious to see how the foreign press covers it. Blog it!
well, i’m 5 hours ahead. so, i’ll probably be going to bed around 11pm or midnight, which is only like 6 or 7pm EST–and judging by our last failed attempt at democracy, this one might stretch on. anyway, we probably won’t know anything until we get into usaid on Wednesday morning, which will be about 3am Wednesday your time.
at the crap hotel, we had international cnn, so no noticeable difference than the states. but i haven’t checked out the channels at this new place. these days i kind of expect that any international perspective you want to experience you can get from google news (iow, online).
if anything interesting happens considering that i’m working for a rather liberal, rather anti-bush us government organization, you’ll be sure to hear about it here first.
and of course i voted!!! kerry all the way.
You’re on the other side of the world (kinda) and you get spaghetti? So how about sampling some of the native dishes?
geez, two mentions about the spaghetti already. bandwidth kind of limited out here. i figured moving to a new hotel had some priority over the banku i had for lunch. fear not, native cuisine post to come.
Ooh la la!
What is Banku
Scott: Banku is “cooked fermented corn dough and cassava dough“