The Benin Border

written by Nathan

 

On the border with Togo, we will not go to Benin. We have come as far as Aneho, the capital of Voodoo religion in Togo and apparently West Africa. People here have symmetrical scarification on their faces. There are goats and chickens a plenty; but we have not found that there are botanical shops or idols being sold in the street as advertised on Lonely Planet or other tourist info sites. What we are finding is that the people are very pleasant. We exchange all the French pleasantries we can think of on the spot, ‘Como c’est va? C’est va bien? Bon soir.’

As our taxi driver told us, voodoo is common in the villages. Actually, he said pueblos. The most unbelievable set of circumstances, you are not going to believe this, put us in a taxi with a Togolaise conductor who spoke perfect Spanish, (Brittany is getting REALLY annoyed here, in French speaking Togo, at my habit of mixing Spanish/English liberally with my tiny French vocabulary). But, the crazy part is not that Ignacio was so completely fluent in Spanish, the crazy part, super crazy, super loco to be mas exacto, our Togo taxi driver had learned his Spanish in Colombia!!

If any Voodoo spells were cast on me I have worn them well, while I sputtered and complained for more than an hour after choking on a fish bone at lunch, I was given a smart cure of swallowing large bites of Fufu (pounded yucca flour porridge balls?).

If you are not ECOWAS Community of West African States citizen, all of these countries are hard to visit on-the-fly. Benin, which was one of the most exciting conceptually to visit (especially since we will not make Gambia - close on the map of Africa - but really five countries north from here). Benin offers a 2 day Visa at the border ($20 US) which is fine if you plan to stay a while because you can ‘renovate’ your visa in the capital. But, this was an impossibility for us when coupled together with the fact that we are on day two of our 7-day visa to Togo. Actually, I have never been in countries before offering such short Visas. We had thought China’s 30-day Visa a Communist Era aberration.

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Ghana Visa

To friends and family who are more interested in our travelogue, my apologies, for this post serves only to get some information onto the internet. When I searched for relevant and current information on the subject of a Ghana Visa one month ago, there was an extreme deficient of information. Now I can add our experiences and inform others in similar situations.

The moral of this story is: while you can certainly get an emergency visa upon arrival in Ghana, it is quite expensive. But totally do-able and may be less time-consuming than the traditional route. My experience is with an American passport.

We did try to get our visas in advance, but it just didn’t work. The Ghana Embassy in Ethiopia was not only unhelpful, but verged on unfriendly as well. So we arrived at the Accra airport with passports, a small amount of cash, and hopeful smiles.

Although we debarked quickly from the plane and sped to the counter, we were the last to be helped at the Visa on Arrival desk. The staff were courteous, though filled with criticisms about our decision to arrive without a visa. Why do you have a desk here then?

An “emergency visa,” or visa on arrival for Ghana costs $150 USD. Rather expensive. We opted to get the 48-hour transit visa, only $20 each. In fact, this was all that we could do. We had $43 USD, and all airport ATMs were visa (we have mastercard). So, there wasn’t really an alternative, aside from booking a flight elsewhere right then.

So, we are here in Accra for 48 hours, and then we plan to catch a bus to Togo…beaches! When we informed the Visa on Arrival desk of our intentions to travel to Togo, they thought that it sounded like a good plan. They also mentioned that the Ghana visa is a great deal cheaper either at the main embassy downtown, or in Togo.

Since we have made a conscious decision not to travel with a guidebook, we aren’t really sure where we are going, aside from East, to Togo.

update: April 30, 2010
With our two day transit visas, we traveled to Togo by bus, which is only 2-3 hours by bus, and 5-6 cedis per person. Upon arriving at the border, we obtained a seven day Togo visa which cost us 15,000 Togo dollars each. We thought that we might go all the way through Benin to Lagos, but the visa for Benin was only two days, and cost 10,000 Togo dollars. Although unable to confirm our assumptions, we would most like need to pay again at each border to cross back through. While in Lome we visited the Ghana embassy and secured our 30 day visas. So, instead of paying $150 USD each at the Accra airport for a 30 day Ghana visa, we paid a total of $91 USD ($20 Ghana transit + $8 transportation to Togo + $20 seven day Togo Visa + $40 Ghana visa from the embassy in Togo + $3 in required visas photos that we forgot to bring with us + $8 transportation back to Accra) each. The excess of almost $60 paid for our hotels, food, and general fun in Togo. Accra is more expensive than Togo, so we made out pretty well.

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Blogging while traveling is rather difficult.

There is so much to write about, so little down time, and the motivation for sitting in front of a computer is fully trumped by our desire to explore and experience and engage.

so....here are some brief snapshots:

It is nearly 5am right now in Tokyo. I am still curled up in a fantastic sleeping bag that my mother got for us (two matching ones zip together for super cozy nights), atop a futon in a traditional Japanese room. The floor is covered with bamboo matting and sliding paper screens cover the windows. We have been fortunate to stay with a Miss Porter's alumni that lives in Tokyo; she graduated two years before I did. She has spent the last several years creating a successful model for shared housing in Tokyo: Come on Up. Yasuko was generous enough to offer us a room in a recently opened "Come on Up" house, right off of the Sumiyoshi subway line.

Nathan is still sleeping; he is determined to stay "asleep" until at least 6am. Though we were both hyper-anxious about the time change and jet lag, the process has been incredibly smooth. We slept very little on the 17 hour flight to Tokyo (N didn't sleep at all), and I demanded that N's watch be set to Tokyo time as soon as we boarded the plane. The first night in Japan we slept almost through the night, then pushed hard the whole next day, remaining outside and walking and walking and walking. I am awake at this early hour simply because after a delicious miso soup dinner on a cold night, I curled up in my sleeping bag to read my book....you know how the story ends. You blog when you can.

Yesterday morning was spent at the Chinese embassy submitting our visa applications. Although our original plan was to secure our visas while in Washington DC last week, we realized that nearly all embassies are based on districts, and as residents of the Gulf South, we were required to go to Houston for our visas. Wham, Bam, no thank you Ma'am. We opted to try out the embassy in Japan instead. Although very chaotic, we achieved success and go to pick up our visas on Monday.

A great deal of our time in Tokyo has been spent wandering: studying the map and the compass (yes, I bought a compass for this trip) and meandering through the densely compact city. We also have been using the very convenient subway system, and are enjoying the cultural and sociological insights we gain through observation of public transportation. We are amazed by the kindness, honesty, and helpfulness of the Japanese culture. Each time we find ourselves stumbling, a kind stranger magically materializes and extends a helping hand.

I have some awesome photos to share, but can't seem to find the camera cord, even with the help of my trusty headlamp. They will be added later.

xooxoxo
b

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Gaylord and Saints

Well, here we are at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center outside of DC, watching Anthony Bourdain on the Food Network. After the slightly stale bagels at the continental breakfast, the camel carcass is looking surprisingly good.

Yesterday we had a fantastic time with our good friends Sara and Monica: a lazy morning was followed by watching the HIGH DRAMA saints vs. redskins game at Nellie's, the local sports bar.

walking to Nellie's

Many thanks to Sara and Monica for the fabulous CHICKEN PURSE! Be sure to check it out at all future Jazz Fest's.....it will certainly be a staple.

What a game!!! 12 -0!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GEAUX SAINTS!!

New Orleans truly deserved this and EVERY win...we are proud of our Saints!

Several bloody mary's and beers later, we scurried home through the freezing cold to eat delicious neighborhood pizza, model flourescent colored wigs, and enjoy their warm and cozy home.

Right now we are focused on two projects: using the Miss Porter's network (where I went to high school) to locate contacts in east asia and in africa, and getting travel visas for China, India, and Ghana. The former is going swimmingly, the latter is more challenging than expected.

It appears as though we may be securing the majority of our visas while we are in Tokyo, which will unfortunately dramatically cut into the eight days we have there. Our pre-departure New Orleans projects certainly consumed the majority of our time leading up to this adventure; we are now already paying the price. However, I'm sure that no one reading this blog is surprised...we are oftentimes flying by the seat of our pants. It usually seems to work well for us, but certainly increases MY stress level.

more updates later..

oxoox
brittany

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