After our little adventure with the monkeys we headed south to spend some time in the city of Kumasi. The road into the city is notoriously bad for traffic congestion aswell as people congestion, this is due to a huge market in the centre which overflows onto the streets almost everyday. I was not therefore surprised that progress was pretty slow and steady as we crawled in trying to locate a suitable place to stay.
After a few slanging matches with some local taxi and bus drivers we arrived at the Presbytarian Mission Guesthouse. This was a good walled off compound with plenty of room for the car and even a rather grand lawn suitable for pitching a tent on. We opted for a room as it was almost as cheap as camping and after Tamale we were getting used to the little luxuries! The guesthouse was right in the centre of the city and so we managed to stroll in on many occasions to check out the sights. One of our favourite passtimes was to buy a glass of yoghurt and a pastry cake in the stall round the corner, exciting eh?
It was decided that after nearly running over most of the market traders the day before we should go and brave it on foot and see what they sell.
Kumasi market is reported to be the largest market in West Africa. With this in mind we prepared ourselves with a quick beer in a local bar before heading in. The sheer number of people make the experience quite daunting but after a few minutes it is clear that everyone has something to do there, whether it is buying or selling. Although easy to get lost in, the market spreads out in an area of low lying land so you always have a reference point to guide you through. Most of the items on sale in the market were normal foodstuffs and clothing etc. and however hard we tried to find the section with monkeys hands and vulture heads we couldn’t! (Sorry Mike no elephants foot umbrella stands either!)
