Flashbacks galore...contd

As days pass, words are forgottem, sights fade away, contacts might get broken but memories never leave...
Here are some of my most cherished moments spent in West Africa over these summers.





Adorable. Initially they were scared of a 'fair skinned' guy. In the end we became great friends though!


A completely unexplored beach at Cape 3 pts which was not mentioned in any tourist books. An undiscovered heaven (which is not necessarily a bad thing)



Accra...with its crazy hustle and bustle. This is West Africa at its chaotic and vibrant best.



At Cape 3 pts, the southernmost point of Ghana. Was the last stop during the roadtrip. I was feeling half dead anyway due to extreme exhaustion but was glad that i made it as this was one of the prettiest sights i have ever seen



Wli Waterfalls. At 200 mts they were the highest in West Africa. Yes we actually stood under them.



THe sight which defines the roadtrip across Ghana for me. Over 3000 kms in under 4 days, north, east and west of the country. Slept in buses all 4 nights. Trying to reach Mt. Afdjado- highest pt of Ghana after checking out Wli waterfalls. This was the way...
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Larabanga mosque...north of Ghana, travelled over 2000 kms throughout the day and the night to reach here. Was it worth it? You bet!!



View from the Elmina Castle, Cape Coast, Ghana. A living hell for slaves amongst the most heavenly surroundings...

Flashbacks galore...

West Africa Rewind...

A flashback into the most beautiful phase of my life...

Togolais Diaries: Ghana and back!

Le 21st Mai, 2009

Bonjour mes amis

Long time since I put up a post but this post just kept on getting delayed due to various factors.
The last few days have been particularly difficult to deal with but at the same time have been greatly rewarding. I have forged new bonds, met some great people, travelled around Ghana and Togo and met up people I really wanted to meet yet had to deal with some tough farewells and had to say goodbye to people I had absolutely come to admire and adore.
After an absolutely heady trip to the village where people lived in hell amidst the most heavenly surroundings one could possibly imagine, the days were used up in planning the trip to Ghana as well as meeting up with a great guy who works in the Ministry of Finance and Economics, Togo. Just the two days in that office uncovered some extremely shocking facts and figures about the country, which obviously I am not going to disclose on a public platform, like this but lets just say that it would make any person cringe if one had the luck to go through some of the documents. It was a grand building; made me really wish that the government would also show the same enthusiasm in formulating grand schemes of developing negligible existent public infrastructure for the benefit of the people of the country.
After haggling which each and every bank and paying a commission of a whopping 20 euros on my TC, I was finally prepared to go to Ghana, my mum’s homeland for a good 8 years. Crossing the border yet again, this is a thing, which I really like to do, imagine an invisible line separating air, land, people, culture, policies, nationalities, and languages. Kiddish as it may sound but just the feeling of walking over into a new territory denoted by all the things which I mentioned above really fascinates and at the same time, perplexes me. Unlike the last time when due to confusion regarding the visa, Dorienke and me ended up visiting Kpalime (not that I regret it of course, because it is stunning and had the good fortune to meet Amanda there), this time the visas were stamped on the passport and in no time we were across.
I have travelled a bit in West Africa and seen a few cities but Accra is extremely different from all of them. It almost feels like Europe if one visits it after going to cities like Lome, Cotonou, Porto Novo, Abomey and others. Everyone seems to have a car in Accra and the roads are in state of perpetual jam. There is crazy rush everywhere. Unlike Togo and Benin, motorbikes are hardly seen and mototaxis as a concept doesn’t exist.
This was the city where my mum stayed for most part of her teenage years so I had decided that I will find the place where she stayed but to my extreme disappointment, I found out that the place where my granddad had worked was sold out and the place which my mum had described over the phone had undergone sea of change. So no luck there.
Apart from this the stay was just fine. Met up with Amanda again, it was great to see her and being the one of the smartest girls I have met in a long time, it was an absolute joy to talk to her. The next day we left fro Cape Coast where all the Europeans had indulged in slave trade. Could only gape and stare in extreme horror as the guide told us stories of the torture inflicted upon the locales by the Europeans as he showed us around Elmina Castle. There we also paid a visit to the Kakum national Park, the major highlight there was a canopy walk which was suspended through ropes and overlooked dense vegetation 40 to 50 meters down. When a person walks on it, it creeks and shakes rather vigorously. It was great fun and unlike all the other people who were petrified while walking on it, the 4 of us were having races across the walkway by timing individual score. With great pride i have to say that i won that race and beat a local Ghanian boy in it as well!! But my joy was not shared by the others who were in the group and the tour guide who i suspect got cheesed off by this immaturity and they literally abandoned and left us in the middle of the forest and went ahead on their guide through the forest without us. What the heck man! Why do want us kids to grow up!! The innocence of childhood is seriously no longer appreciated in this world!
Amanda was leaving the next day for home, so went to see her off back to Accra and again, it was really tough to see her go after all the fun which we had in Accra, Kpalime. On this trip she has been one person who has really really inspired me by her beliefs and just her extremely easygoing nature and as such it’s an extreme delight to be around her. Going to miss her a lot. Trip to the States lined up as well. Period.

Went back that night to Kumasi, reached there at 1 in the night all alone, with a little cash and a phone battery about to die in a strange new country. I really don’t know how I pulled it off but I have to add that I was extremely lucky not to get into trouble. If the phone battery had died off on the way to Kumasi, I would have been probably sleeping on the street that night. : P
It was crazy and being a lil neurotic as I am, I LOVED it. Thrilling would be the word! Kumasi, which is the capital of Ashanti Kingdom in Ghana, too was a great city. Checked out the National Cultural Centre with its museum, which gave a good insight into the culture of Ashanti Kingdom. Apparently the king can never be found bare feet and if he is then from that moment on he is no longer the king. Also the current queen of the kingdom is not the wife instead the mother of the King!! Beat that! Doesn’t mean that they have a scandalous relationship or something but just that the wives of the King are just normal women and not the Queen. Cool concept.

That evening we were back in Accra and the next day I capped off my trip by visiting my mums school in the city. It was just fascinating to be there, see young girls in their uniforms and then trying to imagine my mum in that uniform as a young girl. I really hope that she does like the pictures.
Back in Lome, Babs had only two days so we decided to make the best use of the time by going to Brochette de la Capital, the legendary Lome institution which serves lip smacking African cuisine, partying across at Metro till wee hours of the morning. The next night, it was time for another farewell and this time it was the turn of Babs. By now I was prepared to see her go especially after seeing Dorienke and Amanda go as well and then in no time she was gone as well leaving behind only the funniest and the most adorable memories I have ever had with a person.
These past two weeks have been particularly tough with everyone whom I was close to, leaving around me, going back home and when I was just thinking about it in AIESEC office, I came across this list which was put up which specified the date and the timings of all the new interns who would be coming. There are like 8 of them all coming in end May and June. It was then that it just struck me that my time here was over as well. In a matter of 12 days Ill be back home and all the people whom I had met here, had the fortune to share my ideas with, had come to absolutely admire, forged lifelong bonds with would be only in my memories and new ‘Yovos’ would be here figuring out the country, continent, forming their own opinion about the people, culture, discover the African way of life, get their own ideas, just the way me, Dorienke and Babs had done here. Essentially our time here was over. Dodo and Babs were two people in Togo I was extremely close to, they had left, I would be leaving in some days as well and new people would come, forge new bonds and chart their own way and so the circle of life moves on. Time waits for none and it flies especially through the moments you want to hold on to and cherish forever.
It has been a long time since I got this philosophical but then Africa does to a person, or at least has done to me. Made me fall in love…. with the chaos, mayhem, culture, music, food, indefatigable spirit of people and above all life itself, it has pretty much changed the way I perceive things and some of the people I have met here have left a lasting impression on me.
Honestly when Ruhi called me today, it felt so good to hear the voice of my friend again and it made me miss my home, city and friends but still I am just not prepared or ready to go back. There is so much which needs to be done here, so much needs to be built here and above all people need to be taught to hope here, if I had my way I would have stayed on, don’t know for how long but would have stayed on and would have continued working. The fact that apart from family, friends and city, I return to those silly college jokes, extremely irritating Malhar discussions and its brain-dead events , inconclusive political discussions leading to nowhere and just general lack of depth in things back home also contributes to a large extent to my general hesitance to return but of course they cannot be avoided and I do have to go back.

P.S. After coming back, checked out Togoville, which is situated across the lake Togo. Did you know that Togo literally means On the other side of the river and this was the first town of Togo developed by the Germans who named in Togoville which meant, town on the other side of the river and then the entire country was named Togo. Like all Europeans in Africa, they came here for slave trade and then were pretty much successful till French wrested control of the place and then they pretty much ruined the place. It hasn’t still recovered. I hope it does, the people here deserve better and mankind deserves better!

Togolais Diaries: Dodo and the village!

Maison de Adebayor!




The village! Stunning isn't it??




Le 9th Mai 2009
Dusk envelopes the azure blue sky and the splatter of rain falling on the lush green leaves and trees with some smatterings of thunder providing an ominous warning for the time about to come is all I can hear as I write this somewhere in the middle of the way to reach the peak of Mt. Agu, Togo’s highest point at 949 mts inside a makeshift open hut of thatched bamboos and hay surrounded by the greenest setting one could possible imagine. Lush green vegetation, red parched earth now smelling of sweet rain with hazy mist gently enveloping the place almost makes me wonder that if there is actually heaven could it be possible better than this?

I am at Kpalime to work in a village to develop tourism in that place by conceptualizing and building the necessary supporting infrastructure for the same. For the past day I have stayed in a village based on this hill and the experience has been to put it rather crudely has been magical. Mud houses, red bricked houses with tin sheds, upheaval stone stairs meant to traverse the rocky terrain on the place which overlooks the greenest valley surrounded by hills. This is the setting of the one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in my life and I count myself lucky for this opportunity. Due to the often-false existing prejudices in the minds of most people, not a lot of people would visit this place in their lifetime anyway and it is a real pity because they would certainly miss a part of the world completely unexplored but which at the same time is enchantingly beautiful.

For the past two days I have been here, just soaking in the beauty of the place and on the few occasions when I am not overwhelmed I visit the sites of the village in order to understand the social conditions prevalent here and to visit various locations in order to see which of the could be possibly developed in order to ensure that few other lucky souls who come here have the requisite infrastructure to fully soak in the beauty of this place. I have had varied experiences in the past two days like staying in the village, experiencing their life, meeting the chief of the village who very kindly welcomed us with a bottle of his prized Gin (by the way he had Martini as well!), eating at his house, seeing the festivities of the village by night like playing with fire accompanied by typical rhythmic African chants, seeing first hand a general body meeting of the village which was frequently interrupted by songs and dance in which the women like everywhere else in Togo shook their bottoms rather vigorously. The place too has a rather upheaval terrain thus its pretty exhausting to go up and down to visit various places in the village but it is really rewarding with extremely beautiful sights greeting you wherever you may go.

The last few days have been a roller coaster ride with the extreme fun, which I have had while visiting the Voodoo fetish market in Lome, which was run by Beninese people as Voodoo originally is from Benin. The market was one of the most mind numbingly chilling/ disgusting which I have been to EVER. It had the skulls of every animal possibly imaginable like crocs, dogs, hyenas, leopard, antelope etc. etc., skins of snake, leopards, horns of antelopes, buffaloes, dead lizards, rotting mice, all for ‘medicinal’ purpose of course as claimed by our over enthusiastic guide who kept on claiming that we should listen to him because it was ‘very interesting’ to listen to him. After that he took us to visit the room of the Voodoo chief who turned out to be a guy in his late 20’s clad in a tee and jeans. We were told later that he was the ‘son’ of the Voodoo chief as the chief was very famous and was away on an assignment to Benin. We were introduced to small objects which bring luck and protection in various places like travelling (phone fetish), love (he claimed that we could land up with more than 300 people at the same time with it, the potentially scary thought didn’t tempt me much and the fetish object was way to small and obscure anyway), teak wood which he called ‘natural Viagra’ and would give a man ‘buffalo power’ to make love (Yes, he thought that this would induce me to buy it! Yes, me because I was the only man as the others were Dorienke, Babs and her mom who had come the night before). Refusing to give into this pretty pathetic sales pitch and also very well aware of the fact that this place was a perfect tourist trap, I refused to buy anything. This kind of cheesed off the guy who expected everyone to pick up stuff so he very bluntly told me to get out of the place as the room was a ‘holy place’, fit enough for only those who wanted to buy things. I gladly obliged. This gave me the opportunity to check out the compound while the other three tried their luck. The place as I described earlier was extremely disgusting and a good half an hour later, we finally left. Even though the place was anything but appealing, it did give an insight into a new culture albeit in a highly commercialized way. Still was good to check it out.

After this we went to another mind numbing place, the grand market of Lome. This place is always an exhausting destination, simply because one has to bargain for each and everything and every shopkeeper personally wants to be your friend and then he’ll show his ‘own work’ in his shop and will very innocently whisper in the ear that since he was a friend, he would give a very good price which would be pretty exorbitant anyway and you are supposed to bargain at 1/3rd of that price. So much for friendship! This story is repeated in shop after shop and lane after lane. To emerge from the market after buying what you intended to/ or did not even dream in your wildest dreams is like emerging from a battlefield, exhausted, irritated, drained out and frustrated. Anyway this day was special, apart from the fact that Dorienke was leaving, we bought two jerseys of god of Togo, Emmanuel Adebayor, one national and one Arsenal and in the most touristy decision ever, went to check and gape at his house in the town. In no time we were there and a grand house under construction with a circular top floor, with a white statue of liberty on top of it with a football on top of the torch greeted us. Ridiculous as it might sound, we put on the jerseys of Adebayor turn-by-turn and shouted out his name and posed for pictures against the backdrop of his house. No surprises then that in no time we were the ones who became the ‘attraction’ as the people around had a good laugh at this extremely immature behaviour by 4 ‘Yovos’ but what the heck, it was awesome fun and something I am going to remember for a long time to come.

After this it was time for Dorienke to pack up finally and catch her flight which was due in 4 hours so after changing the 4 of us met for our last evening together, very fittingly at bar ‘3K’ which has been my favourite hangout joint here with the spaghetti salad to kill for. It was pretty emotional to just sit there and reflect on all the great times that we had and in a few hours the 4 of us would never ever come back together again and in a few days Babs was leaving as well. The occasion made me extremely sad to be honest but a man must do what he gotta do so that was to keep his chin up in such times to pretend that everything is normal and fine and smile even though nothing is. Sometimes really tough to be a guy, that was one such occasion. As it happens the time one dreads always comes way sooner than one expects and in no time it was time for Dorienke to leave and this time it was really tough to hold my emotions as I saw her leave through the glass pane when she waved at the three of us. All the memories just came flashing by, Benin, graduation party, Kpalime, Porn motel, Pool, NLDS, cooking spaghetti, Indian food and so many others. Don’t know when was the last time I felt this emotional. I do sincerely hope that I do get to meet her again. Some bonds just overgrow the actual time spent together and maybe this was just was one of them for me. Looking forward to meet her and Babs at some point in my life again.

P.S. Applied for the visa of Ghana so should be there next week, though I do have to overcome some challenges there and I am also confused about which place to visit but I am sure that it will get sorted out.
The work too looks promising after a lull in between. I have completed my policy document, which appears to be promising according to the initial feedback and now I am waiting for a meeting to be granted with my N.G.O. so that I can duly present it to them. The meetings with prospective partners should follow soon.
Also ate at the Lebanese rip off of McDonalds here in Lome, the place was called ALDONALDS!The name was accompanied by half the signature M of Mac! Though my burger had no meat as i am a vegetarian, it had only omlette with extra cheese and mayo and salad. It was pure gastronomic pleasure to get American junk after ages! mouth smacking delicious!!
26 days left and I almost don’t feel like returning just because of the sheer amount which I have learned here, the absolutely wonderful people I have met, the love which I have received from people, the beautiful places I have visited and so many more which I still want to visit but all good things must come to an end and as my other friends leave I do realize that my time here is coming to an end as well. One thing is definitely for sure that this is not my first and last trip to West Africa, the visit to Mali is due, right Do? :)

Togolais Diaries: Ewilooo 09

Le 6th May, 2009
Bonjour!

It seems almost unbelievable as I sit dsown to write this. It has been a month since I arrived here in Togo and the time seems to have passed in a flash. I doubt that there has been another month like this which has opened my eyes to so many things and made me realize so many things and made me discover a facet of life which I didn’t even know existed.
At this point last year, I was still confused about the college, which I wanted to go to though my eyes were set on Stephens. There was still confusion within my mind whether I would do C.A. or take a ‘risk’ and do economics. One year hence I almost feel proud of choosing the subject which I wanted to take and at the same time experiencing so many different things like going to Pakistan, travelling to Chennai, Delhi, meeting different kinds of people but still all of those pale in comparison to my experiences here in Togo.
It was a kind of a dream to come and work here on a micro finance internship through AIESEC and many people merely scoffed when I told them that I was planning to do something like this. Honestly I wasn’t sure myself if I would seriously follow up on something so ‘ridiculous’ and actually go to Africa but then as time passed the resolve only grew stronger and finally this dream was realized on 29th of March when I finally landed at Lome international airport.
Tough at least initially, Africa and Togo grew on me. The hardships so visible initially, now inspire me to continue working here so as to make a difference in the lives of some people. The fact which I have realized that there is absolutely no purpose served in criticising the attitude of people here because their attitude has been shaped and moulded by the conditions both social as well as economic prevalent here. The biggest impediment to development here has been nothing else but the Government itself with its bureaucratic nature with a despotic head. As such people see no opportunities here with few openings in the Government sector and few opportunities in the private sector as well which, the government suppress through exorbitant tax rates, unfriendly business environment. So how can people be blamed if outsiders find their attitude unprofessional because the conditions prevalent here don’t necessitate a person to be professional and people in power are only to keen to make good use of their position.
One thing though I really feel that people like us need to watch out for is cynicism because it is just too easy to dismiss the country and its prospects for a better future but a change can be achieved only when it is actually aspired for so with hope in my heart and optimism in my thoughts I have set out to do something worthwhile with my life so as to make the lives of some people worthwhile.
Till now I have loved my stay here, have had a chance to travel a bit and see first hand the diversity of West Africa and appreciate its beauty. Its an absolute pity that this place and this continent in general has been so undiscovered. This fact has of course been compounded due the political problems here along with a non-existent infrastructure for tourism. Still nothing takes away the virgin beauty of the place. This is exactly what makes the place so heartbreakingly beautiful as well as completely enchanting.
On one hand I completely miss home and my city Mumbai with its bustling pace but at the same time somewhere deep down I am actually sad this great sojourn of mine is passing so rapidly and is soon going to end. The sights and sounds, the people I have interacted with, the talks on political problems of Togo, coping up with French, the excessively complicated named yet absolutely delicious local food, the music, the infectious spirit and energy are things which I am definitely definitely going to miss. But this feeling also coincides with an understanding, an understanding that I belong here and this is the work, which I would like to do all my life and would love to discover hidden treasures such as West Africa. Looking forward to my next month here and my life discovering unknown lands!!

P.S. Just returned from Ewilooo 2009, the NLDS of AIESEC in Togo. A rocking conference with an inspirational chair who was the President of AIESEC in Nigeria. People from 9 countries including ones from Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Netherlands and of course me from India were present apart from the AIESECers from Togo. To describe it as an absolute fantastic experience would be an understatement. Met such different kinds of people from different nations, cultures, languages and even races but what the heck one thing which I realized that more different these factors are the more similar are the people. Sure there are cultural differences all right but then what comes through is the common human spirit to actually strive for excellence and work for a better future. It was fantastic to dance late into the night (A hallmark of every AIESEC conference), learn new roll calls, make people dance to tunak tunak which just keeps on growing in popularity, teach them our very own malhar shout (Dhaka laga laga laga!! Hoo Haa Hoo Haa!!! Yes!! No kidding ). The amount of love and support, which I received from people, was overwhelming to say the least. They openly thanked me fro being so nice; the messages, which I got at the end of the conference, are something, which I am going to treasure for my entire life. Made dozens of new friends for life, got invitations to attend countries like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Burkina Faso and today if I visit these countries I know for sure that there will be people who will willingly host me and make sure that I am taken care of. Truly the power of AIESEC in absolutely fantastic, this I have realized after attending places like Pakistan, Togo and honestly has made me fall in love with the organization all over again.

The coming week though doesn’t look very promising as the two Dutch interns in whom I found great company and fantastic friends are leaving for their country and thus I will be the only foreign intern left here in Togo. Not a very comforting thought as I am definitely going to miss them and the whale of a time we had travelling to Benin, Kpalime, roaming on the streets of Lome, sitting at random bars and having what else but spaghetti, shopping for African stuff, trying to cook eatable food (which did turn out to be pretty awesome), throwing random surprises and just talking and being for one another in this new land. Though one thing is for sure that now I definitely have to make a trip to Netherlands as well to meet two of the nicest and fun loving people I have met in a long long time and I think I have been able to convince them to come to India as well. So should be cool. Rest is pretty normal as such if anything here can be referred to as normal here. Have eaten more beef and even chicken though the thought of eating fish still absolutely disgusts me. But then I don’t want to turn into a non-vegetarian so planning to give up non-veg voluntarily to preserve the integrity of all the animals including the very delicious cows as well!

One month left for my trip to end. Looking forward to travel more, to Ghana and maybe to the north or if I am extremely fortunate to the place where I want to go the most, Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Lets see how it shapes up.

Benin: Contd......

Le 21st Avril, 2009

Bonjour

Memories, images, experiences jostle with each other to be expressed as a sit to write this. Its on few occasions of my life that im ever at a loss for words, this moment happens to be one of them. I am unaware of the correct word which might explain my experiences in Benin over the past weekend. Maybe i can call my trip: crazy, incredulous, breathtaking, fascinating, an eye opener or just downright memorable!

We took a taxi from the market of Lome to Cotonou which is the main administrative center of Benin and its commercial capital as well. The thing with the taxis here in Togo and Benin as well especially the ones which ply across the countries is that they stuff people inside them. So in the front seat instead of two people including the driver, 3 people sit and on the back seats instead of 3,4 people are made to sit. This small addition of 2 people certainly isnt very helpful for the comforts of ones back or his bottom which get entangled in weird angles and positions.
The border of Benin was a two hour drive from the city and after doing with our immigration i was finally stamped out of Togo, not sure as to how would i return because i had with me only a single entry visa which means that you can enter and leave that particular country only once. I had entered on the 29th of March and now i was stamped out. Trying hard not to think about this absolutely ludicrous decision of mine to take such kind of a risk in a foreign land, i encountered pretty unfriendly sights while crossing the border by foot. The locals of Togo do not need a visa as Benin and Togo along with other West African nations are a part of ECOWAS(Economic community of West African nations), something like the EU, still one really fat Togolese soldier who can at best could be described as a mix between Yokozuna and a rhino pushed a man so hard that as a resultant effect of his push some 5 people after him too fell backwards on the ground centimeters ahead of me. Being with two white girls definitely has its advantages as he let us pass without even raising an eyebrow and soon enough we had walked past Togo and entered Benin.
Of course the feeling this time just wasn't the same sa last time when i had crossed the border on road between India and Pakistan but still it does give a person a sense of wonder to see that a gate separates land, humanity, air which essentially is the same everywhere!
Soon enough we were at the Benin's side of immigration and here i encountered another scary omen, a huge African guy nearby started shouting at the top of his voice and suddenly there was army all around him who pinned him, caught his hands and took him into a room just behind the guy who was stamping our visas and 8 army people surrounded this guy and took things like wooden rods, belts, whips inside with them. Spine chilling to say the least. I hope that the guy is doing well now.
After this rather eventful border crossing we continued in the same taxi and reached Cotonou soon enough. The town of Cotonou is maddening to say the least! At 10:30 in the night it was full of traffic, honking cars and zipping motorcycle taxis (called zemie johns according to Lonely planet). There were no traffic lights where we got off but there were neon lights so in the traditional sense one may refer to Cotonou as more developed than Lome if more cars, traffic, pollution, noise, neon lights can be a pointer in that direction. My host Sam has an uncle in Cotonou and so to meet him we took a 'zemie john' to his place. I have to admit the ride was by far THE most scariest, hair raising thing i had ever experienced. The moto taxi driver was cutting all kinds of heavy vehicles, passing between places so narrow that i could actually feel the my jeans brushing past other vehicles. Finally we reached the place (alive!!!), it was in the middle of nowhere if it can be called that because we crossed so many watery puddles formed on mud roads, taken many winding and hairpin turns and had left the main road far behind when we finally reached there. There were no other form of human movements there except the 4 of us and were put up at a motel close by.

After a rather uncomfortable night due to the fact that the pillows were really not cosy and also because we discovered that the bathroom did not have a door and it directly faced the bed,we woke up next morning, kicked to check out this promising country!

First up we went to Ganvie, which is reached after traveling 12 km in a boat through a lake Nakoue. It is essentially a cluster of villages built in the sea and it often referred to sa the Venice of West Africa because the huts, restaurants, bars, shops are all surrounded by the lake and one can commute only through a boat. This place was absolutely fantastic. The people here do have queer habits. THe women are especially averse to getting their pictures clicked. Infact if you notice the 1st picture of the previous post then you will see that the girl is hiding her face to prevent getting clicked. Also the locals here call a white person 'Yovo' and being a brown skinned, it did sound odd but i too was being referred as a Yovo. All the children here, some even as young as 2 years of age would surround us and shout Yovo Yovo cadeau (gift in french). Wherever we went these chants in their sing song fashion continued. SO much so that now when i am back in Togo i actually miss people shouting Yovo Yovo cadeau at me!! This has also become our way of greeting each other these days!! Truly hilarious.
Another thing which was pretty funny was that at one of the bars where we had stopped our boat to buy some souvenirs and get a drink, we came across a pretty looking brown skinned girl which my host and the 2 dutch girls decided was Indian and as a result should hook me up with her. As it turned out she lived in a hotel opposite the bar in the middle of the lake. So these two extremely crazy Dutch girls go and just enter her room where there were two other local boys. They sweet talked them to get inside, woke up the Indian girl who was sleeping and had a nice chat with her and another American girl who was with the group too. I have taught them to say in hindi, 'mujhe tumse pyaar hai'. Now for some reason the girl thought that it was incorrect and the dutch girls replied to that our friend from India has taught me that. To their super excitement she replied back saying that in that case she would like to meet this 'Indian friend' of theirs. Thus i got hauled up by the their super excitement and came face to face with her. Apparently her dad was a Xavierite and had shifted to the States. All of us had a nice long conversation about everything and nothing. After this rather random meeting we went back to the shore on the boat again. After this rather enjoyable boat ride due to a nice cool breeze, warm and a bright azure blue sky, it almost gave a feeling of being a vagabond.

Soon enough it ended as all great things do and we were off to the capital of Benin Porto Novo. The mini van which we took was an extremely crowded one with people stuffed in like hens in a poultry van. Though it did give a chance to see things and people way more closer than a normal tourist ever would. The chants and the scramble of the vendors trying desperately to seal their wares to people inside. The sights, noises of the city of Cotonou, the way of dressing of people of Benin were all rather vividly noticeable and apparent throughout that journey.
Porto Novo as a city is completely different from Lome and Cotonou. Whereas Lome is bustling dotted with bars which occupy every nook and corner of the city playing loud music, Cotonou was simply maddening with its sea of humanity coming from anywhere and everywhere. Porto Novo though was a very relaxed city, the kind where one would assume that life would take its own course, the bars were missing and the roads were winding with a cluster of houses lined up. It was an absolutely delightful place to relax and just observe the diversity of the Western part of this beautiful continent. The motel this time too was extremely weird to say the least as the bathrooms again did not have a door, there was a large horizontal mirror placed parallel to the bed, there was a red night lamp and the tv showed porn movie (for those of you wondering what kind then it was ebony porn but not that it interested me), pretty creepy to say the least but then i guess thats the pitfalls which comes with a budget tour of a place.
We hit the bar around town after resting for some time where for the want of any other vegetarian option i had spaghetti again!! Here i tasted beef again after the day we ate dutch food and i must say that im not a fan of it or anything but its pretty decent!
In the mood to dance, we decided to go to a bar with music as the bar in which we were in showed only a TV channel which had pictures of all the people who had died! Disturbing and not the kind of place where one would ideally like to be after a bottle of beer. Anyway the bar where we finally went turned out to be even more disastrous as there were only 4 girls in there including the 2 with us and it was full of men. Now this kind of a gay bar isn't exactly the one where one would be tempted to dance anyway. SO a couple of drinks later we were out of that place and crashed in our rooms of that extremely suggestive motel where we were put up.

The next day we decided that due to lack of any 'tourist' attractions at the city we will go to Abomey which was 150 kms north of Cotonou as there the Dahomey dynasty which according to lonely planet was very gory and had acquired wealth by indulging in slave trading with the French had a palace which was also a UNESCO world heritage site.

After checking out the GRAND MARCHE which was tres petit and very very quiet as compared to the city of Cotonou and the GRAND MARCHE OF Lome as well, we headed to Cotonou to catch a connecting taxi to Abomey. The taxi ride as again was uncomfortable for a persons essential body parts due to the tendency here to stuff people inside but anyway we did successfully reach in a single piece to Cotonou and caught a connecting taxi to Abomey.
The countryside was stunning to say the least with lush green trees, plantations, mountains in the background. Picturesque!
The drive was a long one for about 4 and a half hours. Finally we were at Abomey and maybe to welcome us the skies opened up and it poured to quite a while like cats and dogs. As a result, puddles of waters, running lakes on the streets were formed la our very own Mumbai and i couldn't help but just smile at the similarity of the situation. But all the similarities ended here because the town was a quaint one with small streets and by lanes, even more relaxed and slow than Porto Novo itself. A beautiful place!
It was already night and was pouring, as a result we decided to stay indoors and check out the city the next day. Finally the next day we set out to get a glimpse into the graphic past of Benin and a large chink of West Africa. The museum, which essentially was a restored palace was a World heritage site as well. Graphic and gory images and colourful carvings of sadism, heads being chopped off, brutal killings, lions and other animals adorned the walls of the palace. This palace was nothing like the majestic ones back in India but infact had thatched huts which one would normally associate with houses in rural India but to our horror we realized that many of these huts were built from mud and blood of enemy soldiers who had been killed in battles. There were other things like skulls kept inside a shaft made out of horse hair meant to ward off mosquitoes but the throne which was mounted on 4 human skulls was downright spine chilling. People talk about the gory and primitive or if i may use the word unevolved past of the continent but here i had the first hand chance to see the brutal deaths depicted by pictures, paintings, gory deaths and processions in which the women were hacking men to death.
The tour also made me come across some rather strange facts, one was the that in the Dahomey dynasty, women were better soldiers then men so often in a battle an army of women would be sent. I obviously did not believe it initially but on later i could completely understand it after seeing the images in which women displayed their raw brutality in killing men. In one of the pictures, one guy was being burnt in flames tied to a tree while two women were simultaneously shooting them and one of then was hacking him with a sword!! The Dahomey dynasty also acquired modern weapons from the Portuguese, Dutch, French and the Germans who trade them in exchange of 15 women with perk breasts (yes thats right!!!) or 20 able bodies slaves. Also one of the kings here had 4000 wives! Yes sir, four thousand wives!
Unnatural as it might sound but as i interact with more and more people this fact becomes digestible because the last president of Togo had 106 children only officially, locals say the number could be close to 300 or something, fathered from uncountable number of women. The current President too has around 70 wives and many many more to come according to people here and pologamy is legally allowed and freely practiced in Ghana, Benin and Togo.

After this rather insightful tour, the pictures of which i could not take because photography was prohibited, we had a much needed lunch served to us by rather unfriendly waitress. We got a taxi back to Cotonou from where we took a taxi to Lome. The immigration was a breeze on the Benin side as the officials seemed way to happy to host two beautiful dutch girls ( i have to admit that their presence is a blessing because then everything becomes pretty simple and officials dont seem keen to harass you, maybe i should send this point to lonely planet as well!). The shock came on the Togo side of the border.
As explained before i had a single entry visa and instead of harassing me, taking bribes from me or issuing a new visa the official at the border simply stamped my visa again and then in no time i was inisde togo on the same visa! Dont know how he made that mistake but surely it was a blessing for me as i did not have to pay anything or wait for a new visa though i hope that it does not give me problems when im flying back to India!!
So this was my trip, crazy because of my decision to go on a single entry visa, incredulous because i actually came back on the same visa, memorable because of the sights and sounds like Yovo Yovo cadeau!! and the Dahomey dynasty and Porto Novo where we went to a gay bar (well almost!!) Still cant choose between any of the words to ill settle for a cliche UNFORGETTABLE!!

Benin: Undiscovered beauty!

Le 20th Avril 2009

Bonjour!!

Over the weekend i visited along with 2 dutch girls and my host Sam, neighboring country of Togo, Benin, the country where the religion Voodooism was founded. Along with this it was also home to the gory and extremely ruthless Dahomey dynasty which got rich by indulging in slave trade with the French.
Some times words fail to emote effectively what a person feels, and as of now im in that state, so no words, only pictures for now!!