Author Archive

Travel Tips: Taking a Taxi in Ghana

So it’s Sunday and I’m in bed eating a very large mango and thinking about taxi drivers, waiters and bouncers. I have no patience for any.  And my current impatience has developed as a result of my very many experiences with them. Let me start with the taxi drivers.

Here in Accra my usual routine is to walk down my street to the side of the main road and wait for a taxi to approach. I live on the busy part of town so getting a taxi is not a problem. The problem is the taxi drivers.

The usual thing is to stop a taxi driver, tell him where you are going and ask him how much he will charge for the distance; depending on his mood he will either smile at you, look away or give you a monkey face and tell you a figure, (sometimes reasonable, sometimes not).

Unspoken Agreement: Always Bargain

In Ghana taxi drivers (and in fact all business people) have this unwritten and unspoken agreement that the buyer must always bargain with the seller. So you either ask for a reduction or tell him how much you are willing to pay. If he accepts you get on board if not you look for the next taxi.

But make sure you act confident about getting another taxi with the rate you are offering. This can actually make him accept your offer. See, taxi drivers in Accra are not very logical in their approach to their work. Maybe I just can’t figure out how they reason, but i think they operate on emotion: greed and pride being dominant.

Some taxi drivers would  rather drive around empty (and waste fuel) than take your offer which may be a few pesewas short of the rate they’ve become used to. With the bargaining process a driver may give in to your offer because you raised a good argument to beat his own or through the exchange you showed that you know the taxi driver-passenger system. Read the rest of this entry

HQ Wallpapers 1600×1200 - Travel - Part 21

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1600 by 1200 wallpapers in this archive a rare to find. especially Iceberg one and the Emrald too. Just look at the iceberg below and imagine how magnificant it would look on your desktop. These are very high quality, high resolution wallpapers in 1600 x 1200 format. I hope you would like them.

Eroded Iceberg in the Lemaire Channel, Antarctica

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Tripping - Argument With Taxi Driver

[ad#ad-2]Tomorrow I’m working in Cape Coast. I’m not amused. One of our volunteers there is causing trouble. I’m doing damage control. Our volunteers, one out of ten of them acts matured. The rest of the time it’s just like running a nursery school. It’s the pettiness that kills me. Anyways so I’m working in Cape Coast tomorrow, If I wake up.

Today, I worked on the refugee camp. Getting there was a 45 minute drive. I go there every Thursday on evaluation visits with our volunteers there. How things have changed! We now have volunteers who seem happy with the improvements we’ve made. Last year I had to deal with the devil and her cohorts. It wasn’t pretty, I had just been employed. Dumped into incredible chaos.

Today, only one out of the three camp NGOs, I scheduled meetings with was available as assured. Then, I had to run around the camp looking for the second person because she wasn’t where she said she would be. The third person was out of coverage area.

This morning I had an argument with the taxi driver I took to work. He wanted me to pay more. It’s very annoying when a taxi driver does that. I got to the road side flagged him and told him where I was going.

“2.50″, he said.

“I’ll give you 1.50″, was my response. Read the rest of this entry

A Guide to Thiland - Where to stay - What to Eat - What to see

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On December 26, 2004, The Mighty tsunami that hurtled into Southeast Asia, including the southern beaches of Thailand. This was the worst of natural disasters the world has known. Hundreds of thousands were killed. It also affected the life of millions of people. Exact number of people died will never be known. In Thailand Hundred of tourists and Thousands of Thais died.  Throughout Southeast Asiaand beyond that the total loss of life was in the hundreds of thousands.

Regardless of this, Thais are remarkably friendly and resilient people.  They retained their dignity and desire to live and help others. They rebuilt and returned to a normal life.

This book is one of Hunter’s Travel adventure series. It is not about tough treks into the unknown at cheap prices. If you were looking for that please stop reading and checkout other books.

Thailand, is a place that can provide a extreme luxury at bargain prices. You will never spend a night in Thailand without air conditioning, nor should you plan to do so. You will also not have to travel on buses with goats.

The real adventure in Thailand lies in Food. You will and should try everything – well almost everything – once.  Most of the times you will come back for more. You will never be far away from a television with news in the English language or a Phone that works. You will enjoy getting lost. But sure, you will be able to get back to hotel in time for dinner and always will be able to sleep in something that looks and feels like a bed or sort of… Read the rest of this entry