Friday, May 6, 6.30 am, I am sitting in a bus to Accra. In front of me is Felix, who I could persuade to come to Togo with me for the weekend after being let down by an American girl - the US embassy warned every American to take extra precautions when traveling because of Bin Laden’s death. Felix has the same problem with his visa like me. We both need to go to Accra for an extension, which means bringing the passport to the immigration office there and going there again after two weeks to (hopefully) pick it up. To avoid this hassle, I want to go to Togo, see some things and get a stamp for 60 days when I cross the border back into Ghana.
The bus to Accra is a big bus and comfortable, I even think I sleep for a while. Accra itself is busy as usual, it takes ages to get through this traffic. Tudu station is even worse as we are not protected by a car. People shout at us to try to get us in their Trotro, pull our arms. Unfortunately we actually need their directions as their is no other way to find out which car goes to what place. Finally we are in a Tro that fills up comparatively quickly and leave the capital behind. Out of town, the road is lined with stalls. At first, they sell mangoes on small wooden tables and then water melons. The water melons are just piled up on the roadside, coming directly from the fields next to the road. I wonder, how much they sell like this. We drive along the coast without seeing the ocean but flat green landscape. Only the last bit is not a tarmac road. I go through some french vocabulary in my head. Aflao is the small town bordering Togo. When we arrive there and stop for the first passengers to alight, men offer us to guide us across a “simple” border. However, we rather stick with the official route and stay in the car until the final stop. It is a normal car park and we don’t know where the actual border is. As we start walking, men wave at us with bank notes. Unofficial money changers. Looking a bit lost, a young guy offers his help and shows us where we have to cross the border. He even gets into a fight for us with a very stubborn money changer. At the crossing, we are directed to the Ghana immigration office. Our new friend accompanies us although he tells us, he can just cross without showing a passport or anything. Felix and I have to fill in a form. When the officer looks at my passport, however, she says my visa is not valid anymore. I try to explain that I extended it and show her the stamp I got in Cape Coast for my first three months extension but she insists that if I go to Togo and come back to Ghana, I will have to buy a new visa on arrival for USD 150. She is right. My multiple entry visa is valid for entry within three months which have already passed. The “visa extension” I bought in Cape Coast is actually a permission to extend my stay, not the visa itself. Felix’s visa is still valid so he crosses the border, has a look at Togo’s capital Lomé and comes back after about one and a half hours. Traveling back into Ghana, he even gets the stamp for 60 days. So it was not all in vain.
