Bright Lights of Accra! Big Dreams for Order!

Who needs streetlamps when you can get the lights of cars stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic have theirs reflect and refract over all kinds of lights to create this mosaic of colours?

If there is anything I like about Accra is its singular ability to give you something to talk about!

I haven't even talked about these taxi-drivers waiting for passengers in a zone that has clearly been marked for them to remain only for two minutes!

This kind of cavalier attitude does not only come down to illiteracy (frankly, most taxi drivers are not!) but an obstinacy to not conform to order!!

But I still love Accra!;-)

Accra by Night

We get so used to the pictures around us that we oftentimes forget that the night brings a beautiful collection of sounds and sights--like this one--that cannot be emulated during the day.

Despite the reflection of the lights, one can still make out the cars and the streetlights. This was taken some fifteen minutes before 7pm on the '37' road.

A&C Shopping Mall at Night--A Litany of Lights!

I took this picture from the balcony of A&C Shopping mall one fine evening in 2005.

Although a bit blurred, the lights are this side of phenomenal!:-) You can guess that the two yellow lights are streetlights emphasizing themselves in the darkness...

South Africa's "GAME" Store Opens in the Plush Accra Mall

Last Thursday, I chose not to resist the temptation of visiting the "GAME" store that has opened in the plush Accra Mall, occupying some 20,000m2.

I understand GAME is a South African retail store, and is reputedly the biggest. Swell. Now, it's in Ghana, to do business. After many year's experience of shopping at "grande surface" malls like http://www.hypercarrefour.be, this doesn't particularly impress me. I am more concerned about the consumer culture it will begin to create in Ghanaians.

But that's just me!

One article here maintains the Mall is on account of Ghana's growing economy and its growing middle class...

I will certainly be a visitor to GAME, but not a regular one, as it is the other side of East Legon, where I work.

More pictures to come on the location so that one can place it in the context of the famed Spintex Road I keep talking about on this blog;0)

Yet Another Accra at Night Post

Not that it bothers me; far from it! It's just that I am confident that a year from now, I can bring here a picture of Accra by Night...with streetlights!;-)

I've said it before that there are many parts in the capital, where streetlights abound, but I am usually not travelling in those parts with a camera unfortunately! I'll do my best to bring you some of those of well-lit parts of Accra, even if with my mobile phone.

For now, this is a picture, taken from a strategic point on the Spintex Road, where I get to see cars coming and going.

Some are taxis; some private cars; some trucks.

I love the picture of headlights contrasted against a picture of the dark capital at night.

Miklin Hotel at Night: What a Difference Tungsten Makes

The title says it all: this is Miklin Hotel of Feb 20, 2007 fame (below), but this was taken with a "normal" frame--i.e.with a flash from a distance of around 200metres (if you count standing behind the gates of the hotel and the front that many metres;-) )...

...whereas this particular picture was taken with a tungsten style on my Polaroid digital camera. How do you find the difference? The blue looks very elegant, in my view...