Accra Goes Bowling

The entertainment industry in Ghana expands one notch this weekend with the soft opening of Harbin Entertainment Centre along the Accra-Tema beach road near the Teshie shooting range.

The centre comes along with the first bowling game facilities in Ghana. It is fully equipped with the state-of-the-art equipment for this physical endurance and highly entertaining game in which heavy balls are rolled along a special track towards a group of wooden pins.

The $1 million wholly-owned Chinese investment, located next door to the Next Door Beach Resort, is a multi-purpose joint that houses variety of entertainment games under one roof.

Standing on a 2,600 square metre ground and facing the Atlantic Ocean, Harbin Entertainment Centre promises to be arguably the biggest indoor games and entertainment joint in the country at the moment.

For a more physical affair, Harbin is a sure bet venue where you will be less a spectator and participate more in various games.

For a cool ?25,000 per bowling session, you can burn fat in your system and exercise your muscles on the 12-line bowling platform from Monday to Thursday, starting from 12 noon till the wee hours of the next morning. The rate is a bit higher at ?30,000 over the weekend and on public holidays.

There are also pool tables for those interested in the billiard-table. This facility is still under construction, just like the adjoining casino where slot machines and roulette tables are being fixed to meet the demands of the up-coming Christmas holidays.

Beyond all that, patrons can burn their tongues and upset their stomach on the largest selection of hot and spicy Chinese food ever assembled in one place in Ghana. The General Manager of Harbin Entertainment Centre, Zhang Hai Jao, thinks this country will see the best in contemporary indoor games and entertainment facilities when the place is fully functional by the end of this year.

Harbin shares a plot with the Acapulco Beach Resort, once a play ground for the upwardly mobile in the society in the 1970s. Now, Zhang is eyeing what is left of that magnificent swimming pool to add to the new entertainment centre.

When that happens, that stretch of the Atlantic Ocean will be boasting of the best developed stretch of the coast in the country, having already located the 5-star Labadi Beach Hotel, La Palm Beach Hotel, the La Pleasure Beach and the Next Door Beach Resort.