Holiday!

My last post was towards the end of January, and February was Board exam time for my daughter, and us too!! She has Board exams on loop this time of the year for three years and this year being the second one, we felt strongly the need to have at least a short holiday before school related activities for the next academic year (her more important one yet) started building up.

I was keenly waiting to get away from the usual routine and do… nothing! It was also going to be the first time we went away from our usual places of visit since i started using
the wheelchair outside the house.

Actually, we did travel to this place called Olde Bangalore, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, last year, for about two days. That place is totally wheelchair friendly, whether it is the entry to the resort, access to the dining area or the rooms — which, by the way, are tents about four or five feet above ground level. There are ramps everywhere! One could go all across the resort seated in a wheelchair. So it was a much needed peaceful two-day getaway. I would recommend this place to anyone relying on a wheelchair to move around. 

This year, our first choice was Lakshadweep, a place I had wanted to visit for many years.  However, the uncertainty of how the terrain would be for wheelchair manoeuvrability and the amenities available, made us decide on Goa, a place we'd visited several times before and were familiar with and liked immensely. We invited my parents too, so that I could spend quiet time with them when the father-daughter duo explored the countryside. It all seemed like a very good plan.

But we were in for an unexpected surprise!! Almost all hotels or resorts were only partially wheelchair accessible! It took us about 2 days of calling and checking with those establishments to explain that there would be a wheelchair user visiting who couldn't climb steps. In fact, most places just did not have a wheelchair with them or had only one!! It then hit me that differently abled people rarely go on holidays! At least it seemed so, in our country! Think about it, how often have you seen a wheelchair user or someone otherwise physically challenged at any tourist place that you've visited? I haven't. Hoping for necessary arrangements for physically challenged people, that too at tourist places, seems wildly far-fetched when even physically fit people often face sorely inadequate facilities and poor infrastructure. An old friend, herself physically challenged, once told me (from experience)that it is far easier for the physically disabled to travel overseas rather than in India. 

And so we stayed at two different locations during our 5 day vacation, to have some variety. The first had its dining area at a higher level. When we went for breakfast and were looking for the resort staff to help lift the wheelchair, a guest appeared out of nowhere and instantly offered assistance in lifting the chair. We never saw him after that.

When we went visiting the Kuladevata temples, because there were steps to climb everywhere, everybody except me went to take darshan. After lunch at a restaurant on our way back, I couldn't walk back to the cab from the restaurant entrance because of the intense heat. Again, the restaurant owner and another diner there helped carry the chair I was sitting in, towards the car!

At the second location, the resort staff were kind enough to assign one staff member to wheel me whenever we left our room. The dining area was at a distance and up a full flight of stairs! So everytime we had to go eat, three people, one at each side and one behind (because the steps were quite steep) would carry me up or down those steps! A very embarrassing situation indeed!

It was, however, a relaxing trip and I managed to read uninterrupted for long stretches of time, which I've not done for a very long time and is something I've continued doing after getting back and that has made me very happy :))

Because this resort was located on the edge of the beach and they had made a path of gunny sacks on the sand, I was able to be wheeled up to a certain distance on the beach.

I was at a beach after more than 13 years!

The gunny sack path was not a smooth one and Piku, the staff assigned for me, had to use his strength to wheel me. After a glorious 45 minutes of being by the sea with the sun ready to set, we headed back. We got stuck twice and on both occasions had random strangers offering help. One of them, was a recently married couple, with the mehendi on the woman's hands all but faded away, but the giveaway red bangles still adorning her wrists. Both husband and wife pushed the wheelchair as Piku pulled to get it out of the sand.

This trip turned out to be quite an eye opener for us as to how prepared we needed to be for a hassle free experience. Small tweaks like a ramp at one side, handrails in bathrooms are only minor design and architectural changes for these establishments but can make things so much easier for people who rely on these for basic movement. A world famous tourist destination, just not prepared to welcome differently abled people to its beauty, left me baffled and disappointed. A little bit of thought and sensitivity can always go a long way.