The Musical Lieutenant has sent us her story of becoming temporarily disabled on holiday this summer and her terrible trip home. It turns out that East Asia may be quite a lot better for wheelchair users than England is….
Over the summer, I was fortunate enough to go travelling in Asia. I was mainly in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (my home town) but also visited Singapore and various other places in Taiwan. All was going well until a week before I was due back to England when I twisted my ankle badly. I’d like to say that I was attacked by monkeys in the mountains and made a lucky escape but I was actually going down two steps and fell awkwardly on the last step.
A series of unorthodox eastern medical treatments ensued and I went back to Kaohsiung early to heal. As I was not able to put any weight on my twisted foot, I spent around 10 days hobbling around and had some hilarious and also awkwardly frustrating incidents in a wheelchair.
My wonderful cousin was determined to take me to a shopping outlet/centre/mall/village. We knew that there was a wheelchair somewhere around that used to belong to my ama (grandma) but it had mysteriously vanished… Luckily (to my astonishment) the shopping centre offered wheelchairs. They had about a hundred waiting for whoever needed them (and prams too). Very practical and efficient. It wasn’t just this place but almost every shopping centre had wheelchairs you can borrow – you don’t even have to pay for them. Great service!
Unfortunately when it came to the street markets and more traditional ways of eating and shopping, I was stuck limping and couldn’t get very far.
It came to the end of my immobile week and I was determined to get home. I phoned up the airline and they said they would arrange for transportation for me everywhere. They did not disappoint… From Kaohsiung to London the journey was extremely smooth. I was picked up in a wheelchair from plane to plane in Hong Kong with no fuss and complete efficiency. Every steward and hostess on the planes were ready to assist in getting me out of the plane and moving around if I needed to get up for the toilet or grab some snacks. It was all great…
UNTIL I arrived at Heathrow. How typical that the English airport completely ruin my otherwise pleasant journey with complete lack of communication and laziness. It started fine, I got off the plane and was wheeled to a ‘waiting area’ where I waited for half an hour. I could have walked the journey in that time. They were waiting for a specific wheelchair assistant to arrive even though I saw at least 3 wheelchairs go past me with no-one in them. There were also airport car /buggies that picked various people up but not me. I had to wait.
