I used to love traveling and I still do. Having my body structured the way it is today doesn't make it easy to travel. I am not complaining since however funky I might move or how in pain I might be, I can still move.
In my peculiar case, I have difficulties with weight, slope, and stairs. Throughout my recent traveling experiences as an handicapped who isn't disabled enough to be eligible to be classified as a handicapped, I have come to the conclusion that the most challenging, if not "scary," part of being an independent traveller is to traveling with luggages such as when travelling by air. You see, even if I checked my luggage (which is a ridiculously small for an over-three-week trip), I still have to carry the laptop, camera, and IDs with me... and the laptop is always the heaviest item.
Of course, if I were loaded, I would get myself one of them extremely lightweight laptop (no offence, dear laptop, I love you to death... just both you and I can lose a few pounds. lol) and/or simply hire someone to escort me when needing to travel with luggages alone. Yet, since I am not, other than cut the weight of my luggage to the minimal humanly possible, what I can do is to depend on the airport disability assistance service when travelling by air alone with luggages...
What's big about travelling, right? For me, it's in the unmentioned... the weight of the luggage while in transit. The extra undergarments, shirt, pants you might need so that you don't wear the same thing for the entire duration of the trip (unwashed lol). And, the computer that I need so that I can make a dime or two to pay for the trip so as to complain about how difficult it is to travel independently with my kind of disabilities. 8-O lol
The reality is... for me to get from Taipei to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong back to Taipei... or from any city to any other city I have travelled to with physical disabilities in any other trip... one of the most straining parts of the travel takes place at the airports. The reason why I made it has nothing to do with me... I didn't do it. It's the airport disability assistance that made the getting there part possible... so that I could, from there, take my walk one step at a time at large and make copycat comments like "Trotzdem, das Leben.!"
In my peculiar case, I have difficulties with weight, slope, and stairs. Throughout my recent traveling experiences as an handicapped who isn't disabled enough to be eligible to be classified as a handicapped, I have come to the conclusion that the most challenging, if not "scary," part of being an independent traveller is to traveling with luggages such as when travelling by air. You see, even if I checked my luggage (which is a ridiculously small for an over-three-week trip), I still have to carry the laptop, camera, and IDs with me... and the laptop is always the heaviest item.
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| All my luggages, which can be stuffed in one backpack though I split them into two bages. |
What's big about travelling, right? For me, it's in the unmentioned... the weight of the luggage while in transit. The extra undergarments, shirt, pants you might need so that you don't wear the same thing for the entire duration of the trip (unwashed lol). And, the computer that I need so that I can make a dime or two to pay for the trip so as to complain about how difficult it is to travel independently with my kind of disabilities. 8-O lol
The reality is... for me to get from Taipei to Shanghai, from Shanghai to Hong Kong, and from Hong Kong back to Taipei... or from any city to any other city I have travelled to with physical disabilities in any other trip... one of the most straining parts of the travel takes place at the airports. The reason why I made it has nothing to do with me... I didn't do it. It's the airport disability assistance that made the getting there part possible... so that I could, from there, take my walk one step at a time at large and make copycat comments like "Trotzdem, das Leben.!"
Do I insist on traveling from airport to airport alone? No, I don't. To be honest, I'd rather trouble my companions to help me carry my weight than having to trouble people to wheel me around... (though, in reality, what I prefer is to have the ability to do it myself.) Just it happens and when it happens, it makes the usually unmentioned part of the trip less challenging and makes travel more "accessible."
An ode to Airport Disability Assistance--all modes of assistance making my arriving wherever in one piece even more possible!!!
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