An ode to Airport Disability Assistance--the unmentioned

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.

All my luggages, which can be stuffed in one backpack though I split them into two bages.

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.!"

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!!!

Above the clouds the sun shines

Believe me if I tell you that the skies are blue and the sun was shining today in Hong Kong or in Taiwan though others might tell you it was overcast with drizzles.

Roses are red (can't prove that).  Yet, the skies are blue and the sun is shining in the skies. I have pictures and clips to prove it..





Aren't them skies blue and the sun shines.

How I got back to Taiwan from JFK last summer

There were twice in previous years when I needed wheelchair services because I either fractured or sprang my ankle in Taiwan before returning to the US.  At that point, disability services were simply some random thing I had to call for...  It was novelty... wow... they wheeled me all the way...

Then, there came these years of being incapable for carrying even 2-3 Kg for short distances and even slower than ordinary people's speed at walk... even in the top shape.  The thing is, if I don't call for the wheelchair services, by the time I get to the gate, the connection flights I have to catch might have already arrived at the destination.... 8-O lol

Since 2007, I have had to use the disability services to travel by air.

Most of the times, you go to the website of the airline companies and you click on something to request the service.  If the design of the website is usable and if the internet connection is good between your end and the server, the process might take less than a minute to complete.

All that has to be done thereafter is to get me to the check-in counter and someone will come with a wheelchair to pick me up.

Before I got back from the US last summer, I got my body in really bad shape again because I was trying to clean things up in my place.  The trip to the airport didn't help either.  By the time I got to JFK, I was  immobilized by the pain... and couldn't even get off the van.

As a result, I first managed to slide my butts from the chair to the floor, slide one step down at a time, and, somehow got my body up to standing position... at the curbside.  The nice driver of Supershuttle either placed the luggage next to me or placed me next to the luggage... or... simple put we all luggage together... can't quite recall.

It was sort of surreal to stand there with two pieces of luggage all along by the curbside at around 5-6 AM while I was overcome by pain and could barely move my body or speak...

Then, there were these two gentlemen working for the airline who were stationed outside...

I tried to call for them but I could hardly talk because of the pain... although I was still able to keep myself in standing position.

I tried to wave at them but I could hardly lift my arm...

Eventually, I got their attention and someone came with a wheelchair, took me and my baggage to the check-in counter of United Airlines...

The lady asked me for my documentations but I didn't have much capacity left to process anything other than pain.

Worst of all, I didn't have any pain killer with me because I had managed to not use pain killers much for almost two years by then.

Conversation between the two of us at the check-in counter might have been...

"Anyone else traveling with you?"

"No."

"Where are you traveling to?"

"Back... to.... Taiwan."

"Can I have your passport?"

Too in pain to search for anything in my purse, the gentleman who was wheeling me passed my purse to the lady to let her fish my documents out while, me, trying to calm the roaring pain down... 

She found my password, got me checked in, and, checked my luggage in.  That gentleman wheeled me along my carry on luggage all the way to the security check point where someone else came to take over.

Since cheap tickets always requires more than 1 leg, so at each of the airport, someone would come to pick me up with the wheelchair, drop me at the gate where the connection flight will take off, and, pick me up at the boarding time from the waiting area to get me to the entrance of the flight.

Through out the entire trip, all that I did was popping more and more of the non-aspirin the flight attendants gave me while trying to relax the muscles from neck down with the nice hot bottle prepared by the flight attendants--  one leg at a time. 

So it is-- how I got back to Taiwan from JFK last summer.

Come to think about it today, it is actually pretty comical... although something I can really do without.... 8-O lol