Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 10 ( Zurich)

14th June

On the streets of Zurich

So today was going to be the last day of our beautiful trip. It was a bittersweet feeling.. Part of us wanted to stay back but a greater part wanted to be back home soon with our near and dear ones. I for my part was very worried about the way Vineet looked - tanned and almost dehydrated... He had also been skipping his daily one glass of milk in the evenings as dinner was early all these days...😒
So at noon we said goodbye to our hotel in Olten and moved towards Zurich. I was not surprised when we were told that our new driver would be a lady,  coz earlier on one of our drives I had seen a girl as young as in her twentys driving a big bus as ours easily in her red cold-shoulder- top 😍My eyes had widened at her- we have yet to see something like that in our country....
However our lady driver was more experienced and must have been in her 50s (?)  and she drove very well and took us for a short tour of the city of Zurich before dropping us off for a short time near the station for lunch.We had lunch in Burger King at Zurich station and since we still had some time left, we rushed to catch a tram and go towards the lake as our Tour Manager had advised us. He even told us the Tram number ☺. The tram was very accessible and it was a wonderful ride up to where we were supposed to embark. A fellow traveller helped us as to where we should get down, and then we were supposed to walk a short distance towards the lake.

Beside Lake Zurich

 As we were walking towards it,  we saw a church ⛪ on the left hand side and walked towards it. Only to be told at the entrance that we would have to pay 5 euros for entering and a short tour!!  What the heck??!!  To pay to enter a church is the WEIRDEST thing that I've ever come across in my whole life as of now!  I don't think those guys at the counter have read the Bible wherein Jesus himself beat and drove out all those people who had made the Temple  (Church during the days of Christ) into a marketplace for their stuff. Read - JOHN 2:16 And here they were taking money to let in people?!!  I was so shocked and angry that I forgot to mention this part,  but I told them they were doing a horrible,  miserable thing. And I refused to pay them any money and walked out with a vow to report this to higher church authorities. I asked them the name of the church,  but they deliberately told me the Dutch name so I couldn't remember it (but they're wrong, I will hunt it out and make my point soon😠)

FRAUMUNSTER  CHURCH, ZURICH



Okay!! Grand update! GUESS WHAT! GOOGLE HELPED ME FIND THE NAME OF THE CHURCH - "FRAUMUNSTER  CHURCH " IN ZURICH. YES. THATS THE ONE, THOSE ARE THE PEOPLE!
 And I thought I heard them vaguely making an excuse to the extent that they needed money for the maintenance of the church as it was a heritage site (I could be wrong here, nevertheless). As far as my little knowledge goes, a heritage site is taken care of by the government. Secondly, in the Cologne Cathedral, entry was free and if anyone wanted to opt for a guided tour of the whole church right upto its highest floor, only then they needed to pay a small amount. That was so so OKAY. And THIS was NOT OKAY AT ALL!! I even felt ashamed to see a couple of Asian (maybe Chinese or Japanese) tourists paying to enter the church... 😑


Anyways, still smarting,  we moved towards the lake and what do we see on the road?  - three guys on motorised wheelchairs roaming about the streets and basically having a good time! 😊 Oh it was such a heartwarming sight....  Then there was this guy playing the bagpipe near the lake while a small boy was making huge water bubbles with the help of his grandfather. There were the words "PEACE" written on a small board behind them. And I thought what a perfect way to end our wonderful trip! PEACE!  Much needed in the world today!



So now it was time to head back to where our bus was waiting to take us to the airport. And soon it was time to say goodbye to Zurich, Switzerland. We went back the same way- via Oman Airways and Muscat. This time we didn't get Vin's wheelchair wrapped as we had learnt our hard lesson while coming. It was a good decision.

At Zurich Airport

It was a difficult journey while returning as we were already jet-lagged and spent most of the hours sleeping away and thereby missed dinner, and we didn't have time for breakfast also the next day. By late noon we reached New Delhi Airport and then rushed to catch our evening train back home. Only when we had seated ourselves comfortably in our coach that we heaved a sigh of relief. But by then Vin looked weak and dehydrated. I immediately took care of him and made him feel better as much as I could. We all longed to be in the comfort of our home and with our near and dear ones soon.
And so it happened the next morning! 😃
 NO PLACE LIKE HOME SWEET HOME !!!! 😊☺

Watch our video here -

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Vineet's London-Europe Tour 2017 Day 9 (Mount Titlis and Luzern)

13th June

Entrance to the Cable Car towards Mount Titlis
After having rested the earlier day, we were all charged and excited to go to Mount Titlis today 😃 We dressed in our snow boots and carried our jackets as it was quite warm in the valley. I also carried our regular shoes and sandals to change into later, as it was really warm. We reached Mount Tilis base after a bus ride of around 50 mins and before we knew, we were ushered into the ice cable car and off we zoomed up towards the mountains! It was beautiful, thrilling, exciting and a never-before experience! At the second station we changed into the #Rotair, which is the only revolving ice cable car in the whole world! Until now, we had NO problem at all moving Vinsy in his wheelchair. It was all so smooth, unbelievably accessible. 😀




Then we reached to where the snow was by lift from the rotair station.So now,there was a nice little open restaurant out there with the floor made of iron grills and wood and then there was the snow. So now what to do...how to take Vin into the snow? Simply drag his wheelchair in the snow as far as Papa could. When he got tired, we had reached half way towards where road to the ice-flyer and snow-activities started. We couldn't think of dragging Vin till the "Glacier Park". It was just too far....

Thats the Glacier Park in the background where we couldn't take Vin

So we perched in there and Papa suggested we make a small snow-man. Mum and Tia got to work with some help from Vin and soon enough we had an 'OLAF' ready complete with Vin's cap and papa's shades on it! He looked too cute and endearing, so other tourists also started taking fotos with it! We felt accomplished 😌 Then Tia started going up towards the topmost part and mummy went too so she could get some videos from there to show Vin later.



Yup. So we couldn't enjoy the snow-activities at all and we had thought we would.... It was sort of disappointing....but never mind... 😔

LAKE LUCERNE
We had lunch in one of the Pizzeria there (which was exorbitantly priced) and then we moved towards the town of Lucerne. It was a beautiful town and we had all afternoon and evening to ourselves. We did some shopping there and decided to spend some time sitting quietly by the lake (Lucern). It was a beautiful view and we didn't want to move from there. But then, our Tour Guide had mentioned to us about the " CHAPEL BRIDGE (KAPELLBRUCKE)  nearby and so off we went towards it. THERE WAS NO RAMP at the entrance and there were at least 6-8 steps. Papa told me and Tia to take a look inside and come back, but we don't do stuff like that. Where Vin can't go, we can't go too...not all the time.

ENTRANCE TO THE CHAPEL BRIDGE (NO RAMP)

So we took the pathway beside the lake and the Chapel Bridge and came to another bridge which had 2 steps leading to it and we could carry Vin onto it.We roamed on the other side and found nothing interesting, so we returned the same way. This time we got ourselves a helper who helped transfer Vin the 2 steps down. As I write this, I am thinking maybe I should have gone into the Chapel Bridge and checked for some accessible path... At least they could have put in a sign if there was at all!! 😐






Then it was time to leave for dinner.

After note - When we returned back home to India, I wrote a letter to Mount Titlis authorities about how disappointed and disheartened we were that Vin could not go upto the ice flyer or the snow activities, and how it would be nice if they could arrange a ramp or something to make it happen for people on wheelchairs. And I was pleasantly surprised to receive a reply from them saying how they were looking into the matter and were as eager to help people on wheelchairs reach the.....
Well,  that certainly brightened me up 😃 At least they were thinking....  And it also reminds me to write back to them about a more feasible idea that I got the other day when I was watching a few videos of mount Titlis on YouTube .Hope it convinces them soon!! 🙏😇

Watch our video here-

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 8 ( Olten, Switzerland)

12th June

Today our entire group left for " Jungfraujoch", a glacier-saddle between two high of the highest peaks of the Alps in Europe. (Here is the wikipedia link - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfraujoch ) So to reach it, you have to catch a train from Interlaken (in the valley) and change it from Kleine Scheidegg again to reach the top.
We did not go. I had read reviews of Jungfraujoch before coming and they said that it was a highly over-rated tourist spot. That was the first reason and also we were already scheduled to visit Mount Titlis the next day, which was also a snow-covered mountain (though not so high as Jungfraujoch). Then there was the biggest problem of breathing at that height which I cannot bear. I have suffered due to it when we had visited 'Zero Point" in Sikkim, India earlier. I did not want to risk that trouble again. Fourthly, there were changing of trains to be done and frankly I didn't know how much of a trouble it would be for Vin in his wheelchair. And lastly, we wanted to take a bit of rest after all those hectic days of continuous touring.
So. We slept. We slept so late that we almost missed breakfast! 😜😅Then we had lavish baths 😄and after a delicious lunch (from the hotel restaurant), in the evening we got dressed and decided to go for a short walk towards the town of Olten nearby where we could also see some church steeples and I wanted to visit one 🙏


                




It was a lovely walk and we enjoyed walking beside the fields of Switzerland into the town where we saw very few people and some kids on bicycles. We saw sheep grazing and finally we found a church where we went in and prayed. We thanked God for the beautiful trip of our lives and returned back to the hotel where we met our group buddies who had already returned. And we found our dinner packed neatly and left for us by our Tour Manager. God bless him! 😇

Also I would like to share with you all the awesome "adaptable room" we got here , even though it was on the 1st floor. The door to the Bathroom was wide , there was a shower tool, toilet had handle bar, and there was even an Emergency thread! Have a look at the pics -
 

And here is a short video I made of us -










Monday, August 21, 2017

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 7 (Black Forest and Rhine Falls)

11th June

The Black Forests of Germany in the background

Today we proceeded towards the Black Forests of Germany and therein we stopped at the largest cuckoo clock and the original cuckoo clock factory. One of the building was wheelchair accessible with a lift but the other one was not- not at least till what met my eyes... Have to Google about it too 😐
            So at least Vin was able to go around in the accessible shop and admire the various Swiss watches, etc on display. Then we moved on to the Rhine Falls. Here too,  there was a wheelchair/accessible path just a few paces away from the stairs that went down towards the Falls, but again,  No Signboards😒😑
I wandered around ,  went down the stairs and luckily saw a baby in a pram coming from that way and heaved a sigh of relief!


Once down,  we crossed a small bridge and then there were stairs again to go further down to where the ferries were. We saw a small makeshift lift just at the entrance. BUT IT WAS LOCKED!!

YOU CAN SEE A VIDEO OF THAT LIFT   HERE

So again I went down the stairs and looked for alternatives or ways, but NONE. Again we were left behind from our group and there was a big crowd and queues to go into the numerous ferries with different scheduled timings. I went up to one of the ticket counters and asked the man there about how to use the lift. He said we have to give him a copy of Vin's passport and a government 'disability certificate'and he would give us the keys to it. I ran towards Vin and papa to give them this information when I saw papa carrying Vin and coming down along with our dear Tour Manager. They left the wheelchair on top of the stairs as it was very sunny and there was no shade nearby. Papa is a loving💕 papa and luckily we found a bench to sit on while we waited for our ferry to return from its previous trip. It came and we went for our exciting ferry-ride towards the Falls. And no,  the ferry was not wheelchair accessible. I suppose there are none in the world? I read about Venice's famous gondolas were going to be made accessible,  but I have not updated myself about this( which I should be doing)
On the ferry ride finally!


This time we were allotted rooms on the 10th floor of the hotel in Germany. We had a long wait for the lift although there were 3 of them but of 3 various sizes - small,  medium and large!  😂
The view from the balcony was beautiful as we could see almost the entire city of Ludwigshafen  and the bridge. 

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 6 ( River Rhine Cruise and Cologne Cathedral)

10th June 2017
Before going on the River Rhine Cruise

We left the hotel in Brussels and headed towards Heidelberg where we took a short tour and moved towards a town in Germany called Boppard for our River Rhine Cruise🚢. While we could wheel-in Vineet to the boat, there was no lift to carry him to the deck which was on the 2nd floor. So papa volunteered to stay back with Vineet and his beer 🍺 while mummy and Tia went up the deck. We were feeling lonesome without Papa and Vinsy and SURPRISE!!  Papa is a loving💕 papa- he carried Vin up the 3 (albeit short) flight of stairs onto the deck!  Yay!  👏 👏 Now we felt good ☺😊😇
Happy us!!

On to Cologne Cathedral
It was a beautiful place with a massive courtyard,  BUT near the entrance were 2 steps without any wheelchair ramp. Not at least till what met my eyes though......

Here's the video I made of our Germany Trip -



Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 5 ( Brussels)

9th June 2017
We moved towards Brussels today. It was past noon when we reached "Mini-Europe" in Brussels. As we had gotten late embarking,  when we entered the main building,  our group was nowhere to be seen! Not a single soul there except a worker outside. We looked frantically for an elevator or lift as we saw a huge flight of stairs right in front of us! 😮😞😟😕 But NOTHING! No signs or boards either! We asked the worker about it but he said he had no idea. But he offered to help us carry Vin up the stairs in his wheelchair. But I thought it was Ridiculous!!  How can they not have a wheelchair accessible route in a place like "Mini-Europe"?!! 😠😠😒
 But we were already late and papa did not allow me to find out more and I forgot about it until when we had to go down the similar way after the tour. Again we carried Vin down the stairs. There must have been around 20 or more of them!
Although the tour inside was very wheelchair-friendly.


And today when I googled 'where is the wheelchair ramp in mini-europe brussels", this is what I got - http://www.minieurope.com/en/practical/faq/  I can't seem to find any maps directing towards mini-europe

Okay, so I finally found the wheelchair route into Mini- Europe. I wish I had checked this earlier, but even so, I find its very far and time-consuming. Especially for travellers like us who have very less time. It would have been simpler and easier to just put in a lift.Or at least they could have sign boards to lead us to the path. Here's the link - http://www.minieurope.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/plan_parking_6_eur.pdf

It reminds me that I have to put in an online complaint regarding this😐😑
Grand Place, Brussels

In the evening we proceeded towards the Grand place which had cobbled streets and after going around for some time, we suddenly noticed that the tubeless,  rubberised wheels of Vin's wheelchair was getting ripped off!! It wasn't that bad,  but henceforth we took precaution .

And here is a short video I made of our stay in Belgium -



Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 4 (Paris Disneyland)

8th June 2017

Today we were slated for Eiffel Tower and Disneyland Paris. We opted out of going up the Eiffel Tower as we wanted to use that time for going around it☺😋So we went towards the wheelchair entry which was closed (strangely why we didn't ask),  but as it was early on,  the main queue was short and we proceeded through it. We crossed over to the other side towards the river and the bridge and took fotos. Then we crossed back again towards the garden side and took a lot of mandatory poses with the Eiffel Tower. Then we proceeded towards Disneyland.

Disneyland was on the outskirts and covered acres of land area. But once inside, we were amazed to see the sea of people in there!  Our tickets were pre-booked and we had the option of going either to the Disneyland Park or Disneyland Studio. So people with kids(like us) opted for the former and off we went.
No one at the ticket checking counter told us about the Special Green Card (sorry I can't find it to upload a pic of it, but will do so as soon as I find it 😋)

 It is absolutely necessary for visitors on a wheelchair and though I had read about them in my SB groups on FB,  it completely escaped my mind that day. It was only when we went to go for a boat ride that the lady escort told us about it and by then we were half beyond the castle. Its funny for a place like Disneyland not to have a Notice or Poster regarding this. We were tired, disappointed and didn't know what to do. Papa is a loving papa 💕 and said he would go and get the green card for Vin while mummy and Tia would go around. It was long before they came back with the card and by then it was time for the parade. We enjoyed the parade and it was time to leave. But we had a good time and brought back with us some beautiful memories.... 😊☺😍

Here is short video I made of the Disneyland Parade - 




Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 3 ( Towards Paris)

7th June

When we woke up the next day with the sun shining brightly through the blinds,  I muttered under my breath 😜😅 This weather could have been yesterday 😠😫😭
Anyways,  we found that the front seats of our coach had been occupied again, and this time our dear co-passenger refused to give up his seat inspite of our Tour Manager's requests. So our Tour Manager gave up his own seat and some other good people shifted back to make space for him. He announced it in the bus that since we have a special child with us,  could everyone kindly leave the first seats for him and his dad on one side as he would not be able to have any front view which others could have by standing.
When we arrived at the border of U.K. towards France, we had to clear our Immigration. And here it was very kind and thoughtful of an official to come up to our bus and get it done for Vineet and our family without having to go into the building which was some way off.That was really really sweet of them! 😊☺

Anyways we moved towards the Eurotunnel. Oh and another thing!  This morning Papa had an idea- he suggested we put 2 diapers one on top of other,  so when one got soiled, we would simply remove it and there would be no hassle to put on the second one as we realised there were no changing beds in disabled toilets. It WORKED! 😃 Wherever we stopped for lunch we changed him - it became a routine for the next few days ☺
Into the Eurotunnel (From U.K. to France side)

In the evening when we were checked into our hotel on the outskirts of Paris,  we realised that even the lifts were of so small in size that only Vinisha could squeeze into it along with Vineet in his wheelchair. The rooms were also not wheelchair-accomodating, although I realised afterwards that maybe there were, but not available for us... So if you are planning for a similar trip as us, please do ask your Tour manager for a ground floor room or a specially-adapted room for people on a wheelchair. We got one only in Switzerland. 

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Vineet's London-Europe Trip 2017 Day 2 (London day tour)

6th June


We had the misfortune of spending the only day we had for London in its infamous 'cold,  windy,  rainy' weather. 😣😖 It had started the evening before and we got our winter jackets and boots (which we had packed for our last tour days in Switzerland 😜😁) that day itself. I forgot to mention that our Tour Bus (merc-benz make) was not wheelchair-friendly . Means we had to transfer Vineet from his wheelchair to the bus seat and then stow it away in the luggage compartment. So everytime we had to get down,  we waited until the last person. But thankfully we had some very helpful coach-drivers who took out the wheelchair before us 😊😇 May God bless them🙏

So we packed Vin's "khichdi" and some cornflakes and left after breakfast. We were last to board the Tour Coach and guess ❓All the front seats were occupied (but naturally). Our Tour Manager requested those in the front seat to make a seat available for Vineet and also his dad as we had been cautioned the previous day about the speed of the bus which would have been risky for Vineet sitting on his own without an escort.

So we mostly moved around in the bus and by noon when we alighted to go into Madame Tussaud's,  the rains had stopped and there was the sun peeping through the clouds⛅

ANOTHER  SPOILER YET AGAIN AT THE ENTRANCE TO MADAME TUSSAUD'S 😒😑😕


As we queued up with our group,  the museum escorts led us towards the wheelchair-entry where we were told that they could not allow more than 3 wheelchair entries inside as there is space congestion. And that slot was full for that (our) time-slot. We would go in only after an hour and they gave us the coupon for that time. It meant that we would have only an hour to go through Madame Tussaud's instead of the 2 hours that our group got as the Coach would be back by 4 p. m.  to take us to London Eye. We went across the street for a pizza where Vinsy had his "khichdi" and we teased him about it 😛😁😄

           Then we roamed the nearby streets and bought some souvenirs, and finally it was time to go inside Madame Tussaud's again. We got an escort for Vin,  but he disappeared after putting us in the lift and telling us which the last leg of the tour was. Anyways,  inside it was really crowded and though it was wheelchair-friendly,  we breezed through it and we were very happy to see the Enormous Toilet for the specially challenged 😜😄😅😁 We changed Vin and heaved a sigh of relief😌

Then we got off at London Eye and here too Vin was led through the wheelchair entry and mummy and papa were too pleased with the handling of Vineet by the escorts😊☺

Then we proceeded for dinner and by 9: 30 p. m. when we returned back to the Hotel and saw the sun shining through the window,  we realised we were in a different world 😉😀

Here is a short video I made of our London Trip -


Friday, August 18, 2017

Vineet's LONDON- EUROPE TRIP 2017 Day 1 (Air Travel stories)

At Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, India

Our tour was to start from the 5th of June from London. For this,  we were allotted an 'Oman Airways' flight from New Delhi to Muscat (capital of Oman) on 5th morning at around 11 a. m. I made Vin's 'khichdi' in the morning before leaving and prayed to God it would pass through security 🙏 ( I had gone through a lot of posts online regarding what types / consistency of food that were allowed in-flight. We had breakfast and left.
       We opted for Vineet's wheelchair to be bubble wrapped alongwith our baggage and transferred Vineet to a wheelchair provided by the airlines as we had had a bit of a harrowing experience during our flight from Mumbai to Kolkata after the Justin Beiber Concert in May this year. (You can read about it HERE
         I was on top of the world when Vin's "khichdi" went through the security 😇😃😄 After a 2 hours flight we landed in Muscat Airport. We had a halting of about 2 hours and we raced to clear our immigration and we also had to feed Vin his lunch as it was past his time!  Add to that the emergency of changing his diaper as well. 😞
BUT!!
when we landed,  we were told we would have to wait for 10-15 minutes for a wheelchair to arrive. As we were short of time, we opted to carry Vineet from the airplane to the transfer bus. Only to find there was no wheelchair for us at the Airport gate!! I rushed in and asked the man at the gate where I could get a wheelchair and he pointed vaguely inside. There was hardly anyone inside and all our fellow passengers had proceeded towards the security counters which was quite some way off. I saw that Vineet's papa had been dropped off the bus with Vineet in his arms and panicked and proceeded to where I saw 2-3 airport lady workers to ask about the wheelchairs. Luckily by the grace of God,  at that instant Papa was shown the wheelchair room by some officials who saw him struggling. What the heck? 😠😑😒. We didn't get any airport escort for Vin at Muscat airport on landing and I thought to myself,  Wow,  and they call India a third-world country 😒😐😑

          So now we proceeded towards the security point but before queuing up, Vineet had his "khichdi" lunch. Now I was a happy mom 😊☺ We breezed through security and straight went for the washroom/toilet. We spotted the 'disabled'- toilet and YET Another obstacle!!
WE COULDN'T CLOSE SHUT THE DOOR AFTER WHEELING IN VINSY!  😧😯😖 The length of the toilet was too less to shut it back after wheeling in. In fact there was not much space to even push in the wheelchair unless it was folded. So now Papa had to scoop up vin, I had to fold the wheelchair and wheel it in, open it again and then Vin was seated again. We changed his diaper and wondered whether it would withstand the next 8 hour flight as it has a maximum holding capacity of around 7 hours according to Vin's water intake. We added another diaper folded into the first and hoped it would work.Keeping our fingers crossed, we proceeded towards the immigration and security again before the next flight which was also 'Oman Airways'.

 Now the boarding was grand 😏 You can see a video HERE
Vin was taken first into the airport bus.  Then from the bus we were led to the 'Hydraulic Lift Bus",  where Vin was transferred into the aircraft directly but then again had to be carried by Papa to his seat which was quite some space from the aircraft door. Anyway,  we were just relieved to be in the final stage of our long journey and soon we were served lunch. After around 4 hours of flying,  Papa asked the steward for some hot water for Vin and some baby food. We got a small packet of cereal powder mix,  but no hot water! 😠 They kept telling us we are looking into it,  but it didn't come. So I mixed some cornflakes in normal water,  let it soak for some time and then mashed it up for Vin. Then we all went in for a nap😴

                We landed at Heathrow Airport at around 5 p. m. G. M. T.  which was around 4. 30 hours behind I. S. T.  There was a long wait in this airport battery car as the escort had to collect all the specially challenged from our flight into it,to be taken to the immigration counter.We were hungry again and also worried about Vin's diaper,and luckily our Tour Manager, who took charge of us and the group at the airport,  settled us in our bus and took us straight to the Indian restaurant for dinner. There, our family was arranged to be seated on the ground floor while the rest of the group went up the stairs to the first floor. He made arrangements Vineet's hot milk and chapatis which I soaked as it was too thick to be had immediately.It was cold and windy with drizzling and we longed to be in the comforts of the Hotel soon which we did after dinner.By the time we had checked in, it was way past midnight !! (according to our Indian time watches and our bodies too!)

    And it was HERE that we learnt the FIRST LESSON of our Trip -
First we wheeled in Vineet into our Hotel room, then we started putting in the luggage one by one, and since the room was not so big enough, the suitcases got lined in the doorway and mummy went out to get another suitcase and 'BAM'!The door shut close behind her with Vineet inside the room with the keys!! OH NOOOO!!!! He couldn't open the door as his way was blocked and neither could we! As we panicked, Papa said he would go down and get the staff to open with the duplicate keys.As we were waiting for him to return, after 4-5 minutes, the door opened with a click from inside and Vin's face emerged and we asked how the hell did you do it??!! Vin said - I became Michael Jackson zombies from Thriller!! and grinned 😁😅 We went in and saw the suitcases lying by the sides. Awww.. I have a strong boy there 💪💪Papa came up (without anyone) and asked what happenend and we told him. From then on we decided that Papa would keep both  the room keys with him and Vin should never be alone in the room ever.
Hmmmmm. Aye Sir 😌😊☺
       
   


Vineet's First Overseas Trip 2017 (A preview)




Have I been waiting to write this very special event in Vineet's life or what 😃😀😀!!! It was a very special blessing by God in All our lives as we had thought of going on a Europe Tour sometime later in our lives,  but we had no idea that it would happen so soon!  This year itself!

            So going back a little into my earlier post on the #JustinBeiber Concert post, we were going through a  couple of travel brochures online just for fun,  and we stumbled upon this very attractive offer from #ThomasCookTravels for a Budget Europe Trip . We sat and calculated a lot of things 😌😀 and thought it was a nice deal considering our family of four.  We consulted friends and finally one day Papa clicked on the "Book" tab and there was no looking back then 😃☺
            To cut the story short,  let me just say that in the next few posts,  I will be sharing our travel details but mainly I will be focussing on the #accessibility issues and how we managed Vineet's incontinence. Also his fooding part. So if you are thinking of doing something as exciting (and adventurous 😁😜) as us,  you can read on and also contact us at - spinabifidainindia@gmail.com

P. S. - We stocked on Vin's diapers and all his stuff ( but naturally) and took 2 of each - one set for the main luggage and one smaller set for the hand luggage. We bought a small size 'Rice-cooker' for his daily "khichdi' lunch meal and rice and dal along with his fav cornflakes. I also took some meal supplements for emergencies ( airplane companies are playing up these days and can't be trusted all the time as I was about to realise 😒😒😑) And of course,  another folding wheelchair (coz the earlier one got spoiled by the sea waters of Puri)

I would also love to have feedbacks on these posts from travellers on wheelchairs and maybe some more travel tips and hacks for our future travels (hopefully 😊)

Thankyou for going through!  🙏💕

Thursday, August 17, 2017

Vineet goes to JUSTIN BEIBER' s CONCERT in Mumbai, India (The Event)

(This is the second and final part of the post - " Vineet goes to JUSTIN BEIBER's CONCERT in Mumbai, India". For the previous post, click HERE )


And so as the story goes, we reached Mumbai on 9th May. It was hot and humid as hell though 😣😖 and I wondered how on earth did a young man like JB who hails from cold Canada, was so sweet and humble to agree to come down to India for his fans for the very first time! So on 10th morning we saw on the TV that there were some fans who had started camping since early in the morning at 5! We had a problem - To be able to see JB from the very front row of the Silver stands (of which we had tickets), Vineet would have to be there very early on. But to be early on was going to be a big problem for Vinsy due to his toilet habits and of course his fooding and they were not going to allow outside food as well. Big problem. So we thought and thought and finally decided that 2 members would go early on and keep place for the rest of us. Only when they reached the venue they called us saying that if you didn't stand in the queue now (that was 10 o'clock in the morning btw! and the concert was to begin at 3:30 in the afternoon and JB was to come at 8 in the evening!)😵 you couldn't reach them at all! So off went the second lot except Vin and papa and we all got decent places at the front of the queue. Now we waited, and waited and waited....until 3:30 p.m. With just packets of chips and water being sold at exorbitant prices. 👿The queue was long and I told Vin to proceed from the hotel only after we had gone inside the stadium.
                    So as the story goes, we managed to get the first row of the silver stands and were happy that it was quite near to the stage. Then I realised that there was No Way Vin would be able to reach us through the massive crowd which was already crushing us all who were in front, to the barricade! I realised there had been a mistake. This was a mistake coz Vin wouldn't be able to see the concert except on the LED screens that had been placed right and left of the stage. I felt let down, unhappy, weak and a bit angry at myself for planning this entire thing while Vin would be unable to see the Concert with us, and JB would be out of sight as he would be sitting in his wheelchair right at the back. I thought of the outlay of the stadium at Bern, Switzerland ,when I was going to book the tickets to JB's Concert there earlier, and how there was a special elevated place in the stands for people on wheelchairs. I was depressed and waited for Vin to come to the stadium. Unfortunately network jammers had been placed and I could not contact him or his dad at all. And to go on a search would mean getting the kids crushed by hyper-over-adrenalined-teenagers!! So I endured it all along with the heat, humidity, sweat et all till at last when JB came on the stage, and I thought the front row kids would be trampled upon!! When I saw Vin's sis about to faint (!!) I pulled her out of the crowd and made our way towards the exit. As we made our way away from the crowd into free space (and fresh evening air!), who do we see but Vin!! Enjoying the show with dad watching it on the huge screen in front. I smiled for the first time in the evening. When Vin's fav songs came up, papa dear would scoop up Vineet to show him JB on the stage - as a tiny blob from so far.
                       And at this part of the stadium, there was a beautiful crowd who were singing and sometimes dancing with each other and we too held hands and danced together. Papa bought us pizzas and life was good👍 once again!! Vinsy told us how some reporters took his fotos and one even interviewed him! Then the show came to an end around 10: 30 p. m. and as we made our was out of the stadium along with the enormous crowd of around 30000 people (which we came to know later),  Vin had another interviewer.
               Nevertheless,  it was a memorable day for all of us, though Vin was a little bit disappointed at not having been able to meet #justinbeiber.

Click Here to watch one of JB's performance that I uploaded

Click HERE to see some of our pics of the Concert

A small afternote about Mumbai Airport regarding our wheelchair number 9 (Same as wheelchair number 7 which got spoilt as we forgot to take it out from the car boot after our Puri Trip 😬😒-

Previously in our air travels we had opted for the airport wheelchairs and submitted Vin's wheelchair with the baggage. This time Papa said we'll take the wheelchair along with us to the aircraft. Bad decision. The X-ray machine for wheelchair was not working at Mumbai airport - can you believe this! Then finally they got hold of the person who was supposed to operate it and it worked 😑 Then they looked around for a Security personnel to put the " Checked' tag on it. He couldn't be found as well. We were taken from one end of the place to another and finally back to find THE Man who had to be convinced to put the tag on Vin's wheelchair as if there was a missile hidden in it.  I really don't understand the paranoia in airports regarding the specially challenged and their external aids (which are like the missing parts of their bodies) Then we proceeded to our own security counters wherein Vin was scanned again with his wheelchair,  which is okay.