Singapore: Wheelchair accessibility

John Moxon aboard the SMRT

We’ve decided to plan a holiday in Singapore – fly and stay – since it is impressively accessible.  The trains are wonderful and the stations are plentiful.  The downside of course is the weather.  Being right on the equator, it is hot and oppressively humid.  Despite that, we walked approximately 14 km, according to John’s wheelchair distance monitor.

Driverless train

The SMRT – the driverless underground train system – is wonderfully accessible, as you can see in these photos.  We didn’t try out the buses.  Many of the stations have huge underground shopping arcades and there are adequate lifts to reach these and street level.

We occasionally had to take a longer route to find the barrier-free access, including at street crossings.  At Orchard Road, pedestrians are encouraged to use the underpass – only accessible by escalator or stairs – so we had to walk an extra block to find a street crossing.

Easy access and egress - no ramp required

The Gardens by the Bay – a must see attraction – are also fully wheelchair accessible.  We wandered vast distances in this park and there is much to see.  There are boardwalks and lifts to all features where needed.

Photos of these coming.

We are yet to check out – on another holiday – the access to the many museums, old and new but are confident the Singaporeans have done their best.

Maybe some of our wheelie friend readers can comment?

Muscat, Oman without John

This post is out of order.  It should appear directly after the post about Dubai, but we are playing catch up with our posts at the moment.  We can only do so after "sea days" and sometimes we take a day to recover from touring the day before, so please forgive us.  I also can't add any photos to this post yet.  I think the internet is too slow.

John doesn’t have a lot to say about Muscat, not having been able to leave the ship.

Why, I hear you ask?

Well basically because the Port Authority of Mina Qaboos, where the ship was docked, does not officially allow pedestrian traffic on the dock. All access and egress from the ship to the terminal and from the terminal to the dock entry gate must be by shuttle bus. And you guessed it, the shuttle buses have no wheelchair access.

And there were also no tours offered by Princess Cruises on accessible buses, and no private ones we could find.

Accessible taxis appear to be unknown.

A fellow passenger, who has paraplegia, managed to find a local shuttle bus driver whose car was parked on the dock, to use his own car to give our friend and his wife a lift to the dock gate, from where they caught a taxi to Muscat. On the return journey he wheeled from the town, asked security at the gate, and was allowed to wheel back to the ship. So it can be done.  Mind you, he was nearly wrecked from the heat.

In addition, he saw several members of the Sea Princess crew also walking back from the gate to the ship.

John is not happy.

It’s a pretty port and here are some photos John took from the ship. 

But Margaret caught a shuttle bus into Muscat twice – the first time she had forgotten to take her camera.  The trip was divided in two:  the bus dropped us 150 metres away at the terminal where we went through customs and immigration – then picked us up on the opposite side of the terminal.  It was basically a huge barn with very slippery marble floors, steps and a ramp. Not good for the many mobility impaired passengers on our cruise.

It was a very hot day – 38C and humid.  The bus delivered us to the town within 10 minutes, right to the Suq or market.  Most shops sold material – in bulk or made up into scarves and clothing.  There were the usual souvenirs and overall very colourful. Some of the lanes to the sides were extremely narrow, and as well as materials, there were many selling kitchen goods for locals. The food markets must have been elsewhere.  Margaret changed $20 USD into the local currency – dials and baisa,  three dials to the dollar - and bought two scarves, some postcards, a fridge magnet and two cool drinks.  She then went back to the ship to collect her camera and hop on another shuttle bus back to the Suq (not Souk) as the locals name it.

Unlike Dubai, there were no passengers off aeroplanes, many young and inconsiderate of local etiquette about covering up.  Sea Princess passengers seemed to be the only tourists in town, and the women – generally of a certain age - conformed to the custom of not showing elbows, shoulders and legs.

But it was extremely hot and many passengers were glad to get back to the ship.  It was the first day of Ramadam, but since there were so few food shops and restaurants in the area, it wasn’t noticeable.

Dubai adventures with John

Well, we’ve been to Dubai now, and we’re pretty sure we won’t be back.

Why? Well, a mix of reasons, some of them probably inconsistent with our views on other places. But, there you go, who said we have to be consistent?

We docked at Terminal 3 at Port Rashid and could walk from the gangway to the terminal entry in less than a minute. So far, so good.

The terminal is huge and ornate. It looks like this.

There was a promise of free wi-fi and there was, but it was very slow and kept dropping out.

Security on the way to the outside world was super easy. No problems there.

We had booked two tours – a three hour one starting at 10am and a three hour dinner cruise on a dhow with a pick-up of 7.00pm.

Mahmoud , Egyption

Our driver, Mohommad, and the “disability helper”, Harry, arrived with a photo of John and found us easily and right on time (10.00am).

Mohommed, Pakistani, the driver

We got to their van – a Toyota Coaster or maybe a big Hilux (about 8 or 10 seats), and they opened the rear to reveal a full complement of seats with no room for me. And, yes, John had advised them of his needs, even sending dimensions and photos.

Harry, Indian, helper

So they removed one seat and piled it upside down on another seat, produced a portable ramp (about 2 metre in length) to give John access through the rear door. The gradient was about one in four or five – not good for many, but ok for John.

Many of you will now be horrified to learn that there was no way to tie the chair down and no seat belt for John.

John shrugged and off we went on what we expected to be a three-hour tour.

Our guide, Mahmoud, was picked up at the entrance to the port – just why security allow only two employees of a tour vehicle to enter remains a mystery.

We all introduced ourselves and we discovered that our Guide, Mahmoud, is Egyptian, has a degree in Archaeology, our driver, Mohommad, is Pakistani with a diploma in Chemical Engineering, and the disability helper, Harry, is Indian with unknown qualifications (we guess none at all).

All three were consummate hosts and we all got on very well for the whole day.

The port is about 35 kms from the city proper but we didn’t head directly there.

Mosque

Our first stop was at the Jumeirah Mosque, just for a photo.

Burj Al Arab

Next was a photo op of the Burj Al Arab, a grand hotel with no single rooms, just suites, with the cheapest being $5,000 per night in the off-season. High Tea is about $220 per head.

We didn’t enquire about wheelchair access.

Next we were driven through the entrance (with security) and around the driveway of a luxury hotel, the name of which we missed. But just look at some of the 20 or so golden horses along the driveway. And the fountain is not bad either.

Interchange

As I’m sure lots of you know, Dubai was just a village from the late 18^th century until Sheik Khalifa convinced the separate emirate states to formally co-operate and take advantage of their oil riches. Much of Dubai is built on reclaimed land and the rest on sand.

We were informed that at one time 25% of all the construction cranes in the world were in Dubai doing their stuff.

The money, of course, came from oil. But now, oil and gas comprise just 3% of the Emirate’s income.

One of the most exclusive developments is the palm shaped series of raised areas. The piece d’resistance of this area is the Atlantis the Palm.

Let’s hope it doesn’t suffer the same fate as its original namesake.

Dubai Mall is reputedly the largest in the world and it’s adjacent to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa (burj means tower).

The lobby of the Mall looks like this.

And just beyond the entry is the huge aquarium.

Up in the lift ground to level 124 of the Burj Khalifa in 60 seconds.

The view from Level 124 and 125, which we also visited, was stunning, if somewhat spoilt by the sand haze, which is apparently always present when the wind is blowing from the desert.

Adjacent to the Mall and the Burj Khalifa is an artificial lake where a fountain display is shown every half hour. Set to music, it is quite beautiful. It runs for about four minutes and attracts large crowds.

We were told the jets can be projected to the height of a 50 storey building.

Candylicious

Back to the van passing the largest candy store in the world, Candylicious.

The Dubai Museum is housed in an old fort and it houses exhibits depicting life in the Dubai area when it was a pearling centre and also a centre for trade.

We spent about 30 minutes there but could easily have spent a few hours.

Real women in museum

A panorama inside museum

Our final stop before returning to the ship was the Gold Souk (souk means market) where there were maybe a hundred shops selling gold jewellery.

(photos of gold souk).

The Souk was on the Creek which is an older part of town where the not-so-well-off live.

We were dropped back at the ship at about 4.00pm – so a six hour tour instead of three hours. Cool, we thought.

We had a bit of a rest and were waiting in the terminal at 7.00pm when Mohommad and Harry turned up on time to take us to our dinner cruise on a dhow on the Creek (actually an inlet).

It took a forty minutes or so drive to get to the marina area.

We sensed there was drama when the man in uniform from the dhow was seen pointing at the portable ramp carried in the van and phone calls were made.

Off we went to the dhow with Harry carrying the ramp.

Dhow

The entry onto the dhow was via a moveable five steps device, which was moved away and replaced by the ramp. 

A one-in-two gradient is too much even for this intrepid couple. And to make it worse, there was a 100ml step up at the top of the ramp, followed by a 100ml step down just 100ml later.

Offers were made to push John up, carry John up, and, most bizarrely of all, to get John and chair onto the ramp (which folded longitudinally) and then lift the lower end to level it out.

John politely declined all of these offers, pointing out the dangers to all concerned.

Mohommad phoned the tour company and John accepted apologies and offered a full refund and a trip to the Dubai Mall to see the fountain again (this time lit up, of course) and the laser show on the Burj Khalifa.

That was accepted and off we went.

Another phone call, this time from the manager of the tour company, who very politely informed John that the morning tour had been the wrong one (we suspected as much) and that it should have been three hours and that what we’d paid did not include admission to venues, amounting to some $140 (again, we had suspected this).

John struck a deal that the $170 we had paid for the dinner be just waived and it be declared all square. The manager agreed but said he now owed us $40 USD, so John got him to agree to give Harry and Mohommad $20 each (we had already tipped them at the end of the other tour).

The night fountain show and the laser show were probably better than our dhow cruise and dinner – so it all ended with our being happy.  However, the company’s administrative systems left much to be desired.

Marg had a snack at the Mall while John videoed the events.

Here is a taste of the laser show.

We were dropped back at the ship at about 11.00pm, exhausted, hungry and happy. Up to the bistro and something to eat and off to bed.

Day two in Dubai was spent trying to get free wi-fi in the terminal, but giving up and just relaxing on board. Oh, yes we did buy a couple of cheap souvenirs – a fridge magnet and a mug.

Many of our new friends had different experiences in Dubai and some did some interesting tours including camel rides and desert drives.

This last picture is for Bruce, showing cars in port - imagine the dust getting into them before the customer picks one up.

So why didn’t we like it – or more to the point, why would we not go back?

Basically, we think the culture and economic system is unfair to the poorer people and overly panders to the very rich.

Government revenue is raised not by income tax, but lots of user pays, which like a GST or VAT, disproportionally disadvantages the poor.

The political system is autocratic and, although seemingly benign or even benevolent at the moment, may not be when the ruler changes. Autocrats can always change the approach to things like health care and education (both good at the moment). With no public dissent allowed, this may be difficult to resist without violence.

Our inconsistency is that we love NYC which in many ways also is not a poor person’s paradise, and the US political system is also biased towards the rich. But we will willingly visit NYC over and over.

And finally, the weather in Dubai is just too hot.

Sea Princess Wheelchair Accessibility

Some of our friends want more information about the wheelchair access on board and in particular, access within our cabin.  

So, here we go.

Our cabin in on Level 8 (there are 9 levels (5 to 14 – no level 13) accessible to passengers by lift plus one by stairs only (level 15).

Our cabin has no balcony, and is described as “restricted view” which means that a life boat is right outside the window and obscures most of the view – when seated only sky is visible above the boat, when standing or with the wheelchair fully raised, a sliver of ocean is visible. But you do know when it’s night or day - unlike in the cheaper “inside” cabins, as we had on The Queen Victoria.

We believe that there is only one accessible cabin with an unrestricted window view.

The entry door is 820mm wide, but is heavy to open – John can just manage to open it from the inside, and has finally managed to  open it from the corridor using the key-card.

The corridors are a bit narrow at 1420mm at the door and a bit less elsewhere – no way two wheelchairs can pass, but wide enough for a walking person and wheelie to pass with care, or for a wheelie to pass the housekeeping trolley.

The cabin itself has twin single beds which are bolted to the floor. They are a bit narrow for John – dressing himself is a bit of a struggle - and they are definitely too narrow for comfortable cuddling (and that’s all we’ll say on that subject).

There is space under the beds for storing cases or for hoist access, The gap is 330mm.

The beds are 870mm wide by 1900mm long.

Cabin D329

The distance between the beds is 1750mm

The height of the beds (floor to top of mattress) is 580mm and they offer an extra mattress to raise the height. But the mattress is quite soft and that makes it a bit of a struggle for John to transfer from bed to Chair.

Clearance under dressing table is 660mm with width of opening is 640mm wide, and under breakfast table is 740mm by 860mm wide. Breakfast table is 80mm (making top of table 820mm from floor.

Bathroom entrance  - velcro underneath worn out

The bathroom has an outward opening door 530mm wide, but there is a 25mm step into the bathroom with a moveable ramp that itself has a 10mm step. The ramp is also constantly being pushed away from the step be John’s chair’s casters – a bit of Velcro would fix that.

Shows John's fold up portable shower chair

The bathroom itself is quite okay for us.

There is no hob into the shower.

Note shower hose - attaches too low - gets tangled up with feet

The shower hose is a bit long and fairly stiff so it keeps getting caught on John’s footplates. There controls are odd. One to turn the water on, one to adjust the temperature. John cannot reach either, nor can he turn the knobs if he could reach them, and not could he see the temperature indicator, in any case. Not that it matters as the hottest you can get is only lukewarm.

  

The wash basin has 620mm clearance under. Shelf space is just adequate.

The loo seat is 460mm above floor height, with the flush button fairly light and as shown.

Trains and taxis

Amtrak hoist - does the job - manual wind

I'm trying to write this on Amtrak train No 64, on route from Niagara Falls to New York - returning the way we came on Thursday.  It's quite a pleasant journey although too long - we left at 10:18 am and won't be at Penn Station until 9:45 pm, assuming we are on time.  It's also very bumpy - like their "sidewalks", I don't think America maintains its rolling stock or train tracks as well as we do.  Maybe it has something to do with the Americans' reluctance to pay tax??

Meeting other Aussies at the train station

John's space in this carriage is much larger, and therefore more comfortable than on the journey up.  He can fully recline his chair without any problem.  I've also commandeered a forward facing seat with a tray - for the moment - hence my attempt to write a blog on John's laptop. (Did I tell you I managed to smash the screen on my own laptop on our last night in the UK?)

The Amtrak hot spot is working well.  On our return journey we remembered to bring our American power attachments in our hand luggage.

As I said, we boarded the train at 10:18 am at Niagara Falls (ON), and travelled across the river to Niagara Falls (USA) where we were stationery for two hours whilst customs came through the train.  Other passengers are usually asked to get off the train with their luggage and then reboard (they were on the journey up) but this time I think everyone stayed seated.  Neither Canadian nor American customs officers are people with whom to crack a joke!  Hopefully this delay was scheduled - probably was, since the journey back to NY is about an hour longer.

Our unreliable taxi - Central Taxis - do not recommend

We've had the usual dramas with taxis.  Amtrak's contract travel agent couldn't arrange transport from stations to our hotels, so John has taken on that role.  It fouled up on our first attempt at Niagara Falls (Ontario side).  He'd found a taxi company and booked it, but when we arrived, no sign of a wheelchair cab.  Other taxi drivers from that company were helpful and finally he turned up.  He didn't turn his meter on, and said it was a flat rate.  But we got there.

John booked through the same company for the return trip this morning and they scheduled the booking, but no show.  We'd left plenty of time for the journey (our wheelie friends will understand that!) so the hotel was able to find another company to do the job and Elite Cabs turned up very quickly, turned the meter on and charged much less. So if you are needing a wheelchair accessible cab in Niagara Falls, for peace of mind, don't bother with Central Taxis, go for Elite instead.  A third company didn't have any wheelchair accessible cabs.

I wonder what our experience with cabs will be in Boston, Chicago and Seattle?  Our Boston hotel is only a short distance so John can probably wheel himself there whilst I find a regular cab.