Sentosa is a special place to us -- it was the first dating place of James & me, where he proposed, & also where my family had our 1st family outing since my brother became disabled.
I had some free tickets to the Images of Singapore & the Segway Ride, so we wanted to take this opportunity to bring my brother out. It was our 1st family outing in the past 10 months since he became disabled, so it was a big hype for all of us!
On the 1st Sunday of this month, we had a pinic at the beach in the morning, but the weather was crazily hot, leaving everyone flustered & wet with perspiration. James, being positive as always, told me, "Just be glad it isn't raining." Ok, I decided to be positive & stopped my complaints while he's dripping wet with his perspiration.
At the beach, I saw my brother tearing when he thought no one is watching him. I know it isn't easy for him to watch us running around while he's stuck in the wheelchair. But i know that someday he will run too. Someday will come -- soon!
About noon, we headed off to the Beach train station to take the train to Imbiah to reach Images of Singapore. To our horror, we realised the entire place is not wheelchair friendly at all. There are no lifts from the basement of the station to the train station -- only stairs & escalators!! The only way to go up the station is for James to push the wheelchair up a steep slope along the main road (not forgetting the cars driving along the same road)!
Finally we reached Imbiah Station, with James tshirt totally drenched. The next horror greets us -- there are only stairs & escalators again to the Images of Singapore from the station -- not even a slope in sight this time. Everyone was disappointed & I could tell my brother was hiding his sadness. So my sister suggested that we go to Resorts World instead. After all, the most popular tourist attraction & Singapore's pride must have such wheelchair facilities right?
Guess what? All the lifts in Resorts World were under maintenance except for the one leading down to the casino. Of course, they'll make sure that the particular lift is working right? Just imagine the loss in government's revenue if visitors could not access the casino.
We left the island by early afternoon because we seriously doubt the rest of the island are wheelchair accessible as well. It was a highly anticipated but disappointing excursion because we didn't realise that Sentosa are not meant for the elderly & disabled. I never realised the importance of having our public places or even tourist spots being wheelchair friendly until this trip, but I believe STB or URA should have been aware of such problems long time ago. Maybe some of the taxes that I pay dutifully every year can be chanelled to such good causes in future?
Well, I still have the untilised tickets to Images of Singapore & Segway Ride. Those healthy abled-bodied siblings of mine decided we shouldn't waste them, hence we made another trip down to Sentosa last Saturday.
Segway Ride was pretty interesting. The Segway Personal Transportator (PT) is a self-balancing transportation device that sports high tech gyroscopes which automatically responds to your body's movements, "sensing" when it should speed up, slow down, stop, & even turn right or left. It costs $12/pax for a 10 mins ride in the circuit, & $38/pax for riding 30 mins along the beach. We were only entitled to the circuit ride, but maybe next time we will try the beach ride. Seems pretty adventurous.
The last time I was inside Image of Singapore was 14 years ago, & yet none of the exhibits have changed. Either STB lacked innovation or they are still trying too hard to "preserve" Singapore's musuem. The place is not just wheelchair unfriendly, but it is also baby pram unfriendly. We had to leave Charis' pram outside the museum because there were simply too many flights of stairs inside. Maybe the elderly, handiccaped & even young children are not meant to understand more about Singapore history?
We brought Charis & my nephew to Toys' R Us at Vivocity afterwards, & she enjoyed the place even more. Once she entered the main entrance, she just kept jumping in my arms for joy, & she was smiling & laughing the whole time inside.
Sentosa no longer holds the same meaning in my heart...
No comments:
Post a Comment