India with an injury- advice needed!

HelenRF

Hello, I need your help. This is my first message on the board.. when I registered a couple of weeks ago I didn't think I'd be needing this kind of help.....

Me and my husband Lee fly to Kolkata on Wednesday 20th - ie the day after tomorrow, the final destination on our RTW trip. The trip has been going wonderfully until last week when Lee managed to do break his foot whilst playing cricket on the beach. We have just made it to a hospital in Bangkok and he is now fully kitted out with a foot in a cast and two lovely new crutches. The cast has to stay on for at least a month, so I've come on here to ask:

1) Anyone had any experience of travelling in India with a mobility impairment? how was it?

2) Any suggestions for somewhere we can rest up for a while? Though we fly to Kolkata we were thinking of heading north and finding a nice valley in Himachal Pradesh. Ideally would like somewhere accessible, small and chilled out - where we can indulge in our favourite pastime people-watching. Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Helen & Lee

LuAnnandJawahar

Wow. Sorry. Navigating Indian streets without crutches is often difficult! I just have general advice which is to keep your traveling to a minimum. Even flights will be a pain in the rear. Traveling by Ambassador (car) might be a good choice because it is a fairly large car, low to the ground, and so easy to get in and out of.

Hopefully someone else will have good suggestions for destinations not too far from your port of arrival.

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millreef

Hi Helen,

I'm not sure about locations in Himachal, but while in Calcutta you may want to stay at the Tollygunge Club (southern end of the city). The surroundings are a bit of an oasis within the chaos and will allow Lee to practice his hobbling technique until you get your bearings. It started off being an indigo plantation in the 1700's but now contains a golf course and riding facilities as well a hotel. If you're interested, their fax numbers are 91-33-473-1903/472-0480.

-m2-

sorry to hear about your husband's foot -- it will certainly complicate travel. Himachal Pradesh is quite a distance from Kolkata but perhaps a destination requiring limited connections would work. As NIT mentions, even flying will be a pain in the butt, particularly with the airport routines and further hassles getting from, say, Delhi on to HP.

Here's a thought: there are trains going direct to Dehra Dun from Calcutta -- from all report from members here (I haven't been yet), Rishikesh sounds like it would be a pretty good spot for what you have in mind and it is a reasonably short taxi from either DD or Haridwar. The trip is long -- over 30 hours -- but if you reserved an upper and lower berth in 2ac (or 1st ac even better) you would have plenty of room to stretch out and sit, prop the leg up, lie down or whatever as you could have the upper berth up or down at your convenience. The Dehradun Doon express #3009 dpts Howrah stn at 20:35 and arrives Haridwar at 4:32 on the second day -- i.e. two nights, one day.

The place millreef mentions sounds like a great place to take it easy while making arrangements in Kolkata. Good luck, hope things work out well.

m2


edit: didn't make it clear above but you want 'inside berths', not aisle, and they should be together so that you can control whether the upper berth is up or down during the day. Technically, the berth is folded up during the day unless both affected passengers agree to have it down; that's why you need them both together to be sure.

MadnoMad

Hi Helen,
if you are going to land in Kolkota then you could wither go to Darjeeling or Sikkim which are both quite beautiful instead of dragging your poor husband all the way to the himalayan foothills!!...also getting to the himalays would be a big issue with his broken foot because most of the transport to that part of the country is through local bone-jarring buses...which I wouldnt recommend for your husband...so get to Kolkota and take a flight or hire a car out to Darjeeling which is a very good hill station...and it is quite packed with tourists..but since you mentioned people watching I think it should be ok for you...or you can head to Sikkim which was an erstwhile himalayan buddhist kingdom which later joined the Indian union...bot these places would be closer to Kolkata and also medical facilities etc would be easliy available in case of an emergency.....have a nice trip and hope your husband recovers soon...cheers

Madnomad

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maree

Squat toilets will be a problems so make sure you stay in places with western style ones.

HelenRF

Just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone for your prompt and extremely helpful replies. What a marvellous website this is :-)

Well we, or rather Lee, has spent the last couple of days adjusting to the cast and the crutches. Good news is that his Clark's sandals will fit over the cast, thus aiding movement and preventing a manky foot.

Anyway, thought you might like to know that we have decided to take M2's advice and go straight to Dehra Dun from Kolkata and rest up in Rishikesh. Madnomad: we had thought about going to Darjeeling but have decided against that because of all the flooding and landslides there have been lately.

So from there I think we will pootle over to Mussourie and find ourselves a luxurious raj- remanant hotel in which to celebrate our 2nd wedding anniversary!

Thanks once again. Will let you know how we are getting on

Helen & Lee

-m2-

glad we could be of help.....be sure to bring lots of reading material and perhaps save a bottle of duty-free for the trip as well Will be interested in hearing how things work out.

cheers!

m2

HelenRF

Hello there, thought you may be interested to know how the 'India with an injury' situation turned out.

I think the succint way to put it is: we tried and we came home.

Despite our enthusiasm and intentions before we set off from Bangkok, we quickly came to the conclusion that we could not travel in India with a broken foot and crutches. I think the Gods were trying to tell us something when we met with obstacles at every turn, you know how it is, trying to buy train tickets, find an ATM, get a taxi during a bandh.... Life began to take on a strange nightmare quality… or on other days seemed like some peculiar computer game, you know where you have a mission, which involves many different levels / dead ends ? The prime example of this was trying to get Lee’s cast removed during the aforementioned bandh. It took six, yes six, different medical centres, two operating theatres and 3 hours before he eventually was free of the offending item (which was causing more grief than it was solving, but that’s another story). Mission completed, we returned to Sudder Street for lunch. By the end of this lovely meal we were wiping away the tears and in total agreement that we should return to the UK and celebrate our wedding anniversary on a Scottish Island rather than Rishikesh. We then checked into the Fairlawn hotel for a week of watching the cricket, drinking masses of tea and waiting for a flight home.

It was with a strange mixture of sadness and relief that we came home, but I know it was the right thing to do, and that we will return again one day...

Helen & Lee

wonderwomanusa

So sorry to hear that the visit to India didn't work out. Best wishes for your NEXT trip to India, and for Pete's sake, be careful where you step!

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-m2-

that's a real shame, Helen, so sorry it didn't work out. hope Lee's doing better now, and, yeah -- here's hoping you get another chance to see India, and with a happier outcome.

m2

bijapuri

yeah, you made the right decision to leave. Things turn green in the monsoon, if you know what I mean.
India will be there when you're healthy once more, and I know the gods will smile on you the next time!

BiJ

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