Dutch travellers Marianne Bukman and her husband Kees Bukman ended up Saigon the way many people do.

“Everyone said ‘Vietnam? Why Vietnam?’” Kees recalled. “I said ‘Well, why not?’”

Their cavalier manner belies a very specific and obvious obstacle. While Kees spoke seated at a table in a chair, Marianne was sitting on the opposite side in her wheelchair, a necessary aid given the severity of her multiple sclerosis.

“Of course, yes. People stare sometimes,” he said. “But they’re very friendly in general.”

“What I hate most is if they ignore you. If I’m pushing her and they start asking me about her, that’s the most annoying,” he said.

“They ask him everything and they ignore me,” Marianne said with a laugh. “You have to treat the disabled as normal people,” her husband added.

Cross-Country Travel

The couple spent 10 days on a tour with Roll in Asia, an agency that specialises in serving travellers with a disability. It included stops in Hanoi, Halong Bay and Nha Trang before arriving in Ho Chi Minh City. The group had toured the highlights including the Reunification Palace, Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica and Ben Thanh Market.

The couple reported their favourite part of the trip so far was dining on the local cuisine. “Every time, new flavors. That’s the basic highlight of the trip. And then to meet all the friendly people of Vietnam,” he added.

Before Marianne’s multiple sclerosis limited her mobility, the couple travelled extensively. In the late ’80s, the couple visited Cuba, a nation which they said at the time bore striking similarities to modern-day Vietnam.

While the couple was seeking something that would be appropriate for Marianne’s abilities, they also worried that agencies serving travellers with a disability might be too dull.

A cruise on a ship would be an easy way for Marianne and her husband to get out of the Netherlands. “But it’s not adventurous,” Kees said. “We said we have to search for something different because I’m not going to spend the rest of my life cruising.”

Which is why “each trip is tailor made”, Roll in Asia cofounder Charlotte Jean said, describing a lengthy and in-depth planning process between her firm and a prospective traveller to identify limitations, medical needs and any other necessary modifications for a traveller with a disability. “Every trip is different, every concern is different.”

Barrier-Free Travel?

The Bukmans’ travel through Asia and the availability of services through companies like Jean’s represents an important step forward in what the United Nations calls “barrier-free travel” – tourism for a population with a disability. In a 2003 report, the UN cited a lack of facilities, resources and even a dearth of data related to travellers who had a disability. The report didn’t cite Vietnam specifically, but said that attitudes about disabilities tend to vary throughout the Southeast Asia region and that a lack of awareness towards those seeking barrier-free travel can engender indifference.

Jean vehemently disagreed that the Vietnamese lacked compassion towards those with a disability.

“No, I don’t agree with this,” she said. “People are very helpful. They’re actually too helpful.”

Rather than neglecting her travellers, she said the level of hospitality was always exceptional, almost to an etiquette-breaking point. Take, for instance, the lack of handicap ramps. Jean said she’s had to stop people from physically carrying a traveller with a disability.

“There is this big misconception between what is possible, and what is fine,” she said. So, “if the person has to be carried like a baby during the whole holiday, that’s not nice.”

In a by-any-means environment like Saigon, where any street corner is just a few plastic stools and a soup pot away from becoming an open-air cafeteria, Jean said that sensibility can translate to gestures seem helpful but read less warmly to a traveller with a disability.

Equal Travel Opportunities, Everywhere

In lieu of broadly available handicap resources, Jean said she and her partner have instead worked with existing facilities to identify enough handicap-friendly spaces and activities to create a journey for their clients. Since the business’ creation two years ago, Jean and her cofounder Clément Abalea have travelled throughout Vietnam identifying a chain through Vietnam that would create the most accessible route for travellers with a disability.

“At the end of the day, we can have a full and complete trip,” she said. Her agency offers tours for visitors going through Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Hoi An, Hue, Nha Trang and of course Ho Chi Minh City.

Wheelchair accommodation ties into what Jean said is a top concern for those travelling with a disability: hotels. Her firm assesses hotels rigorously to make sure that the facilities can meet the travellers at their specific ability.

Kees affirmed Roll in Asia’s tailor-made approach to travel planning. Not even everyone in a wheelchair has the same ability, and this must be taken into account. “One thing for Marianne is that she gets tired very easily. But I see other guys who are very strong and they’re just wheeling around. Their main obstacle is just the pathways and the potholes.”

“Every disability is different,” he said. But “they want to be treated like normal [people].”

Kees said pedestrian and wheelchair-friendly areas were a big concern for him and his wife. “The sidewalks are terrible, and the traffic is a uh, a lot,” he said.

But the couple said there’s an idiosyncratic rhythm to how things are ordered in Vietnam that accommodated them nicely while they were here. For example, while the drivers appear to have their own rules sometimes, “if you know that rule and just take care of yourself, they afford you,” Kees said.

Before they set off for Vietnam, the couple showed their itinerary to their son. He too had travelled through Southeast Asia and visited the same sights. The Bukmans said their son registered some surprise when he was told all of this could be done while travelling with a disability.

Jesus Lopez Gomez for Citypass Guide.