Inaccessible Toilet For Disabled People At Ulu Bernam RSA

PLUS Expressways Berhad (PLUS) is not serious in including accessible facilities at the rest and service area (RSA) and lay-bys along the North South Expressway (NSE). This is evident from my previous complaints regarding the facilities at Tapah RSA that went unrectified till now.

Likewise, the purportedly parking for disabled persons at all the RSAs and lay-bys have not been redone to comply with Malaysian Standard MS 1184. Disabled persons have no place to park and get out from vehicles conveniently. Moreover, the those parking spaces are usually occupied by vehicles without disabled persons.

Inaccessible toilet for disabled people at Ulu Bernam RSA Southbound
Toilet for disabled persons with the door opening inwards at Ulu Bernam RSA Southbound.

To add insult to injury, on my trip back from Ipoh last weekend, I discovered that the accessible toilet at the Ulu Bernam RSA Southbound was as good as useless. The door opened inwards. When I got in, I could not close the door due to the limited space inside for me to maneuver. I got Wuan to move the sanitary napkin disposal bin out. That did not help either. In the end, I emptied my bladder into the diaper I was wearing instead.

Before PLUS officials attend another conference on accessibility for disabled persons and proclaim to all and sundry that they provide such facilities at the RSAs and lay-bys, they should do an audit to ensure that these facilities are really functional and comply with the code of practice.

Putting a wheelchair logo on the toilet door or painting the logo on the parking space does not make them usable by disabled people. These facilities must comply with the Malaysian Standard MS 1184: Code of Practice for Access for Disabled Persons to Buildings. The document clearly spells out the proper dimension and requirements to make facilities usable by disabled people.

The Day I Lost A Morning Worth of Digital Images

Among the things that make digital photography buffs cringe in fear, losing photographs in the memory card before transferring them to the computer tops the list. This is exactly what happened to me last Saturday. Wuan and I were at the Ulu Bernam R & R. We had stopped there on our way back from Ipoh after celebrating Father’s Day with her Dad.

I was astounded to discover that I could not close the door for the accessible toilet after I got inside. The door opened inwards instead of outwards. There was simply not enough space for me to manuever to close the door. This is stupidity on the part of PLUS Expressways Bhd at its utmost.

My bladder was near to bursting and that was the only accessible toilet within 70km or 80km of the North South Expressway. I took out my camera and took a few shots of the toilet. This is certainly something I can use the next time I am invited to speak on accessibility.

Anyway, the camera kept displaying memory card error despite my attempts to turn it off and on again several times. The first thing that I did when I got home was to download the photograph from the card. Fortunately, I could still transfer the photographs into the laptop.

I hastily did a low-level format after that and the card seemed to work fine again. When I went through the album, I was dismayed to discover that over 100 photographs of the Kelana Jaya Pasar Tani taken the week before were not transferred. It was my mistake. I should have ensured that all the photographs were downloaded before I formatted the SD card.

Several data recovery programs that I used could not find the deleted files. Apparently, low-level format wipes the memory card clean. Luckily, it was just photographs of pasar tani. I can always go back to shoot more. This incident has taught me to ensure that, in the future, all photographs are downloaded from the memory card before I delete or format it.

Some Men Do Not Deserve To Have A Penis

Some men do not deserve to have a penis. Let me tell you why. Firstly, they hide inside accessible toilets to smoke, selfishly polluting it with the stench of cigarette fumes. Secondly, they simply do not bother to lift the toilet seat when peeing. Thirdly, they do not know how to aim properly. Hello! You are not dousing a fire. There is no need to swing it from left to right and up and down. Just shoot straight into the toilet bowl lar!

Dirty accessible toilet
Inside one of the accessible toilets at Ikano Power Centre.

This photo was taken inside one of the accessible toilets at Ikano Power Centre. This must be the work of a man who did not know how to hold his penis to direct the stream of urine into the toilet bowl. There was urine all over the toilet seat and on the floor too. The room reeked of cigarette fumes. Imagine my consternation when I got into the toilet and was greeted by the unsettling sight and smell. Fortunately I did not need to sit on the toilet bowl. Unfortunately, I usually spend a little more time in the toilet as compared to other people and had to bear with the stench the entire duration I was inside.

Ikano Power Centre is one of the most accessible buildings. In fact it is a paradise for wheelchair users. There are ample accessible parking spaces. The entire building is almost 100% accessible except for the rather steep ramp connecting to Ikea at the ground floor and the pet shop at Level 2. Moreover, just across the road is The Curve where food outlets are aplenty.

There are so many reasons why I like to hang out there, only to be spoilt by idiots who mess up the accessible toilets. These are the handful of people who make other Malaysians look bad. When I was in Tokyo, all the public toilets that I used at train stations, shopping complexes and at the airport were spotlessly clean and, mostly importantly, dry. Malaysians should learn to be more civic conscious and discard that third world mentality. We should keep toilets clean for the next person just like we would like the person before us do the same.