Once Upon A Time In Dubai

Deprived of travel due to the pandemic, RADHIKA TANDON reminisces about another year of crisis when she packed up the kids and flew to Dubai for a life reboot.

- Radhika Tandon

This is only the second year in two decades when a ‘big’ holiday didn’t feature in my calendar until August. This time, a global pandemic was to blame. The last time was a personal crisis, my life’s lowest point. It involved an ugly divorce, a near-empty bank account, and a ridiculously uncertain future. Caught up in all the unpleasantness, the summer passed by me. Realising that I had to do something to take control, I did what only an insane person would do: I bought three tickets, packed up the kids, and ran away for a holiday to Dubai.

I look back on that reckless, feckless, impulsive trip as an important Aha! moment in my life. It taught me three key lessons about why I needed to travel. Right now, when the only long journeys most of us can take are those that go backwards, in fond nostalgia, it seems like a good time to share this story.

My only agenda then was to have fun with the kids, and for this, Dubai is a wonderland. The malls are hubs of child-friendly attractions, and the omnipresent opulence is jaw-dropping. At the Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo (thedubaiaquarium.com) in The Dubai Mall (thedubaimall.com), we fed sharks from a dhow on the water, indoors! It blew me away. We also took an ice-skating lesson at a rink on the ground floor. On another day, I dropped off the children at KidZania Dubai (dubai.kidzania.com) for an afternoon and treated myself to some grown-up time, shopping and catching up with a friend. At Ski Dubai (