More people seem to be taking their annual vacations sitting at home and getting stressed out with nothing to do.
Take me for example, I have my passport with me and the favourite websites open on my laptop, trying to find a place to escape to for a couple of days but still haven’t found anything interesting.
The other day my cousin called from India and suggested that I visit my old hometown and see all my relatives. That definitely does not seem like a holiday, I tell her. “Why don’t you come and visit me in Dubai. I’ll show you around?” I tell her, and there was silence for some time, as she pondered on that idea. (I have a big mouth, I thought to myself, I need a holiday, not her!).
As I sat and contemplated I got a call from my colleague who is supposedly also on vacation. Why are you still here? I ask him. I found that he has no intention of going anywhere out of Dubai. “I am in hibernation,” he says. “Can you tell me how to get to the flower garden?”
Ever since my credit cards have been maxed, I seem to be having this problem of selecting a good place (read, cheap place) for a holiday break. And, I don’t seem to be the only person suffering from this syndrome. “Who takes their children to see a flower garden?” I snigger.
Then I turned to financial experts for help and found that they all have hearts made of steel and do not understand my predicament. “If you do not have money for plane tickets or for hotel stays, go to the beach nearby and pretend you are a tourist,” said the expert.
“It will save you a lot of money and there will be no hassles about last-minute reservations.”
But the problem is I hate getting tanned (I am already toast-brown) and I don’t like getting sand in my mouth while I sleep with my mouth open.
The other advice was even more perplexing: spend time with your kids, take out the board games and play games with them, said the expert.
The time spent together will be good for all of you. Laugh and get to know your children better. Life is short, spend time with your family, he advised.
“Do we have board games?” I asked my younger son. “Not sure,” he said, looking down at his Nintendo, or whatever, he has in his hands all the time.
Feeling queasy
Take a mini-cruise, said the expert. So I took the RTA water taxi at Dubai Marina and went to the other side. It has been a while since I went to sea, so to speak, and felt a bit queasy, and I also had camera-toting tourists all around me, poking their 200-mm lenses at me.
Well, that took care of one day, but I still had a couple of weeks left. So I came home and checked staycation blogs and one of them suggested that I go visit the Friday Market on the Fujairah Highway, that is open every day of the week for some reason. The blogger had published pictures of the market and I thought it would be a much better idea to nap at home instead.
“That’s a great idea,” said the financial expert. “Vacations are meant to relax, so take out that novel you always wished to read, pour yourself a beverage (well, he didn’t actually say beverage) and take that nap ,” he said. “Isn’t that great? No bad weather to cancel your flight, no tension of losing your luggage,” he said.
I have napped for a couple of days, and my wife now makes elaborate plans with my children, to get me out of the house.
