— GUSTASP And Jeroo
We have stared at a month devoid of travel and told each other ‘ let’s just hop onto a train/ plane and go somewhere’. and we do.
love like Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Italy, France, Croatia, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand and a zillion places in India…”
The silver lining, and there always is one for air nomads, is the recurring buzz. “When we get onto a plane, we feel like air is our natural element and an airplane is home. Airports give us a buzz, a high unlike any other. We love the feeling of people arriving and departing, the stories behind those arrivals and departures; hearts broken and mended; love affairs kindled, the joy and sorrow that a lovely lined face may hide…” says Gustasp.
Waking up in a hotel in a strange country and feeling blessed and privileged to have led an eventful life is another high the couple relish. But then, there’s the low, and their advice? Start organising your next trip! “It’s the best way to get over the post- travel blues. Short breaks also help,” adds Jeroo, which is why they feel like India is the best place to be. “Where else in the world would you get so much colour, organised chaos and often meaningless activity and a spectrum of destinations to choose from when those post- travel blues hit you?”
Like the Iranis, Jeff Johns and Anne Mugnier’s first suggestion on getting over post- travel blues is “plan your next trip”. The Dubai- based couple run a travel blog as a hobby — an escape in itself from their day jobs — called What Doesn’t Suck, and he says that the sadness about coming back to Dubai hits the minute he sees the map on the in- flight screen. “We actually have an app that gives us a countdown to our next trip. We give our trips ridiculous names, put different backgrounds on the timer… Anne sometimes sends me screenshots to remind me of when our next escape is due. It’s an addiction. It’s a horrible, expensive addiction. But it’s fulfilling and enriching.”
Jeff also adds that in their attempt to squeeze as much time away as possible, they often end up being “really stupid”. “We travel until literally 7am Sunday morning. And then go straight to work.” This weekend ( being a three- day holiday), they’re off to Beirut and once again, flying back on Sunday morning. “We’re trying to squeeze every minute out of it. But the worst thing is, while we’re away, we’re going to be constantly thinking about work. I think that adds to the post- travel blues, in a way.”
But why do people in Dubai, crave these getaways? The moment an extended holiday weekend is announced, travel agencies clamour to get the best offers out, very often labelled ‘ escapes’ or ‘ getaways’. “People work so hard here and they’re always busy… so they live for an opportunity, any opportunity, to go away,” Jeff confides. “It’s not an easy ride here, which makes the escape even more welcome. You’ll get a decent salary in Dubai, and that makes travelling to other places affordable, but whenthose tyres hit, the realisation that you have to go back to that job and might be there till 11 o’clock at night swoops down on you. It’s not pretty.”
FEELING THE BLUES? TRY THIS: A sure fire way to ease yourself into the grind after a holiday is to plan a smooth return. Take time to unpack and settle down. For more tips, head to www. webmd. com/ balance/ features/ after- vacationtips- to- bounceback- fast.
There’s also dealing with all of those promises you made to yourself when you moved here, Jeff adds. “So many people comehere thinking they’ll be here for one year, or two years at most, and save money. But when you land back here, you realise: ‘ I can’t believe I’m still here, I can’t believe I haven’t saved any money, I can’t believe I just signed my lease or work contract for another year… It all hits you at once. You planned your escape and realise you’ve totally failed. And that can make many people feel miserable when they come back from holiday.” Aka, the mother of all post- travel blues.
In fact, it is one of the reasons that Jeff and Anne started whatdoesntsuck. com. “It’s so easy to get sucked into the Dubai way of life. You wake up on Friday morning and go to a brunch, end up eating and drinking way too much, meaning you’re exhausted on Saturday, and you’re back to work on Sunday. It’s a terrible cycle. But you can do so much more on a weekend.” And he’s right. There are several destinations just 2- 3 hours from Dubai, with great fares and cheap hotels. “We started doing the math and realised that instead of spending Dh800- 1,000 on a brunch every weekend, we could be going to all these cool places! And if you watch some of our videos, you will realise that there are great experiences just waiting to be had. Possibly even the next place to escape to.”
The next place to escape to is exactly what is on Jessica Voorn and Daniel Campbell’s minds. All the time. Originally from the UK, this Dubai- based couple has been together for almost four years now, and they have travelled together for just as many years. “Dan was used to travelling before he met me, so I am sort of playing catch up. He hates sitting still, being in one place. So, as soon as we moved here a few years ago, we realised that we had the opportunity to go to places we hadn’t been before together, and it’s something we look forward to all the time.” They travel almost every three months, Jess reveals, and prefer taking longer holidays. “Long enough to forget about our responsibilities,” she says with a smile. But, she adds, in hindsight, not always the smartest thing to do.
“I think it has gotten worse for meever since our trip to Kenya last year. I had become very restless and just wanted to keep travelling,” says Jess. But Dan had exhausted his leave — something she warns anyone wholoves to travel to never allow to happen — and Jess had to get away, which meant going alone. “I went to Egypt by myself for five days. I just had to. I think the longer you are away, the worse the post- travel blues hit you.
“I always have a bad week when I get back. I end up doing weird things like cleaning the house,” says Jess. “It takes a while for me to adjust. I become a bit distant, too,” she adds. After the couple’s last trip to Jordan, Jess took up running to ease getting back into the work. She now justifies it as a way of burning off all the food she ate while she was there. “I also make scrapbooks for every place we visit, filled with receipts, postcards, ticket stubs, etc, and frame it. Sort of a post- holiday shrine that goes up on the wall. It helps me transition from the holiday me to the 9- 5 me, and I think that’s how I get over the blues,” she adds. “It took me almost two weeks to make the one from our trip to Jordan — that’s how long it took me to get over my posttravel hangover!”
As Jess and Dan share some of their travel stories, it becomes clear that they are by- the- book travellers, in a more literal sense. “We don’t plan our trip. We just get a flight — often the cheapest flight, sometimes with terrible connections — and once we land, we look at the guide to figure out where we want to stay and what we want to see.” It becomes a
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