Member-only story
Ripples in the Sand
How escaping missiles and myths helped me explore my shortcomings
When we landed in Dubai, I had little idea what to expect. That’s how I travel. I never do enough research. I’m not proud of it. It’s just a thing with me. Some years ago, I planned a family vacation to Puerto Rico. At the airport, an attendant looked at our tickets and said, no, we were going to Puerto Plata.
“I hope you have passports,” the attendant said, looking sympathetically at my wife, Kim, and our three young children — and sideways at me. “That’s in the Dominican Republic.”
Kim had packed those documents (“just in case”) and we were soon on our way. But I won’t deny it was a long flight to the Caribbean wondering if a round of welcome drinks might be going unclaimed somewhere in Puerto Rico while my family slept on the streets of Puerto Plata.
It turns out I had kept my “Puertos” straight while booking the trip some months earlier. We had rooms. It all worked out. If it hadn’t, maybe I would have become a more careful planner. But it did, and so here we were touching down in Dubai with me not knowing what to expect. Blessedly, a travel expert had arranged our initial accommodations. I might have got us a room in Mumbai.
“In Dubai, tent cities are for glamping in the desert.”
