Queen of the Desert
Meet Nicola Chilton, a talented Briton living in the gulf who has given up the glamour of a hotel PR job and switched sides to be the media person who writes about them
Nicola Chilton is one of those rare breeds, a marcom turned writer. Mostly, traffic goes the other way. After years of trying to make a living from pitching stories to uninterested editors, writers often end up segueing into marketing communications, a natural sideways jump to the dark side that brings their skills to the fore, and usually offers much more in the way of remuneration (but possibly less in job satisfaction).
I first met Nicola in Hong Kong, when she invited me over to the Four Seasons – a stunning property overlooking Victoria Harbour – for lunch and a chat. As these things often are, it was a working lunch, with me as the Deputy Editor of Time Out Hong Kong, and her as Director of Public Relations, but we hit it off, and kept meeting up. When I later moved to Bangkok, she’d already beaten me to it, and she filled me in on the city as we gorged on a memorable Sunday seafood brunch. She then moved onto the Four Seasons regional office in Dubai, and we sadly lost touch – until now. Discovering she’d left the world of hotel marketing behind and launched into a career as a travel writer, I reconnected with Nicola to ask the most obvious question: ‘why?’.
So how have you been? How is life in Dubai and the UAE?
It’s so nice to be reconnected with you, Simon! I’ve been living in Dubai for almost seven years now, and to be completely honest, it was never anywhere I thought I’d end up – or particularly wanted to end up. I had my preconceived ideas about what it was like based on a couple of hasty business trips, and I just thought it wasn’t really for me. But I was very wrong. Within a couple of weeks of arriving I discovered that it’s the most multicultural place I’ve ever lived (I’ve lived in the UK, Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand), and that, beyond the skyscrapers, there’s an entire country out there waiting to be discovered. Sure, you can live the glitzy five-star lifestyle, but you can also eat shwarma streetside, cross Dubai Creek on an old wooden boat for one dirham (20p), wake surf at sunrise, climb desert dunes for incredible sunsets, and so much more. You can see a little bit more about my ‘Dubai Love Story’ in this video.
What do you miss about living in Hong Kong and Bangkok?
Plenty of things – although my big fear of missing Asian food was assuaged when I discovered some great authentic Thai, Burmese, Indian, Pakistani and Filipino food in Dubai. I miss the hiking in Hong Kong and the fact that we had all of those beautiful green mountains right on our doorstep [Ed. don’t we all]. I miss the slightly frenetic nature of Bangkok, zooming around the city on the back of a motorbike and all of that amazing street food with plentiful (and cheap) cold beer everywhere. But then I think that my experiences of both places are products of their time, and if I moved back now it would be completely different. Dubai is also so well-connected that when the world opens up again, I can be back in both HK and Bangkok in just a few hours.
Tell me a bit about your background, where are you from?
I was born in Yorkshire, the most beautiful part of the UK in case anyone’s in any doubt! I moved to Mexico for a year when I was 20 to write my university dissertation on an indigenous uprising that was happening in the far south of the country. I then returned to the UK to finish my degree, just in time for a particularly drab winter, and realised that I really wanted to get out again. So I did, first moving to northern Japan to teach English in a high school, and subsequently down to Tokyo to help promote the government’s education programme. I next moved to work for a public relations firm, which eventually led to me moving into in-house PR roles for the Four Seasons.
What was the attraction with working in public relations?
It wasn’t exactly a linear route. I’d always loved travelling, and hotels were always such a big part of that – whether they were the motels we stayed in on US road trips when I was a child, the beach resorts on my first trip to Thailand when I was 10, the beautiful paradors we stayed at in Spain on another family holiday, or the night I spent at the Oriental in Bangkok when I backpacked around the country aged 20, spending all of my remaining budget on that one night and realizing it was an exceptionally good decision to have made. I couldn’t understand how everyone remembered my name. Thinking back it was probably because I was very obviously a 20-year-old British backpacker surrounded by guests more accustomed to luxury!
I graduated with a degree in Spanish, with a particular focus on Latin American studies, but I had no idea what I wanted to do. I moved to Japan with the intention of staying for a year, but grew to love the place, learnt to speak fluent Japanese, and moved to Tokyo to work in communications for the government’s nationwide English-language education programme. It was a fascinating experience, although at times things moved at a glacial pace and I really wanted to do something more dynamic.
I then had the opportunity to join a PR agency, taking a significant pay cut to do so, and my first client was Four Seasons. Within a month I was escorting my first press trip to the Maldives, meeting the Japanese media, pitching story ideas to editors – and having them accepted! – and I just found the whole thing to be incredibly exciting. I also worked on the Pacific Asia Travel Association and Sri Lanka Tourist Board accounts, the latter over a period pre- and post-tsunami. The work I did with the Japanese media – at the time a major source market for the country – to support the recovery of the Sri Lankan tourist industry is something I’m still proud of today.
What then led to the move from marketing into writing?
I was made redundant from my role with the Four Seasons in April 2020, which at the time was completely devastating. In spite of the fact that Covid was clearly becoming one of the most serious global issues of our time, I just hadn’t seen it coming. It was an enormous blow personally, and the thought of trying to find another job in a travel industry that at the time was on its knees was, frankly, frightening and intimidating.
A lot of people had said to me in the past that I should do my own thing or launch my own agency, but I thought I needed the big corporate structure to survive. However, now I realise that wasn’t the case – it was just a comfort zone I’d created for myself.
Within a couple of weeks of being made redundant I created my blog, then a couple of months later set up my own business and launched my career as a writer. In the past year I’ve written for a slew of top titles: CNN, the UK, India and Middle East editions of Condé Nast Traveller, DestinAsian, Departures International, The Times, Travel + Leisure, and Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, and more. I truly have to pinch myself sometimes.
What have been the challenges of being a freelance writer?
I feel incredibly grateful to all of the editors who have given me a chance to pitch and write for them. I also feel very fortunate to have been living in Dubai throughout the pandemic. It was one of the first places to reopen for tourism back in July 2020, and we’ve had a sense of what counts for normality these days for most of the time. With Expo 2020 Dubai happening, albeit delayed by a year due to the pandemic, the city didn’t slow down in terms of opening new hotels, restaurants and other attractions.
With some of my writing, I’ve aimed to change the perception of Dubai as a ‘cultural wasteland’, which is still a prevailing opinion in some parts. I wanted to show readers that there’s much more to it than bling and brunches, and have had the opportunity to write about ancient ruins, Bronze Age tombs, a fish hospital, incredible architecture, as well as hotels, restaurants, and all the other reasons why there’s so much more to the place than people usually think. And I’ve also written about the other destinations that I’ve been able to travel to this year – mostly Anguilla, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
I love the pitching because I love finding and sharing stories. Whether my pitch is accepted or not, I find the whole process to be exciting. And I get such a thrill when I see my byline in print or online. As for the pay, well, I think we all know that it’s less than a corporate salary, but what I have lost in material gain, I have made up for in mental health and lack of stress. I used to wake up in the morning anxious about looking at my phone. Now I wake up excited to see if anything fun came in overnight.
What type of traveller would you describe yourself as?
Pre-Covid I’d say I was the type of traveller who was always on the run, trying to see as many things as possible in a very short amount of time. I think that was a symptom of having limited time off from work and wanting to squeeze in as much as possible, but I’ve always thought that if I want to relax, I can do that at home on the sofa.
Covid let me see how slower travel can be a joy, though. Discovering all of those places on my own doorstep was wonderful – I believe that ‘travel’ can be anything, even going for a sunrise walk in your neighbourhood, to driving to the next town. It doesn’t have to involve a long-haul flight. I was also fortunate this year to spend six weeks in Anguilla, a tiny island in the Caribbean where my partner moved for work.
If you’d asked me five years ago how I’d feel about being ‘stuck’ on island for six weeks (we couldn’t leave due to Covid restrictions – it would have required lengthy quarantine on the return) I would have told you it would drive me crazy. But, to my surprise, I loved it. I slowed down, perhaps for the first time ever. I found my new ‘locals’ – a couple of places where I’d stop in for a beer, and after a few days everyone knew my name. By not being tied to a corporate structure, I’m embracing the fact that I’m in possession of my own time, and I can work at the times that suit me best, which for me is very early in the morning, in any location I like, as long as I have good WiFi.
Think back. What's the first holiday you can remember?
It’s not the whole holiday, but I have a very vivid memory of standing on the deck of a channel ferry coming back from France to England with my dad. I must have been about three years old, and I remember holding his hand, watching the lights twinkling on the land as we got further and further away from France, and crying because I didn’t want to leave. And yes, I have cried at having to leave other places since!
I'll put you on the spot now - name your top three trips.
My first trip to Thailand as a 10-year-old was my first time in Asia, and I remember being dazzled by everything – the colours, the temples, the smells, the sounds. I was quite the anomaly at the time – a small, very pale, ginger-haired child, and people constantly stopped me on the street to touch my hair, and I seem to recall quite a few kissed me on the cheek, too. With hindsight that all seems very odd now, but at the time I wasn’t fazed by it at all. I never expected that I’d be living there 20 years later.
I went to Colombia with my parents for my dad’s 70th birthday a few years back, and it was one of the best, most memorable and unexpected trips ever. I had expected it to feel a bit dangerous at times, but it was overwhelmingly friendly, welcoming, and we felt completely safe. The whole country was alive with magical realism for me (I’d studied the works of Gabriel García Márquez at university) with snakes falling out of trees, fish leaping into boats, hawks walking on the ground picking up bugs. Medellín was a revelation, the mountain village of Jardín a delight, Cartagena heartbreakingly beautiful, especially early in the morning before the cruise passengers showed up.
Another highlight has to be my first trip to Greece with my partner, Georgios. I’d never been until just a few years back. I’m not really sure why – it was difficult to get to from Asia, and I think I was probably more inclined to go off on adventurous trips. We went to Folegandros, an island in the Cyclades that absolutely blew me away. I’d never seen blues like the Aegean blues. The easy-going lifestyle just felt so natural – wake up, have coffee, look at the views, walk around the village, stop for a beer, have a lunch that lasts hours, go for a swim, have sundowners. The only thing that I really struggled with was dinnertime – no one seems to eat before 10:30pm on the Greek islands in summer, and it’s perfectly normal for restaurants still to be full at 1am!
For anyone who's never been why should they visit Dubai?
Just come and see it for yourself – it’s so incredibly varied and if you even make the tiniest effort to get out and explore, you’ll be so surprised at what you find. Here are 50 Reasons to Visit the UAE in its 50th Year from DestinAsian to start you off, and my latest recommendations on the Best Things to do in Dubai from Condé Nast Traveller.
Ah, the tao of synchronicity, Simon! This morning, over brunch with a wanderer friend, I spent a delightful couple of hours talking specifically about Pokhara in Nepal and quite generally about other magical places in Nepal and Tibet. The conversation rounded up on why neither of us felt the pull of Dubai.
Ta-dah! You have just introduced me to Nicola who didn’t feel the pull at first but who obviously loves it now.
What a strong, resilient woman to pull herself out of the shock of being made redundant to quickly create her “what’s next”. Her courage and fortitude have been richly rewarded with a beautiful lifestyle that offers so much less stress. 😁