• $109.95 USD (32 KWD) – Round-trip ticket (including taxes/fees) from Kuwait (KWI) to Dubai (DXB) through Jazeera Airways
• $201.93 USD (800 AED + foreign transaction fee) – Three night stay at the hotel Arabian Courtyard (four stars) including airport pickup and taxes
• $50.37 USD (185 AED) – Evening desert safari with the company Desert Safari Dubai. This safari includes:
  • Pickup from hotel
  • Dune bashing
  • Camel rides
  • Belly dancing
  • Henna painting
  • Shisha
  • Buffet Dinner
• $80.34 USD (285 AED + foreign transaction fee) – 48 hour ticket Big Bus Dubai Guided Tours. This tour includes:
  • Two sightseeing bus tour routes (red and blue)
  • One hour Dhow river cruise
  • Entry to the Dubai museum
  • Entry to Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum’s House

Thus, the total fixed expenses should be approximately $442.59 USD. I have already booked and paid for the flight, hotel, and big bus tour; the only thing left for me to book is the safari ride.

The hotel cost came way below what I had previously projected. Also, with the Big Bus Dubai Guided Tour buses, I won’t need to pay for cab rides because I am just going to hop on and off the bus to sightsee all the different places in Dubai (the bus runs every 20 minutes and hits all the main sights in Dubai). The airport pick up and drop off is already covered by the hotel price so no worries there. And the safari cost also includes it’s own pick up and drop off so no costs there.

Hence, the only additional costs in addition to the above fixed expenses should just be for food and shopping. I think a nice $550 USD should cover a three night stay (truthfully I don’t intend on spending that much unless the food is delectable and the malls have mind-boggling deals). So now my overall budget is $1,000 USD.

Here is my schedule for the trip to Dubai:

• 7/16/2010
  • Leave Kuwait (KWI) in the morning and arrive in Dubai (DXB) at noon
  • Airport Pickup from Dubai Airport to Arabian Courtyard hotel & check-in hotel
  • Evening Desert Safari pickup in the afternoon and come back at night
• 7/17/2010 – 7/18/2010
  • Ride on the two bus tour routes and go to the following places:
    • Red Bus Tour: Dubai Museum, Wafi Shopping Mall, Dubai Old Souk, Gold Souk, Burjuman Shopping Mall, Karama Market, Sheikh Saeed Al Maktoum’s House, Deira City Centre Shopping Mall
    • Blue Bus Tour: Jumeirah Mosque, Mercato Mall, Jumeirah Beach, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, Atlantis on the Palm, Mall of the Emirates, Ski Dubai, Dubai Mall
  • Sail on the Dhow River Cruise for one hour
• 7/19/2010
  • Leave Dubai (DXB) at noon and arrive in Kuwait (KWI) in the afternoon

Whew! It’s going to be a busy couple of days, but I want to make sure to see all the sights because I know that I am never going to come back here again. And coming at just under $1,000 USD for the entire experience, I definitely think I am getting the most bang for my buck!

Talking to a TDY co-worker that went to Dubai last year has spurned me to take action. Heck, I am probably never going to come back to Kuwait, so why not make the most of it and have one last hurrah?

Dubai is about 1.5 hrs away from Kuwait and IS considered the city of decadence. I could tack this trip on the end of my TDY in July, right before I come back to the States, just squeeze in a three night stay over at Dubai. I looked up airfares on Jazeera Airways (the airline my co-workers booked their flights) and a round trip with taxes and fees comes under $100 USD (on a side note, it costs around $1,800 for a round-trip flight from California to Dubai). The largest expense for me will be the hotel, budgeted at about $200 per night that comes to $600 total. Another $100 budgeted for cab fares and $250 budgeted for food (though most likely breakfast will be free at the hotel). That leaves me around $150 for any personal souvenirs or other stuff I might want to buy. Total budgeted is $1,200 for the trip.

These are definitely more generous estimates, so I plan on undershooting it. But I know that I have this kind of money in the bank and I haven’t taken a real vacation out of the country in a long while, so this is an awesome opportunity.

I think I’m going to bite the bullet and do it! Now I just need to rearrange my previously made flight plans back to the States and book the hotel/flight in Dubai.

• $35 – Internet Access for Month
• $30 – PX store (beef jerky and face lotion)

Total: $65

• $30 – Sheraton’s Terrace Cafe (for some stupid chicken kabobs – 8.5 KD)
• $31.5 – The Butcher Shop (for a large beef kabob with rump, sirloin, fillet cuts… this was better than Sheraton’s atleast – 9 KD)
• $37 – Haircut and Eyebrow threading (including tax/tip)

Total: $98.50

• $7 – Eyebrow threading (including tip/tax)
• $12 – Alterations to three cargo pants - too long (including tip/tax)
• $12 – Coworker’s goingaway party contribution
• $3 – Skype monthly cost

Total: $34

I plan on spending money next week for a haircut and eyebrows (again). Maybe new headphones too because my iPod ones are falling apart (the rubber things are peeling off).

• $103 – Bae’s Bday fruit basket
• $2 – KFC small popcorn chicken

Total: $105

• $600 – Toshiba Satellite Model#L505D-S5992 (!!)
• $4 – two boxes of Kleenex tissues
• $4 – Portion for group Kuwaiti dinner

Total: $608

Didn’t spend much money on anything else. Now I just need to maintain this level of spending (ex-Laptop) and I would breakeven on my normal spending level in three more weeks.

There are some biggies and small ones that will be free. They include:

• Lodging – Pretty nice one bedroom type hotel room with full-sized bed, tall cabinet, desk & chair, television w/ cable, three 4-drawer plastic dressers, rugs, mirror, sink, and air conditioner/heater. I have a bathroom that I share with one housing mate.
• Meals – Buffet style food basically throughout the day and at three different locations. Food is damn good compared to home. There is the classic meat and potatoes (sometimes steak and lobster), salad bar (sometimes avocados), soda/juice bar, milkshake bar, cereal post, ice cream section, other desserts section, fruits section (peaches, apples, oranges, etc…). Not only this, we get another $3.50 per diem everyday if we want to get something else to eat. Not a lot but an extra ~$100/month is nice.
• Utilities – Water and electricity at work and at my lodging. No gas since we don’t cook here.
• Transportation/Fuel – Get a leased car that can be gassed up at any free gas station.
• Laundry – Can drop it off with a TCN (third country national) and they will wash and iron for you! Just pick it up two days later. I was amazed by this service.

And there will be some expenses that I accrue:

• Calling Card – So I can call home when I am not available to Skype.
• Skype – So I can call home when I am not at work.
• Internet – Around $35 a month in order to get service in my lodging area.
• Personal Laptop – Sucks that the one I shipped broke down the second day I got here.
• Name Brand Food Stands – I’ll eventually get semi-sick of the meals they provide and get homesick for food back home. In that respect, I might spend some money on the Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Carl’s Jr., etc… stands they have sprinkled throughout the area I am staying.
• Misc. Junk and Useful Stuff – Though I try to save money I will more than likely spend some money on things that range from useful stuff (shampoo, power converter, tissue boxes) to misc. junk I might not even send home (mink rugs, iffy jewelry, shiny new things).

So far it looks pretty good. This TDY seems to agree with my checkbook. And making loads of money from overtime doesn’t hurt either.

I know that I will go stir-crazy if I don’t have access to the Internet or can’t use my computer to play videos/music while I am here. Think about it — work 10+ hour days for thirteen days straight (just one day off every pay period) and when I come back to my lodgings I can’t even unwind on my computer??!! No. No way. I need to have a computer. And besides, I already spent $35 to buy one month of Internet service.

Thus, I started looking online to see if I could buy a replacement computer. Unfortunately, even websites such as Dell, Walmart, etc… state that shipment to APO locations would also take up to 30 to 45 days. Hence, my last recourse was to buy a laptop here at one of our onsite APO stores (basically like a very tiny itty bitty Walmart). So I went and browsed through the selection of laptops they sell (very limited quantity). Fortunately, their prices are comparable to online prices and the big plus is no sales tax!

I chose one of the cheapest laptops they had (I stayed away from the netbooks cause a ten inch screen is too small for me to watch movies on for the next six months) and got a Toshiba Satellite Model#L505D-S5992 for $600. Sucks to spend $600 all at once but it is a necessary expense to keep myself sane here. I’ll try to limit my spending for the next four weeks in order to minimize the impact of my spending in this week.

• $43 – Skype (unlimited calling to/from USA for 1 month; $10 credit; assigned phone number for 1 year)
• $37 – Groome Shuttle to Fort Benning (reimburseable from company)
• $16 – PX on Fort Benning, GA (Halls cough drops, cold medicine, Master Padlock, Vick’s VapoRub, tissue paper)
• $4 – PX (more Halls cough drops and tissue paper)
• $6 – Roach Coach (pizza and a bottle of water)
• $4 – Roach Coach (burrito)
• $11 – PX (ID card holder and more cold medicine)
• $3 – PX (more Halls cough drops and tissue paper)
• $2 – Starbucks (cheese croissant)
• $35 – Internet Access for one month

Total: $161 (but $37 is reimburseable so the money I spent personally is $124)

I did spend quite a bit of money this week mainly due to the Skype and internet access charges. However, on the upside I didn’t really spend money elsewhere because I was mostly eating @ the free cafeteria and staying at the free living quarters. Looking at this I can safely say I probably popped more than 100 Halls cough drops within one week. Might have been high on menthol for half the time I was at Fort Benning.