Middle Eastern Adventure - Organising

After months of planning finally we booked our tickets yesterday. Middle East here we come.

Background: One of our undergraduate best friend decided to get married in Lebanon. The wedding planning takes quite a bit of times with plans to do a bachelor party in Indonesia (now cancelled). Then we thought... "Hmm since we are gong to fly all the way to the middle east, we might as well travel" and so we did. There was some discussion on whether we go before or after the wedding. Since Melanie and I has to be back in indo by the 6th and Jason can only leave after the 18th and have to be back before the 8th with Billy is still pending. We decided to do travelling before the wedding.

Where are we going? We have booked our ticket. Mel and I are going from Jakarta - Dubai - Morocco - Lebanon - Jakarta. We are going to meet Jason in Dubai. Then go together to Morocco to travel a bit and then off to Lebanon to celebrate Hani's big day before going back to Jakarta to celebrate Eky and Frida's wedding. Guest how much Im spending on planet ticket?? AUD1781 flying with Etihad. Its really good. I love Jakarta. If you think that is expensive. Jason's Itinerary is Melbourne - Dubai - Morocco - Lebanon - Melbourne and it cost double the price AUD3400. That is why I'm so happy.

But Morocco is not part of the Middle East? I know... but nevertheless it has a big number of Arab populations. And they speak Arabic. So I just combine it. Or should I change the title to Arab Adventure?

What about Visa? Well Morocco is great. Indonesian citizen need not a visa. Cant say the same thing for Malaysia. Lebanon is a bit stricter as there is no visa on arrival. We are going to apply tomorrow. UAE visa is really expensive and really hard to obtain. We will probably ask the hotel we are going to stay in to organise the visa for us. Its going to cost USD150 per person.

You mentioned Hotel, where are you guys staying? While its still tentative and ideally I want to spend one night at the Burj in Dubai, but for USD1500/night I'd rather be spending it on some other things, we've decided to go on a shoestring. Rush Inn Hotel is the first one on the list. But expedia said that it has cockroaches... Doesnt worry me but it might worry Jason and Mel.

What now? Well. we are going to obtain all the visas tomorrow. so I will write again once I get the visa and talk about all the different methods of visa in respective countries