24 hours later, I have finally reconciled with the bill. My fiance says money is only money and is there to be spent. 

I put in a query for flights from London-Dubai-Bangalore with a 3 night stop over in Dubai. STA Travel, which usually does student travel, called back with quotes. First, they said the cheapest flight is £656 to fly London to Dubai with a stop over at Bahrain (that would be 5 hours long) I inquired about a direct flight and he told me it would be £683…. hmm… £20 cheaper to avoid that transit does not seem like a big deal after all. I know I watch my pennies but sometimes saving too much just ends up wasting time and money. Hotel rates seem reasonable, one of the hotels he highlighted was the Marco Polo hotel for £78 a night. The whole deal for around £918 seems pretty reasonable to me. When I asked about the price for friends to join us only from London to Bangalore and return, it was only 20 pounds cheaper!

I did a bit of research about visas to Dubai. If you are UK or European citizen, there is no problem, you do not require a VISA. However, as I am an Indian citizen, I should follow these steps:

1. Fly Emirates

2. On arrival, approach Emirates Dubai stopover desk

3. Show tickets to demonstrate connecting flight within 96 hours (4 days)

4. Show hotel confirmation

5. Pay fee of $75

6. Receive Emirates sponsored visa coupon and head to immigration.

Just to keep me inspired, I found a picture of the Gold Souk. Talk about excessivness!