Manchester to Kathmandu via Oman – the plane’s broken. Who votes we set off anyway!

The flight with Oman Air was about 80% empty so we could spread out and try to sleep. I got a couple of hours and we landed in Muscat at 7.30am with a 7 hour wait for our connecting flight. The airport has really changed from a small terminal 8 years ago, when I went with SIG, to an international player.

The country’s been ruled by the Sultan, Qaboos bin Said al Said, since 1970. What a nice old chap. He overthrew his dad in an armed coup 

Me and a Jet got visas and left the airport terminal for a while for a short stroll, but it was too hot. At 9am it was not far off 40c in the shade and the sun was a killer. The breeze was like a fan oven, blasting in your face and the mountains a few miles inland were screened by dust and heat.

Eventually came the time to get the plane to Nepal but there was a technical problem. By this time me and Jet were knackered. The plane was full and the gate was jammed with Nepali blokes going back home from working in Saudi and Oman. After an hour an official stood up and said that the problem was electrical but it was only a section of the plane and it only affected the entertainment system and the screens. He said we could all vote to depart without waiting any longer for it to be fixed but all two hundred of us had to be unanimous! 

In the event nobody objected and we took off just over an hour late, landing in the dark in Kathmandu airport, which was a bit run down and aged. We got picked up by our trip organiser’s brother and we’re getting to sleep now at midnight. Tired and heat drained but here.

Night night.