I should be writing this post from Kathmandu, Nepal, but instead I am writing it from my hotel in Qatar. I landed in Qatar at about 5:30pm Tuesday night qatar time and headed to my hotel. I had to check out at 1:30 am for my flight. Everything was going smoothly, I met up with one of the other girls on my trip who had flown in from Texas and we got on the plane. We were literally 45 minutes from landing in Kathmandu when we all noticed the plane turning around on the flight map. A few minutes later the captain makes an announcement that they have no other information except that the airport in Kathmandu is closed and cannot give them an estimate on when to refuel and that we are making an emergency landing in Ahmedabad, India to refuel. At this point we were a little passed New Delhi and if you look at map of India you will see that Ahmedabad is in not near New Delhi at all. We landed, refueled, and waited for about an hour for instructions. At that point, the lady behind me had gotten a text from home telling her that there was plane crash on Nepal's only international landing strip and that they couldn't move the plane. The flight attendants then told us that we were going back to Qatar. So what was supposed to be the final four hour flight of my long trip turned into a 9 hour flight and we ended up exactly where we started.
Luckily back in Qatar, the airline put us all up in hotels. We met up with one other girl from my trip who was on a different flight and we all got put in the same hotel which was nice. The airline also gave us food vouchers for the hotel.
I again found myself going through Qatari immigration, finding my hotel shuttle and heading back into the city.
That all happened about 24 hours ago and we still have no word from the airline on when we are getting to Kathmandu.
Apparently the plane is stuck on the runway and the entire country of Nepal does not have the equipment (a crane) it needs to move the plane. Since the plane is blocking the runway, the equipment cannot be flown in. So that means that the crane has to drive from India across mountainous, pot hole filled dirt roads for hundreds of miles before the plane can be moved. So I will probably be stuck here for at least a few days.
Today was supposed to be a huge festival in Nepal called Holi (google in for pictures). Holi was one of the things that I was most looking forward to for the entire trip and I am missing it :(
On the bright side, Doha is a beautiful city with plenty to do...not to mention its 75 degrees and sunny. Driving to the hotel from the airport we saw some breathtaking beaches on the Persian Gulf so me might check those out.
It could be worse...my plane could be the one that crashed.
Luckily back in Qatar, the airline put us all up in hotels. We met up with one other girl from my trip who was on a different flight and we all got put in the same hotel which was nice. The airline also gave us food vouchers for the hotel.
I again found myself going through Qatari immigration, finding my hotel shuttle and heading back into the city.
That all happened about 24 hours ago and we still have no word from the airline on when we are getting to Kathmandu.
Apparently the plane is stuck on the runway and the entire country of Nepal does not have the equipment (a crane) it needs to move the plane. Since the plane is blocking the runway, the equipment cannot be flown in. So that means that the crane has to drive from India across mountainous, pot hole filled dirt roads for hundreds of miles before the plane can be moved. So I will probably be stuck here for at least a few days.
Today was supposed to be a huge festival in Nepal called Holi (google in for pictures). Holi was one of the things that I was most looking forward to for the entire trip and I am missing it :(
On the bright side, Doha is a beautiful city with plenty to do...not to mention its 75 degrees and sunny. Driving to the hotel from the airport we saw some breathtaking beaches on the Persian Gulf so me might check those out.
It could be worse...my plane could be the one that crashed.