Jetting there is half the fun

Things worked pretty much as planned--up to a point. The 13.5 hour flight from DFW to Doha, Qatar went surprisingly quick with two movies, a couple of meals, and two hours of sleep. We had between us one of two open seats on the B-777, so Judy was able to lie down and get a pretty good rest.


A mixup in the reservations resulted in my seat costing slightly more, so I got a complementary hotel room for the 10-hour layover. I managed to get just a couple hours of sleep;  my body still thought it was mid-afternoon (10 hour time difference from NM). Judy rested well in one of the sleeping rooms at the airport; here, male and female areas are separate.

The arrow on the hotel ceiling pointing to Mecca was a reminder that you are in a different world.

Not Nepal

On Wednesday we boarded the Qatar Airways flight to Kathmandu for a 4:30 a.m. departure. About 40 minutes short of landing, the pilot announced that the Kathmandu airport was closed and we would be stopping in Ahmedabad, India, for fuel, and then returning to Doha. It turns out that a Turkish airliner had gone off the runway and it will be some time before the Kathmandu airport reopens.

Oops

Ahmedabad India

Back in Doha, I was now running on 5 hours of sleep in the course of two days. After the necessary paperwork, we were given a hotel where we slept for a blissful 9 hours. We more or less have gotten adjusted to the time zone, waking to this morning's pre-dawn call for prayer from mosques all over the city. As of this post we're still awaiting word on the Kathmandu airport status. Apparently Nepal does not have equipment big enough to move the crashed airplane. At least we'll get a chance to go to the Islamic Museum here in Doha and maybe have other unexpected adventures. Stay tuned.