Stephen Codrington

 

Oman Travel Diary 2022 and 2023

Since I returned from my first visit to Oman I have been quite busy with follow-up work for the school.  Today was the day I returned to Oman to report on that work and provide guidance for the follow-up work that would be handed over to the staff at the school.

My flights from Sydney to Muscat were almost a déjà vu repeat of my flights two and a half months previously.  Once again I managed to find flights with Air India that were less than half the cost of any other airline, and a quarter the price of some.

After a train trip from home to Sydney Airport I had a fairly easy and quick process through check-in, immigration and security, and so I had plenty of time to relax and send media posts before boarding started just after 9:15am.

Like October last year, the first leg of my trip was on an Air India Boeing 787-8 (registration VT-ANC, flight AI301), which took off 5 minutes late at 10:20am but landed in Delhi 9 minutes early at 5:31pm, making the duration of the flight 12 hours and 41 minutes.  The interior of this Air India Boeing 787-8 was considerably more shabby and worn than the planes I had on my previous return trip to Oman, with several broken panels held in place by masking tape.  Nonetheless, the seat was spacious and comfortable, and the food was tasty, fresh and abundant.  I managed to get a few hours of light sleep during the flight, which was most welcome as my sleep the night before the flight had lasted just five and a half hours.  I watched a few videos and admired the scenery over outback Australia (I found the flooded braided channels of the huge streams of the Channel Country that are usually dry river beds to be especially interesting), and so the flight seemed to finish far sooner than I might have preferred. 

When I landed in Delhi, several staff were standing in the airbridge calling out for passengers to Muscat to make themselves known.  My flight to Muscat was scheduled to take-off at 7:20pm, but boarding was scheduled for 6:20pm (and I knew they actually did that even though the plane was a relatively small Airbus A320neo).

I identified myself and one of the boarding staff led me at the pace of a semi-sprint through the arrivals area to the security check for transfer flights.  Having experienced Delhi’s system of removing everything made of metal from hand luggage before scanning, I was ready with everything sorted, although the unpacking and re-packing was still a long process.

Scanned and cleared, I was told to go straight to the departure gate, and I managed to get there comfortably in time at 6:10pm.  I waited, and waited, and waited, and finally boarding commenced at 6:55pm.  It was completed by 7:10pm, but we still sat and waited until we were finally pushed back from the gate 20 minutes late at 7:40pm.

My flight to Muscat was on an Air India Airbus A320neo, registration VT-CID serving flight AI973.  The flight took 3 hours 45 minutes and we landed in Muscat 25 minutes late at 9:55pm.  Our plane seemed to be the last in a long line to land as the lines of people waiting to clear Immigration were horrendous.  Fortunately I was ushered to a new gate that had no-one in front of me, saving at least an hour waiting in line.  As I was travelling with only hand luggage, additional time was saved as I didn’t need to wait for luggage, and the Principal of the school who was meeting me seemed mildly surprised when I emerged as quickly as I did.

After refreshing my Omani SIM card, we caught up on a most enjoyable drive from the airport to the hotel, the wonderful Crowne Plaza.  Of course, the night was not yet over as I needed to check in, unpack shirts and other clothing, and have a most welcome shower.  I got into bed just on midnight, which was almost 26 hours after I had woken up that morning.

I slept quite well.