Muscat to Muscat via Addis Ababa

Muscat, March 15 - The current COVID-19 situation is serious, but it has had its ‘different’ moments too, especially for travellers caught in situations of none of their own making. One such expatriate traveller wryly smiled as he recounted his experience of last week, prior to the recent border and visa restrictions being experienced at the moment. The traveller, let’s call him ‘Steven,’ had to travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to his embassy there, as his country is not represented in the Sultanate. “It was just a couple of hours of business,” he said, “So I flew with SalamAir with a late night return. I did the business at the embassy and returned to the airport to await my return flight to Muscat.” However, just an hour before his SalamAir flight was due to leave, it was cancelled, with no explanation or advice. ‘Steven’ was stranded. However, all was not lost, as ‘Steven’ notice an Oman Air flight departing very soon, so he called his wife in Oman and she booked him a ticket on that flight. “I was very relieved,” he told the Observer, “and when the ticket was sent to me on my phone I was very happy.” He wasn’t so happy however, just a very short time later, when he saw this flight had also been cancelled. In fact he was livid, and his mood was no better when the national carrier’s representative simply said they could not help him any further.

“There I was, stuck in a strange city with no way of getting home. I spoke to a number of travel agents, and other airline staff, who were all under pressure, but found a way to get back home through one agent who explained that I could fly to Ethiopia and then to Oman, as those flights were operating without disruption. So, I did it, and four hours later I flew into the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa for the first time.” “The flight was fine, but the airport was nothing to write home about,” he remarked with an awkward smile, “but I had resigned myself to a 10-hour stay in a hotel close to the airport as I waited till late that evening for my Muscat flight. It was only a few kms from the airport to the hotel, and I thought I would go for a walk and see the sights, but there were too many soldiers and police on the streets with rifles and machine guns for my liking, so I did a U-turn, and went back to the hotel until the airport shuttle arrived later in the night.” ‘Steven’ took his seat, but even then, half expected more bad news, and sat quietly with his fingers and toes crossed. However this time, lady luck, or perseverance, won through and four hours later it was a much relieved young man who landed at Muscat International Airport, early the next morning. “I’m self-isolating, just because of the amount of time I have spent in different countries and busy airports, but I was very relieved to get back,” he said earnestly, “and it’s not something I would ever like to go through again.”