Basel - Doha

The suitcases are packed and we are off. Our trip takes us to Bali and Lombok and on to the Gili Islands, and we come back via Jakarta and Bangkok. On Bali we stay first in Amed in the east of the island and then near Ubud, and later a fast ferry takes us to Lombok. On 28 September we land in Zurich again.

The first day, though, is all about flying. In Basel it is 21 degrees and slightly cloudy. Our two suitcases stand side by side, a black ribbed one and a light grey one with a strap, on a grey stone floor in front of the barrier tapes of a queue.

Then we are sitting on the plane in Zurich. It is 20 degrees, the sky is grey and the asphalt is wet. Through the window we see the wing, a jet bridge and a red tail with a white cross.

Zurich Airport lies on the plain between Kloten and Rümlang. It was built from 1946 in just under two years on a former artillery training ground, swampy wasteland at the time. On 14 June 1948 the first aircraft landed there, a Swissair DC-4 from Cairo. Since 1980 the airport has had its own railway station in the Airport Center. At the end of the trip we take the train from here back to Basel.

Doha, the capital of Qatar, is our stopover on the way to Bali. Qatar lies on the Arabian Peninsula and juts out into the Persian Gulf. The flight there goes over desert landscapes and is really exciting. Brown, furrowed mountains and a turquoise lake pass by under the wing.

Around 6 pm local time we touch down in Doha. Qatar is on GMT+3, so in September it is an hour later here than in Switzerland on summer time. The sky is clear and it is 38 degrees. From the window we see the runway, sand-coloured flat land and a narrow strip of sea on the horizon. The spoilers on the wing are still raised.

Doha’s airport is called Hamad International Airport. It has been in operation since 2014, replaced the old Doha International Airport and is the home base of Qatar Airways. It lies right on the Gulf, and more than half of its area was reclaimed from the sea.

The next day we land in Denpasar on Bali, where we have booked a car with a driver for the journey to Amed.