Of all airports I have been to, Singapore Changi Airport is the most fascinating, as I have never seen such a huge airport. I had so many good expectations based on what I saw on the Internet and social media of family and friends who’ve been there already. I planned to roam around the place like it’s a tourist spot, but unfortunately, that didn’t happen because my friends and I did not have enough time.
The Changi Airport
Like any other international airport, we had to go through immigration for visa stamping. The immigration officers were not so happy as they took our photos and scanned our passports, probably because it was late at night and they were all so tired.
After my friends and I passed immigration, we were welcomed by giant glass bouquet sculptures of the Enchanted Garden, as I had seen in videos and photos. They were sparkling and shimmering and worthy of a stop for photos. One of my friends is a smoker, and so we joined her in the smoking area just to know how it looks, and we were surprised at how clean it was. In fact, everything was spotlessly clean at the airport. Singapore, of course, it one of the most orderly, safe, and cleanest countries in the entire world, and their airport reflected that.
Even though it was really late, many of the shops that were still open. We heard that liquor is cheaper at the airport compared to the malls, so we got some booze at Duty-Free and took advantage of the “Duty-Free Concession and GST Relief.”
Next up was getting a Singaporean sim card, which we could do right at the airport. It took some time to get it because we didn’t understand the salesperson very well. Although Singaporeans are good in English, it was still hard for us to communicate because of their strong accent. Good thing we have Singaporean friends who helped us and they started speaking Mandarin. My friends and I were clueless of what they were talking about; all we did was just nod and say yes, we needed the sim for the Internet.
A few days after, when we were on our way out of Singapore, we were at the airport again. The lines were long, so it took us some time to get through the check-in baggage area. We were famished, but the only food place that was open was McDonald’s – pretty disappointing considering the high quality of everything else in Singapore. In fact, Singapore has some of the best restaurants in the world and food from just about every culture, so I don’t know why the airport cuisine was so limited.
We were also exhausted from our trip and excited touse their snooze lounge. But the area was only for passengers with long layover connecting flights so that they wouldn’t let us in. They did have free massage chairs, but the other passengers took their time with it.
Overall, it was an awesome airport experience. Next time I plan my trip to Singapore, I will get there earlier so I can tour around the airport and see what other restaurants and facilities they have.
About Norm Schriever
Norm Schriever is a blogger, Amazon best-sellling author, cultural mad scientist, and enemy of the comfort zone. His work appears in the Huffington Post, Business.com, Good Morning America, The Anderson Cooper Show on CNN, NBC, MSN, Yahoo, Hotels.com, and media all around the world.
Norm grew up in Connecticut and graduated from the University of Connecticut, where he was never accused of overstudying. After expatriating to Costa Rica in 2011, he started traveling the world and documenting what he saw. He now lives in Southeast Asia, writing his heart out and working with local charities.
