Joanna's Singapore adventures

Normally people will tell you that Singapore’s Changi airport is wonderful and a great place to spend time. I am going to break that trend.

My flight came in at sometime around 3 AM into the budget terminal which was indeed rather budget style. However, despite being a budget terminal they were very quick at unloading all the bags and getting everyone though customs. Once through customs I took a shuttle bus round to one of the main terminals, planning to go to a premium lounge I had heard about. When I arrived at the terminal it was eerily empty, just a few stray passengers and some security guards with big weapons. I had no luck finding the lounge, and since the escalators were turned off the attempt became much harder with all my bags in tow. Finally after much wandering I found an open information desk where I was told to try in one of the other terminals. I headed off to that other terminal but there was no lounge in site and no one there to help me. Ditto the remaining terminal. From what I could see through the windows, there is some nice areas beyond ticket check/customs. Unfortunately before that, there is little in the way of comfy chairs. Nor could I even find a powerpoint to charge my laptop so I had to budget out my battery power by only using the laptop for short bursts and turning off some features so that I would still have power in case in needed it to contact people later in my time at the airport (my phone wasn’t working at the time). Being stuck alone in an almost empty airport in the middle of the night was like being stuck in the middle of a strange bad dream. Occasionally I would come across other tired and frustrated looking travellers in my wanderings. Some would try to sleep on the hard plastic seats but I decided against that. I did eventually find an open burger king store with reasonably comfortable seats and a copy of the Australian news paper left behind by someone else. I stayed there for a few hours until morning sipping on a sprite, reading the newspaper and feeling sorry for myself. I decided to head for my hotel several hours before I was meant to check in because I couldn’t stand the airport anymore!

Unlike many previous attempts, I actually managed to pack quite light. I was well under the weight limit for both my checked baggage and hand luggage, although the hand luggage only went under because they don’t count laptops towards the weight limit. If they had I would have had a problem on my hands because my laptop is ridiculously heavy. Packing lighter than I could have proved to be an advantage in my adventures at Singapore airport which I will tell you about later. It also means I have more room to bring back stuff I buy here.

I flew with Tiger airlines who fall firmly in the no-frills budget category. At most airports (even in Singapore) they still make you walk across the tarmac and up the stairs to get to the plane. Almost got blown away trying to get up the stairs in Melbourne. I got an aisle seat on both flights which I am thankful for because the seats were packed in pretty tightly. I tried to use my laptop, which was technically possible. It just required only having it partially open, sitting it on its spine and having the touch pad up somewhere near my chin. My little netbook was much easier, although still a bit of a tight fit. Can’t really complain though because the tickets were very cheap. Both flights were pretty uneventful, although we did get a bit of turbulence on the Perth-Singapore flight.

I’ll post more later about my experience at Singapore airport.