The Journey Home
Created | Updated Jun 21, 2003
I flew home from Cambodia through Singapore. However, this time, I would have eleven hours in the country and so I planned to take a look around.
Sad Am took me to the airport and I checked in with no problem. I then went to pay the 'Passenger Service Charge' (airport tax by another name!). Cambodians pay $15 while all other nationals pay $20. Be careful that you receive the right change. I handed over my passport, ticket, boarding pass, and $50. I was handed everything back in a bundle without my change. When I asked where it was the woman brazenly picked it up from beneath the counter. She didn't have to check that she'd made a 'mistake' or go to the cash drawer. No look of apology either.
We boarded half an hour late and stayed late, landing at Changi International Airport at 1.30pm local time.
For those with only a few hours to spare Changi Airport is full of things to do, a sauna costs S$10.30 (£4) while you can get a shower for S$5.15. There is also a free 'cinema', an extra large screen tv showing Star Movies, a piano bar, games rooms, a cybercafe, restaurants, you name it. The only thing that may be a bind is that smoking is banned in all public places in Singapore except clubs and pubs. There is, however, a smoking lounge in the airport which has the added benefit of being cheap. It is so smoky just save on your own cigarettes and passive smoke to your hearts content.
I had ten hours before my next flight. I was able to use the early check-in facility which meant I didn't have to be back at departures until 10.15pm. There is a free two hour tour that is organised by the Singapore Tourist Board, the desk is in the departure lounge (i.e. before you get to baggage reclaim and immigration). As usual I didn't feel like being given the standard whistlestop tour so I took the airport shuttle bus into town.
The airport shuttle desk is near to the exit, just before the line for taxis. You tell the person there where you want to go and she gives you a ticket. The driver comes to get you once it is time to go. It cost S$7 for me to get all the way in to Orchard Road.
I got off of the bus, paid the driver, and wandered around; there are a number of shopping malls and restaurants in the area. After having 49ers and coke at a Swensens I headed back out into the heat.
I took a long walk around Fort Canning Park. Again, if you have time, there is plenty to do. There is a spice garden, lots of tree lined walks and, inside the hill, the Battle Box. The Battle Box is the site of the Malaya High Command from the Second World War and is set out how it was the day before Singapore fell. It is open until 6.00pm and costs S$8 for adults.
Needing to cool down again, I took a walk along North Bridge Road and ended up at the famous Raffles Hotel.
One whole side of the hotel is taken up with arcades of expensive shops and bars. I sat out in the Raffles Courtyard and had a draught Tiger Beer (of course); it cost $S10 (more than three times what I had been paying in the Garden Bar in Phnom Penh). Then, before leaving, I had to have a Singapore Sling. It cost $S16 plus tax and service charge (£7 in all) but it is one of the things that one just has to do.
I took the MRT (the Underground, the Subway, the Metro etc.) to save a bit of money on the taxi back to the airport. The fare from City Hall to Simei was just S$1.30 and the taxi from there to the airport another S$6.90.
Back at the airport I had a shower. The booths are big (about ten foot by ten foot) have a sink, a toilet and a shower stall. Refreshed I headed for the bar for one last drink before getting on the plane.
For some reason the scheduled flight time going from Singapore to the UK is one and a half hours longer than in the other direction (thirteen and a half hours in total). I did notice, on the constantly updated map available on each individual screen, that we flew slightly further north of the flightpath from the UK; also, whenever I checked, there was a headwind of between fifty and a hundred kilometres per hour.
For the record, I watched 'The Green Mile' (in two parts), 'American Beauty' and 'Man On The Moon'.
We arrived at Heathrow at exactly 6.00am, leaving me to catch a tube, a train, and a bus back to a grey and dismal Geddington.
Post Script: Someone posted some extra advice to this article:
You can find the showers at the Transit Hotel Reception... and they are excellent... also, if you have a Star Alliance frequent flyer membership, you can use the Singapore Airlines business lounge showers even if you're arriving at the airport... for free! The BA lounge won't let you though.
The best smoking area in the airport is in Terminal 1 near Transit area C... you go upstairs to a bar, then you can go outside to a large roof garden and watch the planes land... if you can stand the heat.
Also... if you get a taxi into town, get a regular blue one for about $S10. If you get one of the white London Cabs, they'll charge you $S45.
Contributed by U127847
