Tuesday, December 17, 2013

14 Hours in Singapore

My flight landed in Singapore after midnight and my connecting flight to Penang left the next afternoon. So I had about 14 hours or so in Singapore. Changi airport terminal 2 was very busy with people everywhere. The taxi queue was huge so I went to the opposite side of the terminal that wasn't busy and walked right to a taxi to the Hilton Singapore. The ride at that time of day was very short and no more than 20 minutes. When I arrived at the hotel the place was empty because it was about 1:30am. They gave me a room on the top floor which I think was the 22nd floor. I had a balcony and a great view of Orchard Road. After a good night's sleep, I woke up to this view from my balcony.




I had breakfast in the restaurant and decided to walk around the hotel. I only had a few hours left before checking out and heading back to the airport. I found the pool deck on the 6th or 7th floor and it is pretty nice.

I took a little walk around Orchard Road and into a couple of shopping malls. If you have never been to Singapore, you should know that Orchard Road is nothing but shopping mall after shopping mall. I didn't buy anything because I just wanted to walk around. It was very warm and humid that morning and there was a light rain, but it soon stopped. Actually every time I have been to Singapore, it has rained off and on most days.


This is a view of my hotel from across and down the street. The Hilton is an older hotel and does not have an atrium design like so many large hotels in Singapore have.



When I needed to leave the hotel for the airport, I caught a taxi and didn't hit any traffic at all. I was flying out of Terminal 2 again and checked in for my flight in a matter of minutes. I was about 3 hours early for my flight so I completely explored all of the terminal. Before I went through passport control, I had to take a picture of the flight information display because I love these. I love looking at these almost as much as I like looking at maps.


Changi airport has a ton to offer. It is regularly on top airports in the world lists because there is so much to do. Besides amazing shopping, of course it's Singapore, Terminal 2 has several areas to watch TV in big comfy chairs. There is free wifi everywhere. There is a movie theater. There are tons of restaurants and cafes. There is a spa and gym. There are gardens indoors and outdoors. You almost forget that you are in an airport. Orchids are my favorite flower and there is a beautiful orchid garden in one area of the terminal.






On the upper level near the gaming computers and movie theater, there is a sunflower garden out on the observation deck. With the heat and humidity, I'm sure it's very easy to grow anything in Singapore. I didn't spend too much time in the sunflower garden because it was so hot and the direct sun is so strong.



There are great views of planes and the runway from the sunflower garden. I could've spent forever there had it been about 20 degrees cooler.



This is the Silkair A319 that would take me to Penang, Malaysia. A Cathay 777 just landed behind it.


Once my flight took off we made a hard turn back around over the airport and this was my last view of Singapore Changi airport.




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