Changi International Airport, Singapore

I left Vietnam on Sunday the 22nd around noon-ish and arrived at Changi International Airport in Singapore around 4:30p. Changi is major aviation hub (seventh busiest international airport) in Southeast Asia and also yearly ranks as one of the best airports in the world and boy, was I impressed.

There's a lot of pics below but I’m going to spend a few minutes talking about this airport as I have never been to an airport like this one. This airport is like a self-contained city with 4 terminals. Pretty much anything you need to get done – you can get it done there. Do you like free stuff? How many airports have the following complimentary services in the transit areas in the U.S.?

- surf the internet with over 500 internet stations/computers

- Wi-Fi; airport-wide

- watch movies at movie theaters

- enjoy xBox 360, PlayStation 3, MTV booths, and LAN gaming at Entertainment Decks

- watch news & sports at TV & Entertainment Lounges

- foot and calf massage stations

- various themed (butterfly, sunflower, etc.) gardens

- make your own art pieces at the Art Interactive Zones

- local telephone calls

- children play areas

- enjoy a 2-hr Singapore Tour (if u have at least 5 hrs to your next flight)

Does it sound like your typical La Guardia or LAX? I don’t think so. There is so much to see here and so many eateries. I stayed for a couple hours before leaving. The first place I stopped was to get a quick bite to eat at Kaveri Indian Vegetarian Restaurant. An Indian vegetarian at an airport? Now I was in heaven. I bought an order of samosas. This was more of a fast-food Indian restaurant but the airport also had full Indian restaurants too. The two samosas were delicious. The seating area near this place was on a second floor overlooking a plant/pond area. See pics below:

In addition to Indian restaurants, the airport has coffee bars & sandwich bars; fast food; noodles places; Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Italian, & Western cuisines; and sushi as well as probably others. The airport obviously had bars too. One of them was a small Hard Rock Cafe outlet. I went there and had a beer. Look at the immediate two pics below. In the second pic, taken from my table, you can see the free stand-up computer terminals to go online and surf the web. Free – cannot beat it.

Scattered throughout the airport behind little nook-and-crannies are lounge-type chairs where you can sleep. See pic below.

Or if you don't feel like sleeping, you can go to a movie theater and catch the latest blockbusters for free in a cinematic experience. See pic below. The theater was made with travelers in mind with wide aisles and legroom for your luggage.

Or if you don't want to eat, drink or watch a movie, you can play free games or watch sports. And if you watch TV and sports, you can enjoy the benefit of built-in speaker seats. See pics below.

Or perhaps get a free foot massage. I did – that's why my sandals are on the floor...

But maybe the coolest thing was the free Butterfly Garden; the world's first in an airport where you can get a close encounter with nature where you stroll in a garden amongst these amazing winged creatures. The garden is outside, but within a cage/screen, so the butterflies cannot get out but is open to the elements. There are plants, flowers, and a waterfall. When I was there, it was slightly drizzling so I got a little wet. In one pic below, a butterfly is eating/drinking off sliced pineapples. See pics below.

If you're not into butterflies, you can go to a Koi pond, Cactus Garden, Orchid Garden, Fern Garden or the Sunflower Garden pictured below.

This airport also has a lounge where you can enjoy showers, fitness, massages, naps, and hair and beauty services waiting for your flight. There's a rooftop swimming pool and jacuzzi. This is one amazing airport and I have been to quite a few of them. It may be one of the few airports where the locals come as one of their favorite destinations.

 

After I explored the airport (I did so now knowing that I had an early morning flight on the return trip), I headed for immigration which was very smooth and took a train to downtown Singapore as the airport is on the far eastern part of the island and downtown is the southern-central part of the island; about 40 min. I was staying at the Tresor Tavern Hostel located near Singapore's Bugis and Little India neighborhoods which is slightly north of the city core. The neighborhood around the hostel was not anything special but the hostel was within a 10 min walk of the Lavender subway stop which was convenient. The hostel room was a single, extremely small but I knew that in advance and stayed there to try to save money as Singapore is a very expensive city. The hostel had free Wi-Fi and coffee which was good. I didn't arrive until very late (and it was raining – wasn't pleasant) and would start my sightseeing the next day...

Ho Chi Minh Museum

After taking some photos near City Hall, I walked about 15 minutes to Saigon River to lastly go to the Ho Chi Minh Museum. This would be my last tourist attraction visit while in Vietnam. The next day I would be flying to Singapore. The museum is on the banks of the river and admission was free. The museum (in a French colonial era building) shows the life story of the modern day father of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, through pictures and artifacts including his personal belongings and journals. It was a nice and clean museum. Afterwards, I walked back to the hotel to shower up and then went out for the night as it was my last night in Vietnam.

Huyen Sy Church & City Hall

The next day I was heading to City Hall to take some photos and I stopped and took some photos of Huyen Sy Church which was along the way and about a minute from my hotel.  In fact, in a previous post where I showed photos of my hotel, you can see the roof of this church from my hotel.  The church is one of HCMC’s five biggest.  In the old days of Saigon the wealthy and powerful Huyen Sy, who was the grandfather of Queen Nam Phuong, the wife of Vietnam’s last king, King Bao Dai, paid to have the church built.  Because he incurred the construction expenses, the church was named after him.  Huyen Sy Church is popular among Vietnamese Catholics to visit.  The church was built in 1902.  The church has endured two wars of resistance against the French and U.S.  The window area of Huyen Sy Church was reduced to keep out the hot tropical sun as well as to create a more atmospheric worship area.

I continued walking (and it was extremely hot) to City Hall (aka The People's Committee Hall).  The Hall was built in 1902-08 and it really is a striking cream and yellow French colonial building – and when compared to the area around it – really stands out.  It’s also nicely floodlit at night.  There is no entry, but the statue of Uncle Ho in front is a very popular place for photos.  In front of the Hall is a pedestrian road which was nicely decorated for Chinese New Year’s – or it may always be like that, I don’t know - but I doubt it solely due to so many dragon designs (as u can see in the pics below) I saw as 2012 is the Year of the Dragon.  It’s really a nice area with a lot of pleasant hotels, bars, shops, and restaurants.

 

Independence Palace

 

After visiting the War Remnants Museum, I walked to the Museum of Vietnamese History but it was closed due to lunch.  So I walked around a bit more and walked to the Independence Palace (aka Reunification Palace) as soon as lunch was over.  This Palace is a landmark in HCMC and its most visited museum.  Admission was 30,000 dong ($1.43).  This Palace is really a restored four floor time-warp back to the 60s/70s left largely untouched from the day before Saigon fell to the North (construction started in 1962 and finished in 1966).  Formerly South Vietnam's Presidential Palace and also the workplace of the President of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, the war ended on April 30, 1975 when North Vietnamese tank #843 bulldozed through the gate (see 1st pic below – followed by the other pics of the ‘gate crashing’).  A replica of that tank is now parked on the lawn outside.  Tank #848 (pic below) was also part of the attacking formation that crashed through the gates on April 30th.  The pic of the helicopter on the roof is that of the U.S. CIA evacuating the day before on the 29th.  April 30th is celebrated as a public holiday in Vietnam as Liberation Day or Reunification Day. Workers get the day off.

This museum was cool as though a lot of rooms were kind of empty; they are nevertheless interesting as they haven’t been ‘gussied’ up too much.  You can view private quarters, dining rooms, entertainment lounges, and the President’s Office in which it feels like everyone just got up and left one day (they did!).  It definitely had a 60s/70s feel to it.  I thought the staircase had that feel as well as the ‘office’ pic below and the ‘casual/lounge’ room with the circular sofa in the middle of the room.  That room, with the flooring and the back wall, I thought definitely had a 70s ‘Brady-Bunch’ feel to it.

You could also go to the rooftop which included an outdoor ‘ballroom’ dancing area.  Pics below:

The basement may have been the best part with its creepy, dingy labyrinth.  There are war rooms with vintage 60s/70s phones, radios, huge maps, and other office equipment – left largely intact as it was found when the North took over.  The basement also houses the kitchen, old vehicles as well as a photo gallery.  Also in the basement was a hallway with rooms showing a propaganda film (each screening room showing the film in a different language) recounting how the South Vietnamese supporters and American imperialists succumbed to Ho Chi Minh's indomitable revolutionary forces.  The film was about 45 minutes long and I watched the whole thing for two reasons: 1) it was actually pretty interesting as it also spoke about the architecture of the building and 2) the A/C!  It was blasting and it was in the high 80s outside and extremely hot and humid.  It was nice to sit for a while and take a break.

There was also a nice outdoor café on the grounds right outside one of the basement exits.  See pic below.  After watching the film, I grabbed a can of 333 beer at the café and decided where to go to next – actually, as a side note, I decided to walk back to Cho Ben Thanh Market as I read that a popular gift many foreigners buy are ‘Good Morning, Vietnam’ shirts with the slogan on them popularized from the movie if you know what I’m talking about.  Many vendors were selling all different types of these shirts and I bought an olive green one which is pretty cool.

 

But going back to the Palace, there was just something strange about the place – from its simple, modern simplicity to its emptiness.  That this building was the home of the South Vietnamese government and that 58,272 (according to Wikipedia – 12/2011) Americans died trying ‘save this building’ was unsettling…