Currently listening to:Baby G Minimix by The jane doze
Status:sleepy

Hi guys

So, a couple of weeks ago I was invited down by Waggener PR to the exclusive media launch of Changi Airport Terminal One’s new look with three other bloggers- Stooffi, DK, and Florai. Initially i was a little skeptical because everyone kept talking about how the entire thing cost 500 million dollars and i think you could do a lot of things with 500 million dollars and fine i am also a little bit sour that i do not have five hundred million dollars but i ate my hat after the entire tour of the place.


Firstly, the entire place is much bigger. Remember this?

It’s a lot.. shinier now. Still, it retains some of its old school charm which differentiates it from T3. Also, it carried over the element of water that the old version had- see fountain structure thingy above that i used to drive my mum nuts playing with as a kid.

The only thing i miss from the old airport is this

Cant help but feel as though that’s just really, really beautiful. the new fangled electronic boards- not something I’m too big a fan of.

Anyway, the main attraction really, is this Kinetic Rain structure which totally stole the show.

When i first saw the promo video, i completely didnt get it. I had no idea what i was looking at. Is it computerized? Is it some sort of elaborate chandelier? Turns out you really have to be there to understand. The best way to explain it would be dazzling and even then you don’t really have a clue what it looks like beyond a vague concept, so i took a video.

It’s something of a sequence of completely elegantly executed dancing raindrops. A ballet of raindrops is what they said, and i thought to myself, my cat would like this.



Its hilarious- you should see all the busy frowning people walking past just stopping and staring dazedly at the dancing raindrops. It’s also very mesmerizing and by that i do not mean i had my mouth half open.


I would buy one of those drops for my dorm room. I would buy five. Ten. And another three for my cat. I just really, really like shiny things, okay.

After we had drunk in the sight sufficiently, the representative from the airport came out to bring us on a tour of the airport. I got very excited about it because i only ever get to go into the duty-free area when I’m going on a flight and even then I’m always in a rush and also EVERYONE KNOWS what duty free means but NO i was not allowed to buy alcohol which made this even more taunting

Rockinnnn.

Anyway. Before going into the duty free zone, we were brought on a tour of the changes to the public access areas of the airport. The entire thing is bigger, expanded outwards to make the airport larger. There’s also this bit of floor that’s see through which both terrified and fascinated me because it gives you the feeling that you’re going to fall in.

Random kids who were wholly more courageous than i

Also, the departure atrium now has a huge lantern feature wall with these gorgeous stainless steel tree sculptures which change colors as day progresses to night. This is due to some thingamajig with the vents and filtered sunlight which i didnt quite understand because i was too busy staring at this:


So gorgeous and surely more so in the daytime.

Inside the duty-free zone:

Steph and I


Lamp which looks like that weird war of the worlds structure from gardens by the bay. I mentioned it to the airport rep and he went ya lor they totally stole the idea from us but he hurriedly clarified that he was kidding almost immediately.

Lol @ preview of RWS casino right here.

Live music at the main atrium which wasn’t here the last time i flew, which was last december to hong kong. The stuff going on is always changing, to keep it exciting for travelers and things like that. Maybe one day they’ll bring in acapella groups and i’ll be able to sneak a bit of that party mix it bar.

Speaking of bars.. there are bars everywhere in the airport! I used to think it was just Harry’s, but it turns out theres one at almost every outdoor spot


You know what else there is? A pool.

(theres also a pool table but I’m not posting a photo of a pool table up because COME ON they all look roughly the same.)

A cactus garden

Found this hilarious because singapore is so hot it could really use a bunch of cacti but come to think of it I’m not too sure that was what they meant by this garden..

And a really cool outdoor garden modeled after lilypads!

The huge structures melt from one color to the next every few seconds. They also supposedly have a very pretty way of dispensing rain from one to another but it didnt rain so i wouldn’t know..

Steph and I also got very excited seeing the giant Harrods bear and ran up to take a photo with it. I know, i know. Girls. (Rolls eyes) See, I’ve typed it out so you don’t have to say it

After that, we requested to see the new toilets because of this photo circulating on Facebook showing the male urinals facing a glass wall overlooking the takeoff area which i can imagine must be both spectacular and highly awkward. Don’t worry ladies, the official word is, you can pee in peace in closed cubicles. On the other hand, the view from the powder room is really nice..

Also found this very amusing

Warm water vs Not Warm Water

Disney themed baby changing station outside the cacti garden. There are also other facilities like massage rooms, multiple dining options and phone charging stations, shops, and so on. The only thing Steph and I had a gripe with:

We looked at it and simultaneously went omygod comic sans

The transit hotel itself is cool though, room rates start charging by the hour. Not something i’d ever get to use because its targeted more at stopover passengers on long haul flights, but its still nice to know you have around for whatever reason.

A few more shots of the inside of Terminal one. Honestly rather proud of it because it’s really gorgeous and you’d know what i mean if you’ve traveled overseas recently- very few airports match up to Singapore’s, and it’s the first thing tourists see so it really sets the bar.

Changi Airport group also hosted an absolutely delicious dinner for us at Peach Garden in the transit area:

You see the noodles at the extreme bottom left?? They’re apparently called singapore noodles. Im singaporean, but I’ve never heard of it before. ITS DELICIOUS.

You can view the rest of the photos here.

This being treated like a VIP. I could get used to it. @ all other event companies in the world: COME AT ME, BRO.

Overall a fantastic night spent being a tourist in my own country. The new revamped airport is really gorgeous- and its going to be more so: when it officially opens, there’s going to be a net of fairy lights under the kinetic rain structure which of course will start glinting and reflecting shimmers off every angle. Stunning. Anyone visiting singapore definitely has to catch it- and if you’re singaporean, you have no excuse not to.

All photos and videos taken with the Sony A77. Thank you Changi Airport Group and Waggener Edstrom PR for the invitation, and Sony for the camera!

x
♥Jem