Sleepless in Singapore
It's somewhere around 3 a.m.--too late to sleep without having nightmares about missing my plane, which boards at 5:45. I'm spending the night in Changi Airport en route to Kuala Lumpur, and while fatigue is setting in and my previous airport overnight (in the soulless Incheon Airport in Seoul) didn't make me particularly eager to repeat the experience, the past six hours have made me even more enamored of Singapore than I already was. Some notes on Changi Airport:
1. Every food court--EVERY food court--has a vegetarian Indian restaurant. The one I tried was excellent--better than a lot of the Indian food I've had in NYC. Cauliflower in chilli sauce, spicy lentils with carrots, something that looked like roti but wasn't. Yum.
2. There is a free movie theater.
3. There are free Internet stations.
4. There is kaya toast (see previous entry).
5. There are large numbers of tired-looking, wandering white people. I wouldn't call this one of Changi's assets, necessarily--more a point of interest, given that I haven't seen this many white people at one time, let alone a herd (a pride? a bevy?) of sleepy ones, anywhere else in Asia.
6. There is an orchid garden, complete with goldfish pond. Also a cactus garden. Also a sunflower garden.
7. There is a 7-11 -- such a logical thing for an airport to have, but this is the first airport I can recall having any kind of convenience store. This particular 7-11 sold a rather revolting item called a donut burger, which I did not purchase.
Had I brought a bathing-suit, I could comment on the rooftop swimming pool, which apparently exist but which I, suitless, have no reason to visit.
In addition to wandering the halls staring in delight at 1-7, I've been amusing myself by watching American Idol, reading Paddy Clarke ha ha ha (after six months away from my Booker Prize-winner reading project, I'm attempting to get back on track--finished the phenomenal The Line of Beauty a couple of weeks ago, and am planning to finish PChhh and read How Late it Was, How Late in Malaysia), and watching the police walk around wearing cute maroon berets and machine guns (disconcerting, yes--but I'd gladly transport them to LaGuardia if a decent food court came as part of the package...)
1. Every food court--EVERY food court--has a vegetarian Indian restaurant. The one I tried was excellent--better than a lot of the Indian food I've had in NYC. Cauliflower in chilli sauce, spicy lentils with carrots, something that looked like roti but wasn't. Yum.
2. There is a free movie theater.
3. There are free Internet stations.
4. There is kaya toast (see previous entry).
5. There are large numbers of tired-looking, wandering white people. I wouldn't call this one of Changi's assets, necessarily--more a point of interest, given that I haven't seen this many white people at one time, let alone a herd (a pride? a bevy?) of sleepy ones, anywhere else in Asia.
6. There is an orchid garden, complete with goldfish pond. Also a cactus garden. Also a sunflower garden.
7. There is a 7-11 -- such a logical thing for an airport to have, but this is the first airport I can recall having any kind of convenience store. This particular 7-11 sold a rather revolting item called a donut burger, which I did not purchase.
Had I brought a bathing-suit, I could comment on the rooftop swimming pool, which apparently exist but which I, suitless, have no reason to visit.
In addition to wandering the halls staring in delight at 1-7, I've been amusing myself by watching American Idol, reading Paddy Clarke ha ha ha (after six months away from my Booker Prize-winner reading project, I'm attempting to get back on track--finished the phenomenal The Line of Beauty a couple of weeks ago, and am planning to finish PChhh and read How Late it Was, How Late in Malaysia), and watching the police walk around wearing cute maroon berets and machine guns (disconcerting, yes--but I'd gladly transport them to LaGuardia if a decent food court came as part of the package...)
posted by Sara at 3:45 AM
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