Stopover in Singapore

Hoping off the plane at Singapore was a huge relief! I had been excited to have a window seat on the flight (in reflection, not a lot of use on a night flight - duh) but the lady in the aisle seat next to Sami and I was a ridiculously deep sleeper and we had barely been able to leave our seats for the last 10 hours.

By chance we were on the same flight as a friend from Taupo and we banded together to try to find our way around Singapore Airport. Singapore Airport is huge and awesome, it's made up of three different terminals all connected by 'sky trains' and a shuttle bus system.

Later on we found it's actually really easy to get around but when we first got off the flight we were overwhelmed and tired, and despite all having further connections to catch, the first thing we tried to do was go through immigration.

Fortunately, after beginning to fill out arrival forms we realised this wasn't for us and back-tracked. Our friend had his boarding pass for his next flight so this probably wouldn't have been a big deal for him but for Sami and I this would have meant we would have been stuck outside the airport in the heat until the check in desk opened for our flight much later in the day! (around 9 hours..)

After our false start, we then went on to enjoy some of what the airport had to offer. We strolled around the butterfly garden, relaxed in the free massage chairs and checked out the food stalls on the food

street.

At this point we realised we had got a bit carried away and our friend was now late for his connection... and we were still in the wrong terminal for his flight. In a bit of a panic we jumped on the next shuttle bus, ran all the way across the terminal where he was still able to make his connection! Phew!

Sami and I still had another 10 hours or so before our flight to Zurich but there was plenty for us to do. We checked out a number of the gardens in the airport - the orchid garden, cactus garden and sunflower garden - and revisited those massage chairs. We paid to get into the roof top pool, where apart from one other lady relaxing on the side of the pool, we had the whole pool to ourselves and it proved to be the best place to recover and prepare for our next flight.

We were even able to go on a free guided city tour and walk around areas of the city. We were grateful to have the air-conditioned bus to get back on as the heat was overwhelming. We saw the old china town, Merlion, Singapore Flyer and plenty more. The guide also told us about how Lee Kuan Yew helped to mesh the various cultures of Singapore together and progress from a third world to first world country.

We never did find the giant slide in the airport - supposedly the largest slide in any airport in the world - so maybe this will be our mission on the stopover on the way home.

Next stop Zurich!