The Longest Wait

Have you ever seen that Tom Hanks movie Terminal? It’s the one where this unfortunate chap from Krakozhia is denied entry into the USA but can’t go home because of a revolution, and so he effectively gets trapped inside the airport terminal. Well, that’s how Liz and I felt for much of the 20 and a half hours we spent in Singapore Airport on our way to Dubai. But it wasn’t meant to be like that…

No, it wasn’t meant to be like that.

You see, a couple of weeks ago we decided to take a short trip to the UAE and booked our tickets in somewhat of a hurry. In fact, the whole trip was a sudden last minute decision. It would seem that in the crazy rush of preparing for it all, we managed to overlook one rather large factor – Singapore! Our flights took us from Osaka to Singapore, to Dubai. We arrived in Singapore at 4:15pm, and our flight to Dubai was leaving at 12:55. We stupidly assumed this to be 12:55 midnight, giving us a manageable 8 hours transit in the airport, but as time rolled on and our flight STILL wasn’t showing up on the departures board, we started to become concerned. I suggested that we go to the transfer desk in Terminal 2 and ask them what the deal was. So it was while we were on our way to the transfer desk in Terminal 2 that Liz developed that sinking feeling that we had made a big mistake. She asked me if our flight intinerary stated that the flight was leaving at “1255” or “0055”… as soon as she said it I KNEW that we had both misread the time. Without even needing to check, we BOTH knew right away that our flight wasn’t leaving at midnight, but at lunchtime the next day!! Sure enough, when we checked the itinerary, that was INDEED the case!! There was nothing for it but to laugh and figure out what we should do. It was too late to enter Singapore, and the transit hotel was fully booked in all three terminals. Thank god for the free massage chairs!! Haha

Luckily for us, Singapore Airport is one of the best in the world, and there were many shops and cafes/restaurants for us to spend our time in. There were also several gardens, decks and bars. We checked out all the gardens, frequented the Starbucks, and gave good business to the shops and food courts. We even managed to find time for a short sleep on some chairs in a quiet part of terminal 2… until we were woken by police officers doing a routine identification check. Doh!

The outdoor sunflower garden overlooking the runway was a nice place to catch a bit of "fresh" air, and feel the warm humidity of Singapore... until the smokers lit up out there...

Liz and I enjoying a fruit smoothie out in the cactus garden.

Me blinking in front of the fern garden

the Orchid Garden

Liz sitting in the orchid garden, enjoying one of the many Starbucks drinks we downed...

Anyway, long story short, Singapore airport was cool, but we really didn’t need to spend a whopping 20 hours there. It was a great feeling to board our Dubai-bound flight at long last and wave goodbye to that chapter of our trip and say hello to DUBAI!!!