It felt surreal reading this article as a Singaporean who hasn't visited Jewel. I still can't believe that Stephanie Rosenbloom wrote 'My 27-Hour Vacation in Singapore's Changi Airport', published on December 2, 2019 in Travel, The New York Times.
Stephanie Rosenbloom, a NYT travel writer, seemed to be on a personal vacation with her husband, and opted to transit in Singapore and stayed at Changi Airport. She checked in at Crowne Plaza at 7am, and actually paid extra so that she could get to the room straightaway instead of waiting till 3pm. She didn't seem to have stepped out of the airport and the mall at all. Okay, so Changi Airport, Jewel and our Tourism Board didn't sponsor this. Or perhaps they paid for a few meals. Dunno. Don't care. I hope she got paid well to write this article.
Before you recoil at the thought of an airport holiday, let me explain. This is no ordinary airport. It’s Singapore’s Changi: part theme park, part futuristic pleasure dome. And while an airport is typically a limbo — a swinging door between where you’ve been and where you’re going — Changi is the rare airport that invites you to stay.
Indeed, it’s so inviting, that while planning a trip to Southeast Asia, I suggested to my husband that rather than just transit at Changi, we stay overnight. The plan was to spend 27 hours taking advantage of its dazzling attractions.
I think Singapore and her residents are the only people in the world who take jaunts to the airport just to hang out, shop, eat and study. Which other city's residents take their airports as a fun social destination? A huge boon to East-siders, sure. I'm not unopposed to staycations, but I wouldn't pick a hotel at Changi Airport to do so. I'm not into meandering through malls or seeing fountains. I'm not keen on modern architectural wonders. Also, there's nothing I really want to eat at Jewel.
Jewel and all that it stands for, to me, is like the ultimate nightmare. It's somewhere we would have to be if our climate takes a turn for the worse, air and and land get polluted so badly that we would all have to stay indoors. If I don't have to spend time at a place like Jewel now, I won't.
As with all wonderlands, though, there’s a fine line between fantasy and dystopia. Looking around, it isn’t hard to imagine a future in which everyone lives in domed cities in temperature-controlled, never-ending summers. Signs refer to “trails” that you can “hike,” as if Jewel’s smooth, clean floors are rugged arteries through the wilderness. The trees and shrubs around the waterfall have a corporate name: the Shiseido Forest Valley, after the Japanese beauty company. The waterfall is officially known as the HSBC Rain Vortex. And it’s surrounded by stores and restaurants, allowing a visitor to keep one eye on the jungle-scape and the other on the latest fashions at Calvin Klein — or the queue for Shake Shack. The result is a staggering display of artificiality and nature, with lights that can turn a waterfall crimson, or make it seem as if you’re dining al fresco under a starry sky.
The final paragraph made me laugh. That can't be the writer's genuine recommendation. Is that actual snark?
But for those who don’t have time to leave the airport and see Singapore proper, Changi’s gardens and playful attractions are the next best thing. All that’s required is a willingness to embrace the fantasy.
2 comments:
Hah! I thought I was the only local who has not visited the place. It opened when I was still in clutches and after that I started reading bout the place, heard what people were saying, the hype died down etc. zero interest left to see it. Lol
you're in good company here!
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