Day Eight in Singapore and we made our way to the Singapore Airshow (http://singaporeairshow.com.sg). I was really excited to see all the planes that would be on show, but more importantly the flying displays. We left the hotel at 9:30 hoping to get there before the 11am display. Oh how wrong we were…
To get to the air show, we had to take 2 trains to the Changi airport (approx. 30 minutes train ride) and then take a shuttle bus to the event. This wasn’t too difficult but the trains and shuttle buses were packed! When we arrived at the airport there were thousands of people running around everywhere and I instantly knew they were all going to the air show (they had no luggage). We made it to the air show location at around 10:55am and I was very excited until we realised there was a security check before entering the grounds. This security check took us 30 minutes to get through as there was thousands of people lined up, pushing and pulling on each other. After 30 minutes of waiting, listening to jet engines roar over my head (we were under a tent so I couldn’t see anything), we quickly ran outside to watch and capture as much as we could. It was amazing to see and hear but we could feel the intense heat of the sun on us. It was warmer than any day I had experienced in Australia. After the show we entered inside to look at the models and information booths. We then headed outside to check out some of the stationary displays (including a RAAF Hercules!).
The heat from the day was creating a storm on the horizon that was fast approaching and eventually we were all informed to enter inside. This was the worst experience as trying to fit >1 million people inside a building that could probably only hold around 20,000 wasn’t going to work very well. So Chantal and I ran around the outside of the building and hopped on a shuttle bus back to the city. Although all this happened we were glad we went and had a great time looking at the displays and finding out how to put a new wing on a Hercules (it takes about 4 months to complete!)
We then made our way to the nearest laundromat to clean our clothes. This was one of the best experiences of our trip because we saw a cat outside which was incredibly friendly. It stayed with us the whole hour we were there. We named it ‘Mer’ after the creature Merlion.
We then walked along the streets looking for some food and came across a stall that sold rice dumplings. We thought it would be a good idea to try them out (we’d also been recommended to try them by a tour guide). We bought 4, took them back to the hotel to eat and fell ill fairly quickly afterwards. So we can gladly say that we at least tried street food but can recommend to NEVER do it!
It’s now day eight in Singapore and we’re still in bed (at 1:30pm). I’ve been catching up on uni work whilst Chantal has been looking at memes all day (for anyone who doesn’t know, memes are a collection of ideas, sayings, phrases, images etc. Funny cat videos are an example of a meme). I thought I would update the blog before heading out with Chantal to get something to eat and maybe check out the markets.
Only a few days before we’re home!
Chris and Chantal 