From Changi to Bali

We haven't been posting for a long while and as a result we have a whole backlog of posts to catch up on. I've promised myself that I'd get this done, slowly but surely, and hopefully it's not going to be more and more like doing homework. 

It's becoming more urgent to do this now because our memories are starting to fail us. We've always wanted to record and document our journeys anyway, more as a personal 'diary' for ourselves. I keep imagining both Nee & I as old farts 30 years from now looking back at our old blog posts thinking, 'Did we look hot way back then?'. And if the answer is Yes, then it will clearly be because of the weather. 

Anyway, here's a post about our love for Changi.

We did our very first Bali trip during the beginning of this year, on the second day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. We took the Airasia KCH-SING-BALI route. Cheap wasn't the main reason, although it was cheaper than the KL route. Changi was the honey cos we wanted a comfortable transit for Kay; and if you have an active toddler with 4 hours to kill, KLIA is not going to be your option.

Changi has always been our first preference (if we had a choice), and we knew it was a good place from the way Kay took to it like a rabbit to the fields. There's just so much to see and do, and the space is just awesome for a toddler; miles of thick carpets to run and fall safely on. 

We were there during CNY and it was a delight to see the effort they had put into the CNY festive landscapes & this sort of made up for the celebrations that we left behind in Kuching.

Of course this went down very well with Kay cos she started this Love for Lanterns phase. She would make redundant sentences about lanterns every time she encounters one, 'Look. So many lanterns. This one is small. That one is big. This lantern is on. That lantern is off.  Why is this lantern off? Daddy switch on the lanterns!'

Much like a mini-Singapore, Changi had mostly what the city state has. It's like a sampler. 
There were mini art galleries which pleasantly pop up at random places.

These were the Birds in Flight by Baet Yeok Kuan. 

Kinetic Rain were made of 1,216 computationally controlled bronze raindrops; which has since become Kay's eternal association with Changi: Raindrops = Singapore airport.

Mommy & Baby sculptures; Mother & Child by Han Meilin

This reminded me that Kay needed a diaper change; Thanks to my extra-sensory paternal hormones.

M&Ms with a durian (& a hedgehog).

Free art activity for kids; this one Daddy like.

 

 

Note to diary: Kay pooped at this point.

If your kids haven't had enough of Angry Birds on your iPads, Changi had them also.

Angry Birds Planet, to be exact.

I'm thinking this would make a giant bad-a** omelette.

Have you ever wondered how the eternal flow of the Qi energy looks like?

Yes, like this.
Kay becomes the physical manifestation of that when she's at Changi.

Except for when she's up against older kids. Then she pulls the brakes & exercises extreme caution & stillness.

And then to Kay's delight, there was also the Koi fish pond.
 

And next to this was a butterfly farm, which I didn't have a picture of. Can you believe that? I mean the farm, not the picture.

 

Train shuttle rides between the three Terminals.

 There's shopping for mommy.

Like all things in Singapore, Changi is very well thought out. Unlike the colder KLIA, Changi feels warmer, safer, and much more comfortable to be in. Everything you need is there, and in abundance. Free phone charging stations. Sleeping Lounge area. Free 4-bar WIFI (he-llo KLIA!). Free internet consoles, without the waiting. Lots of seats, and lots of everything.

Oh, there's more. If you're a hardcore gamer, you might appreciate the XBOX KINECT, XBOX 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and movie theatre at Terminal 3.  You can play till your blood vessels pop cos they're all free.

With all that, four hours was easy to kill. And we're pretty sure Kay had some new neurons connected and synapses fired up within that short span of time. So if you need to transit, remember, Changi is the honey. 

KLIA, I think you'd better up your standards. Think FREE. Think abundance.