Out of the way

I am back in the Premier Lounge at Changi airport. That's the lounge you get to if you are an economy-class passenger but have made enough flights that even discounted points add up to make you a valued customer. It's not as nice as I believe the Business Class and First Class lounges are, but it is nicer than being outside in the main departures area for the most part. Free drinks, and free if dreadful sandwiches is handy intead of paying airport prices for everything. Although Changi is not hideously expensive.

I suppose. I was last here 9 days ago. I visit Changi about half-a-dozen times a year on average, and have done so for the last seven years. But I have never been to Singapore.

The first time I was ever here, on the way to Vietnam a decade ago, I went through immigration, to get something out of my suitcase and then recheck it. I never went through customs, never got out the door that is only a hundred yards away from me, and into Singapore itself.

Occasionally I have spent more than 6 hours here, sometimes more than a dozen. But I have never been outside. Until recently, the same happened in Bangkok. I would stay 18 hours there waiting for a connection, but instead of going into the city I would jsut sit in the lounge and work.

A couple of times now I have been into Bangkok. It is hot, sticky, filled with people trying to sell something to tourists (postcard, satay, beer, sex, shoes, wooden boxes, package tours, taxi rides, drugs, books - people offer all kinds of things in the second it takes to walk past them). The people are generally very friendly, the city is large, and the food is good.

Maybe one day I will enter Singapore. I feel a little like the guy in "the Terminal" - I know the inside of this airport very well, although I don't have a love interest with a hostess or an illegal job here b uilding myself a palace. And as far as I know I am less mad than the guy who really was living in Charles de Gaulle airport. Also, I am not a refugee and I don't think there is someone evil trying to outfox me through 90 minutes of gripping family-friendly american sitcom humour.

But probably, if I do leave the airport, it will be the same. Go into town for an evening. Go to a bar, find some music. And then go home.