Transit in Singapore

On my way to San Francisco, I had 11 hr stopover at the Singapore airport. Although I heard that they give a 2 hr free tour of singapore, I was not too happy since that would leave me with a lot of time to kill.

Now I know I should have been sad that it was ONLY 11 hrs. There were enough places to see in the entire airport, which would take more than 11 hours. The tour which involved a 30 min boat ride which was very good.

What struck me as very different was the extremely tourist friendly nature of the Singapore Airport. They had free internet kiosks, free local calls etc. Everyone knows that most of the time people would not like to pay for such basic services in airports etc, not because of the cost, but rather the hassle of changing currency etc. Everyone was very enthusiastic to help the travelers. There was no apathy to be found, which is extremely uncommon in India. Monopolies ensure that even the private sector in India is apathetic, and dont even get me started about the govt.

I was told that the Singapore govt arranges this tours to increase tourism as it is facing significant pressures due to the moving of its strengths from hardware manufacturing to cheaper destinations like China. Whatever the reason might be, at the end of the day this approach works. I am definitely doing a stopover in Singapore on my return flight.