Selfie tree
How would you like immortality? Click a selfie at the Changi ‘selfie tree’ and rest assured you would live a 100 years at the airport. The Social Tree on Terminal 1 is a famous hit, not just with the millennials and the children, but also with the older travellers, who stop for a quick photograph. The gigantic tree-like contraption (9-metre-tall), has a circular screen for a canopy. Around the tree are placed several computers on which you can click a selfie. You can pick your outfit and background from the fun options provided on your computer screen and post the image. I pick a kimono and in the next instant, I find myself floating among the clouds in an airplane on the multimedia screen. The image is saved to the memory of the device and stays there for at least 100 years. The social tree also gives you the option to share the photograph on Facebook. As I make a dash to the next terminal to board my flight, I get a glimpse of myself flying in a little pink plane on the tree.
Art rub
Woodblock Rubbing Stations (Top View)
The Peranakan Woodblock Rub is an interactive activity, where you can create a work of art and take it back home. The wood blocks are in a row, and you pick one that interests you. The paper is then placed on the woodblock and you start colouring it with crayons. The blocks have imprints of various icons of Singapore and designs inspired by popular culture, and as you rub, the image comes alive. It is like making your own classic Singapore memento. Designed by Singaporean artist, Justin Lee, this art form has its origins in the Peranakan culture, which forms an important part of Singapore’s social fabric. The paper and crayons are provided at the stations. The Peranakan Woodblock Rub stations are at T1 (Viewing Mall, Level 3, Public Area), T2 (Departure Transit Lounge South, Level 2, Transit Area) and T3 (Level B2, Public Area and Departure Transit Lounge North, Outside gate hold room B1-B4, Level 2, Transit Area).
Movies non-stop
Think of all those films you have missed out on because of meetings, assignments and projects. At Changi, you can catch them, for free! The airport has two cinema halls, which show blockbusters across genres. And since you don’t have to buy tickets, you can slip in and out whenever you want. Though the theatre is not as big as your usual multiplex, the experience is the same. Many of the films are fairly new and screenings go on all day and night on a rotational basis. Right from classics such as Ben-Hur to action-packed ones like xXx: Return of Xander Cage , fantasy fiction like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and animated ones such as Kubo and the Two Strings , you can watch them all here. The theatres are in T2 (Departure Transit Lounge, near the Sunflower Garden, Level 3, Transit Area), and T3 (Departure Transit Lounge North, near the Ambassador Transit Lounge, Level 3, Transit Area).
(The writer was in Singapore at the invitation of Changi Airport Group)
