Singapore Airshow 2012

Every two years, the airshow comes around in Singapore. I counted and workwise, this is my 7th airshow in attendance. In the earlier days, we had Asian Aerospace (which moved to Hong Kong) and now we have Singapore Airshow.

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner (at Singapore Airshow 2012)

Took the above pic while squashed like a sardine on board a bus. The taxi queue was ridiculously snaking so decided it'd be faster to get out of there via the shuttle bus from the airshow site to Changi Airport's Terminal 3. Hah! Instead, got stuck standing on the bus, waiting a good 15 mins or so for the 'dumbass' traffic wardens to let the buses through. It was like they didn't care two hoots about the packed buses and were instead more concerned to let cars through. Finally, the two buses at the front had had enough of waiting and I could see them inching so much forward that the traffic wardens had no choice but to let us through. Smart drivers. So many on board were grumbling at the traffic wardens.

In the past, we had the car label so driving to and parking at the site wasn't an issue but now (with companies going lean), it's either the bus or the taxi. If someone sends you in a private car with no access car label, you can only alight really, really far from the show site. I mean REALLY, REALLY FAR. Don't try it unless you want to walk 30 mins.

The surcharge of SGD8 for normal taxis out from the show site is fair in my opinion. But it's the snaking queue that's a killer. Well, it crawled on the first day but today (2nd day), it was way snaking but moving fairly briskly.

If anyone from the organising committee is keen to hear, it sucked that it took nearly 20 mins to alight at the show site yesterday (first day). Yep, our taxi entered the site carpark at SGD13 and when we finally reached the alighting area, the fare was SGD21. Reason? There was only ONE spot for alighting passengers. Every single taxi had to wait for that alighting spot and it was placed right smacked behind a zebra crossing where a young traffic warden (who looked like a school kid temping) was stopping the taxis from moving from the alighting spot whenever anyone crossed the road. If there were at least 100 taxis waiting to alight their passengers and each taxi took SGD21-SGD13=SGD8 before they could alight their passengers, that was SGD800 wasted in the carpark while I was in that queue! Well, the situation was better today and the taxis didn't have to snake round the barricades ridiculously. The drop off point was extended to a whole stretch (just like in previous airshows). Made more sense.

Aiyoh, why am I talking about the bus and taxi queues. Maybe cos I'm not so excited to be at the airshow anymore. As one angmoh told me, he's been to so many airshows, they all look the same to him. I used to be really excited to bring my kids (especially my son who was an avid airplane model collector) in. But now that my kids are older, my daughter isn't keen and my son, if he's still keen, will just have to find his own way there without Mummy. Mummy's gonna be catching up on zzzzzzzsss this weekend instead.

Oh and by the way, the companies are really going 'lean'. I only managed to pick up a pin and a pen set made of paper. Pathetic. Maybe you'll have more luck on public days.