Changi Beyond the Rain Vortex

Changi is Singapore's east end, and there's a lot more to it than the airport. Jewel, on the public side of the terminals, has an indoor waterfall you can watch for free. A taxi away, Changi Point is an old seaside village with a hawker centre and the boat to Ubin, while ferries to Bintan leave from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal. Each is a taxi ride from the others, so decide where each half of the day goes before you set off.

With a full day, we'd go to Ubin in the morning and Jewel in the afternoon. The sea and the mangroves are at their best while it's still cool, and Jewel is air-conditioned for the hot middle of the day. Swap them round and you'd be crossing to Ubin in the midday heat.

Jewel and the Rain Vortex

Jewel is landside, before immigration, so you don't need a boarding pass for the waterfall or anything around it. The Rain Vortex is 40 metres of falling water, the tallest indoor waterfall in the world, and it runs daily from 10am to 10pm. Watch it from the ground floor. The Forest Valley around it is free and open 24 hours. Once it's dark, lights and music play over the water at 8pm and 9pm, Monday to Thursday. Friday to Sunday, and on public holidays and the day before them, there's a third show at 10pm.

Up on level 5, Canopy Park is the paid part, with mazes and sky nets. It opens at 10am daily. It closes at 9pm Monday to Thursday, and an hour later at 10pm Friday to Sunday and on public holidays and the day before them. Last entry is 30 minutes before closing. A Canopy-only ticket is S$8 for adults and children. Singapore residents pay S$6, whether they're adults, children, students or seniors.

For planes rather than plants, the Changi Experience Studio is an indoor hour made for airport geeks. It opens 11am to 8pm on weekdays and 10am to 8pm on weekends and public holidays, with last admission at 7pm. Tickets are S$25 for adults and S$17 for children or seniors, and Singapore resident adults pay S$19.80.

Changi Point and the village

Take bus 2 from Tanah Merah MRT or a taxi to Changi Village, and eat before anything else. At Changi Village hawker centre you order from whichever small stall you like and carry your plate to any free table. International Nasi Lemak and its neighbours are the reason the village is already busy at 6am. Nasi lemak, rice cooked in coconut milk and served with sambal chilli, is the right plate before a boat.

From the ferry terminal at Changi Point, bumboats, the small wooden motorboats that shuttle people across, go to Pulau Ubin. Look out to sea while you wait and you'll spot kelongs, the offshore fish farms, on the horizon. If you'd rather paddle, the sunrise kayak meets at the ferry terminal at 6.15am.

For a morning on the water without crossing to Ubin, kelong fishing is a boat out to one of those fish farms, so ask what the trip includes, rods among them, before you pay. Kids tend to like it more than anglers do. Back on land, Changi Beach Park is a quieter stretch of east-coast sand, a 15-minute walk from the village if you've still got the legs after the boat.

The chapel and the war years

The Changi Chapel and Museum, at 1000 Upper Changi Road North, tells the story of the prisoners of war held at Changi, quietly and without spectacle. When you've been through, the replica chapel in the courtyard is the place to sit for a while. You can visit from 9.30am to 5.30pm, Tuesday to Sunday, and the last visitors go in at 5pm. The museum shuts on Mondays unless it's a public holiday.

The museum is cashless. Visitor tickets are S$9 for adults and S$7 for concessions, plus GST, and a family of five, with up to three adults, pays S$27 plus GST. Singaporeans and PRs get in free with their NRIC, and so do children aged 6 and under. Bring a ticket stub from the National Museum or Reflections at Bukit Chandu and you'll get S$2 off.

Buses 2 and 29 stop at 97209 and 97201, a five-minute walk from the door. Bus 5 stops by the Women's Prison, about 10 minutes away on foot. By train, ride to Upper Changi MRT and take bus 2 from there. While you're out this way, Johore Battery is a replica 15-inch gun on the site of the original battery, off Upper Changi Road, and it pairs well with the chapel.

For more of the wartime story, the museum's free guided tour runs about an hour and needs booking ahead. It's heavier going than the galleries alone, and that's the point. The Navy Museum has opened by appointment only in some years, so check before you take a taxi out. The chapel and Jewel fit into one day if you have the energy for both. On a layover with only a 90-minute buffer, save the chapel for another trip.

Ferries to Bintan

Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal is where the boats to Bintan leave, a taxi ride from Expo MRT. Sailings run to a timetable and you'll need your passport. The Bintan day pass gets you a beach and a resort lunch, and the way to make it worth the crossing is to take the first ferry out and plan your return around the last one, with time to spare. Batam boats leave from HarbourFront, so check which terminal your ticket names.

Getting between them

Budget every transfer here as a taxi ride, as if each stop were its own island. The walk from Changi Village to Jewel is long and unpleasant, and the Skytrain only runs between the airport terminals. Getting to T4 means a shuttle, and T5 is still a construction site.

If the weather stops you getting to Ubin, the East Coast sunrise cycle is a good east-side morning instead. It starts at 6.30am and ends over kopi, the local coffee. You won't need a passport.

A long layover

With six hours between flights, you can manage Jewel and a taxi to Changi Point, but only if you're already checked in and strict about the time back. Getting through immigration and security and walking to the gate will take 60 to 90 minutes of it. With 10 hours, go to Ubin in the morning and see the vortex in the afternoon, and keep a buffer you won't regret. On any long layover, Jewel followed by a taxi to East Coast beats an afternoon in a lounge. Or hand the planning to the layover tour.

If you're in transit and staying airside, the butterfly garden in Terminal 3 is worth 30 minutes. It's past immigration, so you'll need a boarding pass, and landside visitors can't reach it.

Monday at Changi

On a Monday the chapel is closed unless it's a public holiday, but the rest of Changi keeps going. Jewel and the vortex run as usual, and Canopy Park takes its last visitors at 8.30pm. The village hawker centre is open, and the bumboats to Ubin run on Mondays too. So build a Monday around nasi lemak and the vortex, or around a morning on Ubin with you back at the pier by 2pm.

If the vortex was your afternoon, take a taxi back to the village for the evening. Little Island Brewing is where we'd end a Changi day, in the same village where it started.