Get Sloshed For Free & Watch A Benjamin Kheng 'Musical' When You Fly From The New Changi Airport Terminal 4

The magic begins the moment you plonk down your carry-on bags at the centralised security screening area. The usually-sterile and possibly stressful experience is made way more palatable with a panoramic Immersive Wall, which screens whimsically-cute clips and fun imagery of Singapore's skyline and landmarks. Just don't get so engrossed that you forget to pick up your barang barang from the conveyor belt.


Photos: Chee Yan
Selected photos: Courtesy of Changi Airport Group

What's a departure experience without blowing some cash? As a terminal that's smaller than the other terminals, T4 boasts a "single street," where you can cover all the shops and F&B outlets in the departure area by walking down a single street, as opposed to the bigger terminals, where depending on where your gate is, you only have time to turn left or right and head towards your gate, possibly missing some shops, although many of the brands in the bigger terminals have several outlets. At T4, there are no duplicate shops, and it makes up for its shorter 'street' with larger and higher facades — stores have 11-m high double-volume facades, making for more visually impressive shops with super high ceilings. There are local brands you know and love such as Charles & Keith and Pazzion, as well as international brands like Pandora, Swarovski and Kate Spade. Expect affordable luxury over designer labels. Also, a new-to-Singapore pharmacy, Airport Pharmacy, brings Aussie brands such as Swisse and Lucas Paw Paw.

Expect experiences over hurried retail at T4, as well as beautifully-designed areas, such as The Cocktail Bar by DFS Wines & Spirits. Try a cocktail or two, and if you like, buy and fly.

More complimentary alcohol is available at The Whisky House, where you can perch on a bar stool and sample a wide assortment of whiskies.

The peeps at T4 are especially proud of what they call a seamless shopping experience, where you can now pay for your cosmetics and perfumes (operated by The Shilla Duty Free) and liquor and tobacco (operated by DFS) in one transaction. Previously, you had to pay for them separately. There are also new-to-Singapore brands here, such as Korean make-up brand Hera.

From now till the end of the year, find this cute little Peranakan-themed drinks cart (which usually operates at peak times) and ask for a complimentary cocktail infused with local flavours. There's Coco Gnac, a blend of coconut milk, kaya, pineapple juice and cognac; Fluffy Pandan, which has pandan cake foam and gin; and Suka Suka Melaka, a concoction inspired by gula melaka (and whisky). Also available, photo ops with the cute Peranakan lady and hat-wearing mixologist.

You can also taste nine-layer kueh at the drinks cart. We tried the Fluffy Pandan cocktail, and let us tell you, it's a bigger glass and stronger cocktail than we thought.

Wait, there's more. Alcohol, we mean. At the Craft Beer zone, you can sample little cups of freshly-pulled beer.

Cute little cups of beer on tap, anyone? Between this, the cocktail bar, the whisky bar and the local cocktail cart, it's entirely possible to get sloshed without paying a single cent in T4.

Meet the eye-popping 11m high tea wall at TWG Tea’s gorgeous T4 boutique, which boasts 2,000 tea tins filled with over 800 varieties of loose leaf teas.

It’s TWG’s first tea-tasting counter, where you can try little cups of tea and pick up gifts for your friends. How posh is this?

At the end of the terminal is the Heritage Zone, where you can find three-storey Peranakan shophouses. On the first storey are legit Singapore heritage brands such as Bee Cheng Hiang, Bengawan Solo, Eu Yan Sang and coffee shops Heavenly Wang and Curry Times. As for the shophouse facades, most of them are just that — facades. Except for two of the houses, which are actually LED screens that burst into a six-minute cultural mini-theatre show every few minutes. In between shows, you can catch Amy Cheng hanging clothes, Benjamin Kheng starring lovelorn-ly out of a window, and other familiar local theatre names who star in this Dick Lee-helmed special.

Benjamin Kheng and Vanessa Vanderstraaten play next-door neighbours who fall in love and (spoiler alert!) get married in this immersive mini-musical that plays out on a giant screen. Created by Dick Lee for T4, it’s called Peranakan Love Story, and provides for wonderful entertainment while you wait for your flight. We can’t wait to book our next holiday out of T4, and we’ll be checking in, like, five hours before take-off.