There are a couple of places one can hang out to watch planes land and take-off. For persons who cannot do without air conditioning, there’s most people’s favorite hangout spot: the viewing galleries @ Changi Airport departure terminals. In fact, the airport seems to recognize that those galleries are family outing areas and tourist spots themselves, and last we visited, they situated children indoor play areas for kids to alternate between watching airplanes and going up slides.
There’s another civilian airport that isn’t nearly as heavily used as Changi’s, and it’s Seletar Airport – and just outside it and along the length of the runway is Soek Seng 1954 Bicycle Cafe. This cafe apparently was just opened several months ago this year, and has garnered a strong following among vintage car lovers and biking enthusiasts, if the photos of its Facebook page are anything to go with. The place though located on Google Maps is a little harder to find in reality: we missed the right turn into the cafe from Seletar Aerospace View the first time round and had to double-back.
Once found: the place was fortunately fairly deserted on the Saturday mid-morning we went by for brunch. On a crowded day on the other hand, parking within the immediate compound might be somewhat limited with perhaps two dozen lots.
There are also two seating areas: one that’s air-conditioned and very neatly decorated with bikes hanging high-up on walls, and a smaller semi-outdoor area towards the back of the cafe and where the kitchen is. We chose the latter as it offered a less obstructed view of the runway – though things as they were, we saw just four private planes taking off in the hour we lunched.
As for food: we had the Gyu Don and Fish & Chips. Ling found the beef slices in the former pretty tough (chewy?!), and the latter was ordinary. Wait service on the overall was also rather nonchalant. On the other hand, prices were reasonable, and with few patrons around, the entire brunch experience was breezily relaxed and laidback. The kids were fascinated with the general area and had the run of the cafe – though they would have liked to see more planes about.
Interestingly; just shortly after we paid up and were about to leave, two separate groups arrived: one group of a dozen decked out in hiking gear who looked like they were training to climb up a mountain, and another slightly smaller group who all showed up in vintage Volkswagens Beetles! The place probably was going to turn lively from that point.
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