In Singapore, They’ll Let Sleeping Bags Lie

Because room occupancy in Singapore has been averaging more than 90% in recent months, making it difficult for travelers without reservations to find a place to stay, Singapore Airlines and Qantas have devised plans to issue sleeping bags to passengers stranded at Changi Airport.

Both airlines insist, however, that these are merely contingency plans, and that sleeping bags will be used only as a last resort when passengers are forced to make unexpected layovers because of flight delays and rooms are not available.

Another interim measure under consideration is to offer apartments in government housing projects for visitors on a bed-and-breakfast basis.

Singapore expects 5 million visitors this year. The city-state of 2.6 million has 68 hotels and 24,142 rooms, figures that are expected to increase to 72 hotels and 26,185 rooms by the end of 1992.

By then the landmark Raffles Hotel, 104 years old, will have reopened after a $52-million face lift.

Hidden Evidence: The Parthenon is one of the world’s most recognizable buildings, but what would it look like covered in scaffolding?

Officials charged with restoring the Athens landmark to its former glory were not anxious to find out, especially considering that it will take the Greeks years to finish the task.

The solution? A rotating, 10-ton crane assembled within the walls of the Parthenon and cleverly painted to blend with the marble. When the crane is folded, it is difficult to detect from the outside. The casual observer viewing the Acropolis from afar might not know it was there at all.

Blooming London: If this is May, it must be time for the Chelsea Flower Show, the world’s largest and most famous floral extravaganza. This year’s event on the grounds of the Royal Hospital alongside the Thames is set for May 22-25.

The centerpiece of the show will be a Tudor garden designed by last year’s gold medal winner, Jane Fearnley-Whittingstall. It will feature apple, raspberry and strawberry blossoms mixed with damask roses, lilacs and philadelphus.

According to the designer, “rosemary, sage, sweet cecily and camomile sward will divide the beds into a knot pattern of roses and germander, with lavender, clove pink and viburnum added for even more fragrance.”

So now you know.

Early Birds: Statistics compiled by the Department of Transportation show that across the country more than 75% of flights arriving before 3 p.m. come in on time while only 65% do so between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.

According to Conde Nast Traveler magazine, morning is more conducive to on-time arrivals because “it follows a late-night lull that the airlines use to realign their planes and catch up on lost time.”

Airports with the highest percentage of on-time flights, 86% during the day and 76% in the evenings, are St. Louis, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Las Vegas.

Airports with the worst records for delays, averaging only 25% of on-time flight arrivals in the evening, are O’Hare in Chicago, San Francisco and the metropolitan New York trio of La Guardia, Kennedy and Newark.

Road Unworthy: Visitors to England’s National Motor Museum in Beaulieu near Bournemouth soon will be able to view new automobile technology from East Germany: a 1986 Trabant model P-601.

Not that the museum has had very flattering things to say about the car in its news releases.

“The Trabant is a quirky, smelly car which has been bypassed by the evolving sophistication of family cars in the Western world,” one release stated. “Quality control on the Trabant production line is down to brute force and the use of a wooden mallet.”

Crushing News: Ever wonder just what sort of abuse your baggage is subject to at airports? If so, here’s a less-than-comforting statistic.

Bags are usually either bulk-loaded at random or stacked, 45 at a time, in containers that are loaded onto the plane.

It’s the luck of the draw as to whose baggage ends up at the bottom, but the bags that do can be subjected to more than 400 pounds of pressure.