Sleeping in airports

I had found about this site called Sleeping in Airports long back from Madman’s Linksmatic (incidentally Madman, having to sleep in an airport has nothing to do with poverty) Now I learn (via The Acorn and Sepia Mutiny ) that they have classified Changi Airport in Singapore as the best airport to sleep in. One of the runners up is Schiphol, Amsterdam. Hey I’ve slept in both!

The only other airport I’ve slept in is the Mumbai one – it is rated as one of the runners up in the worst airports category.

But the worst thing about Mumbai Airport wasn’t sleeping in it. It wasn’t even the baggage carousel where touts hang around asking if I had brought back anything that needed to be bribed through the customs. It was a poster I saw, that had JRD Tata’s picture and a banal quote from him about the social responsibility of business. The same JRD Tata, the man whose airline was taken from him. The one whose company is not being allowed to set up another airline in India because they wanted to tie up with an another airline which knows how to run a business.

11 thoughts on “Sleeping in airports”

  2. I didn’t say that only the poor slept in airports, but some people on a budget do consider it an option.

    And I absolutely love Changi Airport. I could hang out there for hours, and have done so in the past. We could learn a thing or two from them.

  3. I had to sleep in the Detroit Airport in Dec 1998, since all flights were cancelled and the airport was closed due to the blizzard. It was a very horrible experience.
    Since then the Detroit Airport has been renovated, and it looks very good possibly on par with the Changi. If I have to sleep there again, it will not be as traumatic as it was the last time around.
    But yeah, Changi Airport is one of the best aiports in the world.
    Did you watch the movie “Terminal” where Tom Hanks is stuck in the airport?

  4. My own choice for the worst is Sydney airport. We had to sit on straight back hard plastic seats in a lobby lit with bright flourescent lamps; the lockers were closed ‘for security reasons’.

    Guess we were just spoilt by Changi.

  6. I say Changi is not an airport. It’s a mini-city in itself! I was there just before the SARS episode and amazed by their obsession with cleaning/spraying/perfuming routine almost every 10 mins. I just can’t bring myself to imagine what they would have done post-SARS.

  7. Btw, I must mention that long years ago, it was in Changi that I saw those auto-flushing urinals for the first time. I thought that red blinking LED was someone spying on me.

    Just to be sure, I washed my hands …err, extra well.

  8. I also spent a long time in Mumbai Airport recently. It is our airport; but I should rate this as worst one…

  10. Took the London/Tokyo flight via Frankfurt in September 2003. As a transit airport, never again. Changing from Arrivals to Departures is a nightmare. Few signs in any language, and what signs few there were, were contradictory. Finally you figure out there’s a monorail. Gents are one-man-band type (us boys aren’t used to that). Horizontal escalator not working. Only down escalators move. Confiscated nail clipper (the hijacker’s weapon of choice). No maps, no trolleys. Staff look like they are trying out for a remake of Hogan’s Heroes. (Good job I’m not in Europe, I’d be arrested for racism.) And razor wire all over the place adds to the Stalag 13 impression. “So, you vish to leave us.” And after you’ve trekked several miles round this God-forsaken excuse for terminal building stumbling on the departure gate more by luck and blind persistance: “For you za valk is over”..A big, empty airport full of nothing. You need telepathy to know your flight being called. Few restaurants and bars; just as well in view of the toilet facilities, or rather lack thereof. AAAC: Avoid At All Cost. One sister-shagging shit hole of a disaster area. For a first world country, be ashamed, be very ashamed.

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