Siam City Hotel is now a holding area for Republic's citizens
By
Serene Luo
The group desperately wants to come home, as many of its elderly members are running out of medicine for chronic illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure and lupus. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS
IT HAS been five days and counting for Mr Leong Sow Hoe and his group of 49 other Singaporeans stranded in Bangkok.
The group from Bethesda Cathedral, heading home from Israel via Bangkok, were supposed to be in transit in the Thai airport.
But when thousands of Thai protesters descended on Suvarnabhumi Airport last Wednesday, the Singaporeans' plane could not land there; it was instead diverted to U-Tapao, an old military airstrip 140km from Bangkok.
From there, the group was shuttled by bus to Bangkok, where they have since been holed up in Siam City Hotel.
Mr Leong, the group's leader, told The Straits Times the hotel has become 'Singapore Central'.
'There are quite a number of other Singaporeans here besides us, I have no idea how many exactly, but the hotel is packed,' said the 48-year-old Prudential agency manager.
The hotel, with over 400 rooms, has been designated as a holding place for Singaporeans by the authorities, he said.
It is a five-minute drive from Bangkok's shopping strip, where life goes on as usual.
The group desperately wants to come home, as many of its elderly members are running out of medicine for chronic illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure and lupus.
Yesterday, some of them went from pharmacy to pharmacy looking for their prescription medications.
They have other problems: The hotlines for Singapore's embassy in Bangkok and travel agencies are engaged all the time; flights and trains continue to be booked solid till the end of the week.
The group's older members are unlikely to be able to endure an almost two-day-long bus trip back to Singapore, Mr Leong said.
But the Singaporeans in the hotel can count themselves lucky, having arrived early enough to be put on buses to Bangkok.
Tourists who are arriving at U-Tapao now have reportedly been camping outside the airstrip and using portable toilets. They have neither been able to get transport into an increasingly crowded Bangkok nor get on a plane out of Thailand.
U-Tapao, not designed to handle more than a few flights daily, is processing about 50 flights or an estimated 15,000 passengers daily now. In contrast, Suvarnabhumi airport can handle 60,000 to 70,000 people daily, officials estimated.
Some countries such as China and Spain are chartering flights to fly their citizens home, and some marooned Singaporeans are hoping the Government here will do the same.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is helping about 100 Singaporeans get confirmed tickets home, said it was working with Singapore carriers to mount extra flights. Singapore Airlines, SilkAir and Air Asia have been adding extra flights.
Businessman A. Seet, 56, who returned home on Saturday morning after a 25-hour journey by bus and air, advised other stranded Singaporeans to 'hit the road'.
He left Bangkok by mini-bus with seven friends and family members on Friday morning and headed for Kuala Lumpur, from where he caught a flight home.
