BANGKOK?While many travelers were furious and restless from being trapped for eight days in the airport standoff in Bangkok, a Filipino tourist relished every moment of it.

Gloria Isip-Tagala, a housewife from Apalit, Pampanga, enjoyed the delicious food and first-class amenities of a hotel while stranded in the Thai capital.

She said that although she and her niece were stranded, she was happy because they were able to stay at a hotel instead of sleeping at the sala of a one-bedroom apartment, which her brother shares with three other relatives in Bangkok.

Tagala, 39, flew from Manila together with Glenda Cortes on Nov. 15 for a two-week holiday on the invitation of her brother, who is working in Bangkok as an English teacher. It was their first trip abroad.

They were supposed to leave for Manila on Nov. 29 but their flight was canceled after antigovernment protesters seized Bangkok?s Suvarnabhumi international airport on the night of Nov. 25, prompting Thai airport authorities to cancel all flights.

Free food, accommodation

Tagala called up the Bangkok office of Cebu Pacific to inquire about the next flight and was told that all flights to Manila have been canceled until Dec. 4.

They were told not to worry since the Thai government would be providing all stranded passengers with free food and accommodation.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) provided a 2,000 baht (P2,750) daily budget for each stranded passenger to cover his or her food and hotel accommodation until the airport siege was over.

Tagala and Cortes then decided to leave the cramped one-room apartment of her brother and headed for a hotel. But it turned out that the hotel was not accredited by the TAT and were told to proceed to Imperial Queen?s Park where they were eventually billeted.

Imperial Hotel

?We should have known it earlier so that we won?t have to fit in together inside my brother?s house,? she said.

Tagala and Cortes stayed at the Imperial for two nights and three days.

Before leaving the hotel to check in for the Cebu Pacific flight to Manila, Tagala said that although she enjoyed her stay in Bangkok, nothing was better than her own house in Pampanga.

?I already miss my three children. I have been away for more than 15 days already,? Tagala said.

Last batch

Tagala and Cortes were among the last batch of Filipinos stranded in Bangkok who arrived early this morning in Manila, finally ending an eight-day ordeal that began Tuesday last week when antigovernment protesters stormed and overran the Thai capital?s main airport, stranding more than a quarter of a million passengers.

A Cebu Pacific A-320 departed early Thursday from the U-Tapao naval base for the last special flight to Manila with about 165 passengers, including 10 foreigners, a day after Thai protesters finally lifted their blockade of Suvarnabhumi international airport.

The last batch of passengers who arrived Thursday brought the total number of passengers airlifted from Bangkok to 992. They included 422 passengers from the first flight and 247 from the second Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight from Chiang Mai, and the third batch of 158 passengers of Cebu Pacific via U-Tapao.

Still stranded

But some 30 Filipino passengers from other airlines such as Thai Airways and Kuwait Airways remained stranded in Bangkok, with at least 10 bound for Manila.

Both PAL and Cebu Pacific had required passengers of other airlines to pay Bt7,500 and Bt10,000, respectively, to get seats.

At least 15 overseas Filipino workers, nine of them from Maguindanao province, who left Manila via Thai Airways en route to Dubai remained stranded in Bangkok. They are all billeted at Amari Atrium Hotel.

They are expected to fly to Dubai on Dec. 5 or 6, but no definite schedule has been given. Airport authorities are still checking the readiness of equipment and systems at Bangkok?s main airport before resuming full commercial operations.

RP embassy back to normal

Philippine Ambassador to Thailand Antonio Rodriguez felt relieved that the airport standoff was finally over.

?It?s a respite. Now I can breathe a sigh of relief. It?s back to the diplomatic grind,? Rodriguez told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

It?s all quiet at the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok, which was packed with a bevy of stranded Filipinos seeking assistance since the airport siege started.

On Tuesday, the Inquirer went to the embassy only to find Filipinos seeking consular services like passport renewal. It was the same Wednesday.

Last special flight

The Cebu Pacific office in Bangkok was busy preparing Wednesday for its last special flight to Manila from U-Tapao, a former US naval base located two hours away from Bangkok.

Cebu Pacific passengers assembled at 5 p.m. Wednesday at the Bitec convention center to check-in seven hours before their flight. They were brought to the U-Tapao for the flight back to Manila.

At the PAL office in Bangkok, stranded Filipino passengers from other airlines like Thai Airways International and Kuwait Airways were still inquiring about the next available PAL flight.

PAL manager Monet Trespeses said that the airline would no longer mount a special flight to Manila. ?We?ll just wait for the reopening of the airport,? she said.

A PAL A330 with 247 passengers on board, not 225 as earlier reported, arrived in Manila from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai past midnight of Tuesday. It earlier brought home 422 stranded passengers.