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Jiggs McDonald; Standed in Thailand
Topic Started: Dec 1 2008, 11:37 AM (283 Views)
MMingE
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All Star
Did anyone see this story in Newsday ? Scary...Hope Jiggs is ok

Protests Strand Jiggs
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LEDZEP
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The Best That Ever Skated 80-81-82-83
Good Luck Jiggs :isles:
Sometimes I grow so tired, but I know I've got one thing I got to do... Posted Image

What puckhead says is Islander law
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Come in with the milk

"A leader, once convinced a particular course of action is the right one,
must have the determination to stick with it and be undaunted when the going gets rough."

Ronald Reagan
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dragoneye
Kung Fu Hockey
I just received this through the contact form at Yes! Islanders:

Your update just came up on my Google alert. I just wanted to share with you that I think we have made some progress in getting them out of Thailand. The proof will be in the next 48 hours. This is what I sent to the various media contacts I've made over the past few days. Please let me know if I can answer an questions. And thanks for your eagerness to help and get others involved.
_________

Thanks to all of you who have helped to draw attention to the plight of Canadians stranded in Thailand due to the political unrest. It appears that my Mom and Dad are part of a group of 37 from their tour who will be departing Thailand on Tuesday, headed for Hong Kong. That trip is the result of an offer of help from the Canadian Embassy in Thailand and, for that, we are extremely grateful.

We are also grateful for all of the attention you drew to this matter and for your genuine concern about my parents well-being, particularly those of you who know them personally. We are hopeful that this is just the beginning and that more Canadians will receive the help they need to get out of the country. And our thoughts are with those in the tour group who have chosen, for the time being, to stay behind.

I am sending this to all the journalists and media members that I have had direct contact with. I do not have all of the e-mail addresses for the many bloggers who have shared the story and posted links to the original articles. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who may have received my original release last Friday so that they can provide updates to their readers as well.

I will send a follow-up e-mail when we know that my parents have arrived safely in Hong Kong, and again when we have a specific arrival date/time in Toronto.

Important Update

On Monday evening in Thailand, the Canadian Embassy made an offer of help to a group of 78 Canadian citizens stranded in Bangkok. John Kenneth “Jiggs” and Marilyn McDonald of Orillia, Ontario are among a group of 37 who have accepted that offer. They expect to be leaving their hotel Tuesday morning, 12/2 (the evening of 12/1 for us) to head to U-Tapao naval base for a Thai Airways flight to Hong Kong.

The Embassy said they had located 68 seats that were available Tuesday, 12/2 aboard a Thai Airways flight from U-Tapao to Hong Kong. The tickets are being made available at the travelers’ own expense and will cost $639 each for the one-way flight. (There is, from what we’ve been told, a slight possibility of being reimbursed by Thai Airways.)

The tour group was originally scheduled to return to Toronto on an Air Canada flight from Hong Kong last week Wednesday, 11/26 (Air Canada Flight 16). We believe that Expo Cruises & Tours will be able to rebook their original tickets for a new departure date once they arrive in Hong Kong. They may be able to depart immediately, or they may have to wait a day or two in Hong Kong, which would be at their own expense.

We have been told that 37 of the 78 members of this particular Canadian tour group have chosen to accept this offer from the Embassy. (Please note that we do not have names of the others who make up the 37 total passengers.) They will be departing by bus Tuesday morning from their hotel in Bangkok, headed to U-Tapao naval base for the flight. The remainder will continue to wait for alternate arrangements.

The Expo tour group was originally reported to have 82 Canadian citizens. Four of these tour members separated from the group on either Sunday or Monday. They had booked their own air travel initially, when the tour started, and had separate air travel plans for departure as well. We understand that they were able to make private arrangements to depart Thailand.
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stevedepot
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WISENHEIMER
Thanks go to lisa at mania for this.



http://www.barrieadvance.com/barrieadvance/article/123612

Quote:
 

Couple stranded in Thailand set to leave today
Author: Mike Dodd, Staff
Date: Dec 02, 2008

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Ken and Marilyn McDonald

After days of anxious waiting in protest-riddled Bangkok, Orillia residents Ken (Jiggs) McDonald and his wife Marilyn are finally getting a sense they’ll be going home soon.

The couple has been part of an 82-member tour group stranded in Thailand since protests broke out in the capital city late last week.

“They’ve actually got an offer of assistance from the Canadian Embassy in Thailand and it looks like they are going to be leaving the country on Tuesday morning,” said their daughter Susan DeSimone, during a telephone interview from her home in Minnesota.

The McDonalds have been isolated in a downtown Bangkok hotel since Wednesday when thousands of pro-democracy protesters shut down the two commercial airports in the country.

Just moments before speaking with a reporter, DeSimone spoke to her father by phone from Bangkok.

“He (dad) called me about a half hour ago and gave me the news. He sounds like he is happy and relieved to see some action was finally being taken to get them out of the country. He is relieved an offer has been made,” said DeSimone.

Four of the original members of the tour group left Bangkok over the weekend and made their own travel arrangements back to Canada.

An inductee into the Hockey Hall of Fame, McDonald is well known to NHL fans and Simcoe Country residents as the play-by-play radio voice for a number of teams including the New York Islanders, Toronto Maple Leafs, Atlanta Flames, Los Angeles Kings and, most recently, the Florida Panthers.

In recent days, McDonald, age 70 and his wife Marilyn, 68, had become increasingly frustrated and stressed by the lack of action by Canadian Embassy officials.

“There doesn’t appear to be any quick resolution to this Bangkok situation in the near future unless they agree to get us out of here, perhaps to Singapore or Hong Kong,” said McDonald in an e-mail to friends late last week.

Embassy officials met Sunday with the McDonalds and the rest of the Canadians at their hotel.
DeSimone said the members of the tour group, including several from the Simcoe County region, expressed extreme frustration with the lack of action by Canadian government officials.

“The meeting got somewhat heated. There were some words thrown back and forth,” said DeSimone.

She noted the situation had become dire for some members of the tour group as they had run out of medication, and others had seen their travel insurance cancelled.

This is on top of the additional hotel and travel expenses, beyond the money they had paid for the 31-day travel package through China and other Asian countries.

“(The members of the tour group) have to pay their own way out of Thailand, but the Canadian Embassy is making arrangements to get them on planes out of Thailand,” said DeSimone.

The embassy has booked 68 seats on a Thai Airways flight out of Thailand on Tuesday morning, at an additional cost of $639 to each of the members of the tour group.

On Tuesday, the tour group was scheduled to board buses from their downtown Bangkok hotel for the four-hour trip to the U-Tapao naval air base in Thailand.

“My dad said 37 of the 78 members of the tour group have taken up the Canadian Embassy on the offer of flights,” said DeSimone.

From there the Canadians will fly to Hong Kong and then make connecting flights back to Canada. Originally the Canadians were scheduled to return to Toronto on Nov. 26-27.

“They should be able to pick up the rest of their travel itinerary from there (Hong Kong),” said DeSimone.


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