FROM Saturday, the number of mourners allowed to pay respects to His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej before the Royal Urn inside the Grand Palace will be limited to 10,000 a day.
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) spokesperson Threedow Aphaiwongs Sukhum said yesterday the number of people allowed into the Palace throne hall each day could be adjusted based on situations in the future.
She spoke at a press conference held after a daily meeting of a newly formed Joint Safety Command Centre, which oversees the massive gathering at Sanam Luang and areas adjacent to the Grand Palace.
The areas have become crowded with mourners waiting to enter the Grand Palace complex to pay respects to the late King.
The spokeswoman said an average of 30,000 to 40,000 people had entered the Sala Sahathai Samakhom in the Grand Palace since October 15 to sign messages of condolence in tribute to the late King. His Majesty, who was in his 89th year, passed away on October 13.
Starting this Saturday, only about 10,000 people will be allowed to enter the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall in the Grand Palace to prostrate themselves in front of the Royal Urn and the King’s body.
“The throne hall is relatively small and many royal ceremonies are held there. So fewer people can get inside,” Threedow said.
She said management of the queue to enter the Palace and facilities such as tents and toilet buses had been boosted to cope with the large influx in mourners expected from Saturday.
All mourners who wish to enter the Grand Palace complex are required to receive queue cards, whether they want to sign the condolence book or also pay respects in front of the Royal Urn and the King’s body.
There is only one point providing cards for the queue, at a tent behind the entrance to Sanam Luang, adjacent to a T-junction of Phrachan Road, on a corner of Thammasat University’s Tha Phrachan campus. People can get the numbered cards starting at 5.30am until the quota runs out.
Many disappointed mourners said they had only learned that they needed a queue card after already waiting in long queues.
“I did not know I needed a queue card to enter the Grand Palace. I waited in a very long queue in the burning sun for over half an hour until an official told me to step out of the line and go get such a card. I do not know if today I will have a chance to pay homage to the King,” Chanya Poleait said.
The 47-year-old from Samut Prakan, who was joined by her mother and sister, had arrived at Sanam Luang, the field in front of the Grand Palace, at 11am.
At 2.30pm, the trio were hungry but had been unable to have lunch. Chanya said she was willing to get the queue cards and waited for more hours for her turn. But she asked why officials did not publicly announce or let the public know they were required to undergo such a queue system.
A military official arranging the queue system, who did not want to be named, said many mourners in the lines were upset when people without queue cards cut in front of them. Officials had to patrol the two-kilometre-long line to ensure that all people waiting in the queue had the required cards.
“The queue cards will be distributed to people. When the quota runs out, we will stop distributing them and let all people with the cards enter the Grand Palace. This coming Saturday, there is a quota for 10,000 people. If the 10,000 queue cards run out, those people who do not get a card can return home without wasting their time waiting in long lines,” the source said.
“This is to ensure that all waiting people have a chance to enter,” he said.
Yesterday afternoon, more than 7,000 people waited in long lines on the field in the scorching sun, he said.
Bangkok officials also planned to set up two more tents for those waiting for queue cards with a combined capacity for 1,800 people, in addition to the 13 small tents with a capacity for 1,300 people, Threedow said.
A mourner suggested that the authorities make it clear to people who are waiting that they need queue cards to enter the Grand Palace.
“It is good that the queue |management has been implemented to prevent a mess among the crowds. However, the authorities should put more effort on public relations to let the people know they need to undergo the queue system. Otherwise, they will come here and return home desperately upset,” 34-year-old businessman Thanapol Wola said.
Thanapol had waited in a long line for five hours before being able to enter the Grand Palace.

He said the 21 plots in the community had belonged to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration since 1994 and were designated for public use.
He said the city would develop the area in order to conserve the ancient fort for the public and for historical significance.
He also said four wooden houses and large trees in the area would be preserved for their historical and cultural attraction value.
Land Acquisition Division director Sakchai Boonma said the community had 61 homes, and so far 19 had been demolished.
Sakchai said that of the remaining 42 homes, five home owners were willing to move out, with the demolition date yet to be determined.
He said the matter would be tabled at the November 2 meeting of the committee for security reform, inequity reduction, agriculture and environment, which was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan.

In Lop Buri province, former Olympic boxing stars Manas Boonchamnong, Worapoj Phet-khum and Suriya Prasarthim-pimai yesterday started a run from in front of the Ban Mi district office. They are taking a route through Ban Mi town, on the Ban Mee-Sing Buri Road and Asia Highway, scheduled to take four days to reach Bangkok.
Manas won gold at the 2004 Athens Games and silver in Beijing in 2008, while Worapoj won silver at Athens and Suriya won bronze at Athens.
In Surat Thani, former boxer Somthob “Terdsakthani Singthani” Wichienjinda, 68, yesterday started his walk from hometown in Kanchanadit district to pay respects to the King in Bangkok. He said that he was inspired by news of people walking to Bangkok so he began his own trek. He said he aimed to cover at least 50 kilometres a day.
The boxers have been joined by other mourners including amateur boxer Amnat Reunrerng, a Prathom 6 student and gold medallist from the 2016 IFMA Youth World Championships, Akkarachai Chompuphoun, and professional runner Chuchit Reuwong.
Meanwhile, 39-year-old Lamphun native Ekkapol Tan, who started walking from Phitsanulok province on Sunday, reached Phichit province yesterday. He was welcomed by local residents who provided him with food and water, as well as money for him to make merit on their behalf for the King.
Ekkapol said he started from Phitsanulok because the route from Lamphun had many construction sites. He expects to reach Bangkok in a month.
Sugarcane farmer Somyot Sripanpring, 58, started walking from his hometown, Kamphaeng Phet, on Thursday and yesterday reached Nakhon Sawan’s Muang district. He expects to finish the 250-kilometre journey on Saturday.
Prior to the King’s death, he said he had intended to make nine long walks to wish His Majesty a recovery from illness. He said he wants to complete his mission of nine long walks.
German national Hut Hartmundelen, 58, began walking from his home in Yasothon’s Muang district on Thursday and reached Roi Et’s Suwannaphum district yesterday, where he received a medical examination for his swollen left ankle. He said he had not exercised regularly before beginning the trip.
The German is married to a Thai woman and impressed with the Thai lifestyle and the King’s Sufficiency Economy philosophy.
Despite his injury he is determined to finish the trip, which he believes will take another 15 days.
In Nakhon Ratchasima province, former village headman Somsak Kongthonglang, 61, started walking along the Mitraparp Highway from Tambon Klong Phai. He aims to walk 20km a day, and has about 180km to go before reaching Bangkok.
Two brothers from Phimai district in Nakhon Ratchasima, Boonsong Kaewniam, 31, and Weerapong Phumkrathok, 17, were found riding their bicycles along a highway in Prachin Buri’s Kabin Buri district on Sunday evening, having left Phimai on Thursday.
In the South, 52-year-old fruit vendor Supapol Laksanapan started a 1,000km-long bicycle journey early yesterday from Yala’s Muang district to Bangkok. He said it would take 15 days to reach the Grand Palace, where he would pay respects to the King.
“I was in grief and disheartened to do anything because of this country’s great loss. I, like the whole nation, loved the King very much and I had applied his teachings in life,” he said.

At about 2pm yesterday, the 52-strong operation also arrested alleged bookie Thawatchai Larplua, 55, and seized Bt138,500, along with gambling equipment.
Team leader Colonel Noppasit Sitthipongsopon said the raid stemmed from a written complaint about the alleged gambling den and a subsequent probe to confirm the alleged illegal activities there.
The alleged illegal operation, located behind a market on Soi Ram Indra 14, was allegedly financed by a former politician, known as “Nor”, and his business partner, identified as “Tee Ram”, an informed source said.
Following the operation, acting Metropolitan Police Area 2 chief Colonel Panumas Boonyalak said a fact-finding committee would be set up to probe the five most senior police officers at the Khok Khram Police Station, which has jurisdiction of the area where the alleged gambling den operated.
He said the probe would determine if the officers were negligent in performing their duties.
He said the five officers would also be transferred to inactive posts pending the probe result.

The three boxers – Manas Boonchamnong, Worapoj Phetkhum, and Suriya Prasarthimpimai – announced the staging of the run at Wat Phunoi in Lop Buri’s Nong Muang district yesterday.
Manas won gold at the 2004 Athens Games and silver in Beijing in 2008 while Worapoj and Suriya both won silver in Athens.
Manas said the run would start at 8am from the Ban Mee district office and go through Ban Mi town, along Ban Mee-Sing Buri Road and the Asia Highway heading to Bangkok.
He said the run would take about four days, with other members of the public taking part.

Mater Dei, in Ploenchit Road, was primarily a Catholic girls school but it allowed boys to enrol in its |kindergarten and early primary education.
Prince Ananda Mahidol, who enrolled in 1930 and was given 273 as his student ID number.
He was made King of Thailand – Rama VIII – in 1935.
His brother, then Prince Bhumibol Adulyadej, joined the Mater Dei school in 1930 and was student number 449.
He became King in 1946 after his brother’s untimely death.
Tassanee, a Thai woman now retired and living in Brisbane in Australia, said although the two princes left Mater Dei to study abroad, every time they returned to the Kingdom they would visit their first school.
“The Sisters [who ran the school] were telling us to strictly dress properly, behave in the best manner and line up to meet and greet the two Princes – and that is what we had to do, with no idea of how important the two Princes were,” she said.
Later, when Tassanee had graduated from the Faculty of Commerce and Accountancy at Chulalongkorn University, her parents sent her Down Under to further her higher education.

“Represent Thai people”
She went to Melbourne University as a graduate student in economics before beginning her first career working for Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Her job gave her the opportunity to meet high-profile Thai officials, and that included the chance to meet with His Majesty King Bhumibol – both in Australia and the United States.
She recalled meeting His Majesty when the King visited Australia with HM Queen Sirikit in 1962. She said, humbly, that the opportunity arrived not because she was an important person.
“There was only a small number of Thai people in Australia [then],” she said. “And knowing I was the only Thai woman working for an Australian organisation at the time, His Majesty said that we had to work hard – to represent Thai people, make good the name of Thai people and make a good name for Thailand.”
With teary eyes, she said His Majesty had work tirelessly and devoted to his life to his country and always set a good example when representing Thailand whenever he visited other countries around the world.
“As a divine King, as he was, I will always remember how grounded |and simple he was as a person,” she said.
“This taught me to be humble and appreciate every good opportunity in life with humility.
“It is His Majesty teachings that I will forever keep close to my heart – and pass on to my children.”
Tassanee was among many Thais in Australia who joined a Memorial Service for HM the |King in Queensland, organised |last Saturday by the Thai |Honorary Consulate Office in Brisbane at the Brisbane Convention Centre.
Nearly 2,000 Thais and friends of Thais attended the ceremony including Queensland governor, the Hon Sir Paul de Jersey.

MESSAGES of condolence over the passing of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej received from Laos – our neighbour and brotherhood country on the opposite bank of the Mekong River – have been something that is beyond just protocol from a nation that has diplomatic relations with Thailand, as they have also come from the hearts of Laotians themselves.
Social media in Laos reported and shared the official announcement of the death of the great monarch on October 13, around the same time as news of his passing was spreading in Thailand.
Popular Lao Facebook pages like Tholakhong (“megaphone”) and Pakaad (“announcement”) posted the news, as well as their tributes, while messages of condolence from their followers have continued since.
The two pages, as well as Facebook pages belonging to Lao individuals, posted to express their deep sorrow with their Thai neighbours, as well as their brotherhood with Thailand.
A page on the history of Laos posted pictures from its archive showing the late King Sisavang Vatthana of the Lao kingdom meeting His Majesty King Bhumibol in 1963.
Laos is no longer a kingdom, as the regime in Vientiane has been communist since taking power in 1975, but relations with the Thai Kingdom have stood firm despite some difficulties between the countries during the late 1980s.
Lao leaders, led by President Bounnhang Vorachith, have sent their condolences and paid homage at the Thai Embassy in Vientiane since October 15.
The country’s prime minister, Thongloun Sisoulith, is scheduled to pay homage to the late King in Bangkok today.
His Majesty King Bhumibol made a state visit to Laos in April 1994, his first since a state visit to North America in 1967 – and the last of his 70-year reign.
“I really don’t know the real reason why Laos became the last country [for a state visit], but His Majesty the King made the visit when the friendship bridge across the Mekong River was opened, which sent a great symbol for the countries’ relations,” said Dulyapak Preecharush, a Thammasat University lecturer on Southeast Asian affairs.
His Majesty had connected with Laos since the country’s previous regime, when Laos was a kingdom, similar to Thailand.
In 1963, he met King Sisavang Vatthana aboard a floating pontoon moored on the Mekong, which forms much of the border between the two countries, according to the biography “A Life’s Work” of His Majesty King Bhumibol.
“On that occasion, King Bhumibol rebuked his M16-toting bodyguards for looking unduly fearsome. They were told that the King and the Queen wished for a welcoming and respectful meeting with the neighbouring Laotian monarch,” said the book, the production of which was supervised in 2011 by former Thai prime minister Anand Panyarachun.
However, differences in the regimes on both sides of the Mekong have been no barrier to relations between the two countries.
As the Cold War ended and territorial disputes at the border were put aside, leaders of the new Lao regime met His Majesty the King on several occasions.
Then-president Kaysone Phomvihane was the first leader of the new regime since 1975 to visit Thailand, and was granted a royal audience with the King in Bangkok in January 1992.
The president asked permission to see royal projects in Chiang Mai and Sakon Nakhon provinces during his visit.
Two years later, the King presided over the opening of the Development Service Project at Huay Sone-Huay Sua in Nayang Village, Na Xaithong district, about 22 kilometres north of Vientiane, when he visited the country after the opening of the first Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge across the Mekong in 1994.
There are currently six royal projects in Laos, according to the Thai Embassy to Vientiane.
In February 1995, another Lao president, Nouhak Phoumsavanh, was invited for a state visit to Thailand and met His Majesty in Bangkok.
Then-president Choummaly Sayasone was the latest Lao leader to visit the Kingdom as the royal guest of the King in 2009.
He visited His Majesty’s projects in Chitralada Palace and a monkey-cheek project for flood prevention in Bangkok’s Prawet district.
When the King was unable to visit Laos himself, his children and many other members of the Royal Family visited the country occasionally.
His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and Her Royal Highness Maha Chakri Sirindhorn represented His Majesty in attending President Kaysone’s funeral in November 1992.
Visiting members of the Royal Family have been made more than welcome in Laos, greeted by Laotians as if they were among Thais back home.
The warmth of feeling among Laotians towards the Thai monarchy and His Majesty King Bhumibol’s projects and works in Laos are the empirical outcome of the diplomatic relations between Thailand and its neighbour, said Thammasat’s Dulyapak.