KEY POINTS:
Kiwis wanting to fly home from Bangkok will have to wait until at least tomorrow.
Airport authorities in the Thai capital said yesterday that the main international airport, Suvarnabhumi, which has been occupied by anti-government protesters, will remain closed until at least 6pm (midnight New Zealand time) today.
"Protesters are still rallying in front of the terminal...with no sign of dispersing, therefore the authority has to prolong the closure," an Airports of Thailand statement said.
But a Thai tour guide told the Weekend Herald that people desperate to leave were packing Malaysia-bound trains and paying local residents hundreds of dollars to drive them to the Malaysian-Thai border, so they could catch a flight home from Kuala Lumpur instead.
"Many felang (Westerners) are starting to feel very upset," said tour guide Sunan Niran.
"At first, they had a lot of fun taking photos and joining in the protest like it was a parade, but now many are showing their anger and just want to get out of Bangkok."
Mr Sunan said a New Zealand couple stranded in Bangkok had offered him US$500 ($900) to drive them to the border.
But he did not want to be away from his wife and children during the protest unrest, as he feared for their safety.
He said there had been a "mad rush" by tourists to leave the city by road and rail after reports in Bangkok that the protesters were threatening to bring traffic to a halt by blockading dozens of motorway intersections in the Thai capital.
Meanwhile, the Government has offered to shuttle thousands of stranded tourists by bus to U-Tapao, a Vietnam War-era naval base 150km east of Bangkok, as an alternative landing site for airlines.
Thailand's Tourism Minister Weerasak Kohsurat said tourists with urgent needs - such as those with young children and medical problems - would be flown on Thai Airways flights to Singapore or Malaysia, where they could catch connecting flights to their destinations.
Mr Weerasak said the Government was also considering using buses and trains to transport tourists to other airports in the country, including those in Phuket and Chiang Mai.
Bangkok has been cut off from the rest of the world after two of its airports, including the main international airport, 125,000 passenger-a-day Suvarnabhumi, were seized by protesters this week.
Thai Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat declared a state of emergency at the airports late on Thursday, and this has set a stage for a possible bloody confrontation.
Mr Somchai said in a televised address that police and some military units would try to end the blockades by the People's Alliance for Democracy at the Suvarnabhumi international and Don Muang domestic airports.
"It is wrong for protesters to take the entire Thai nation hostage," Mr Somchai said. "I need to do something to restore peace and order."
But despite an appeal by Army chief Anupong Paochinda and a court order, thousands of PAD protesters have refused to budge.
"We will not leave. We will use human shields against the police if they try to disperse us," PAD leader Suriyasai Katasila, told the Reuters news agency.
The protesters have described their latest action as the "final battle" in a six-month campaign to oust Mr Somchai, and unseat the Government it accuses of being a pawn of former leader Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted in a 2006 coup. Mr Somchai is Thaksin's brother-in-law.
A Government spokesman said the economy could lose at least 100 billion baht ($5 billion) if the sieges drag on for a month, and reduce GDP growth for the year to 4 per cent from the current estimate of 4.5 per cent, already a seven-year low.
