WITNESS: Leaving Thailand? Mind your pees and queues ..

Thin Lei Win is a Bangkok-based correspondent for Reuters' AlertNet service, the humanitarian news network. In this WITNESS piece, she describes first-hand the hassles experienced by thousands of travelers who were stranded in Thailand because of the political crisis.

By Thin Lei Win

U-TAPAO, Thailand (Reuters) - Having spent days helping report on the woes of foreign tourists trying to leave Thailand in the wake of the airport blockades by anti-government protesters, it was my turn to experience the hassles first hand.

My long-panned trip to Indonesia via Singapore was looking increasingly unlikely last week after People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) supporters seized control of Bangkok's main airports, cutting off air traffic and leaving tens of thousands stranded.

For a time, I flirted with the idea of a grueling 10-hour, 900 km (560 mile) road trip to Phuket airport in the south, or an overnight 700 km rail journey to Chiang Mai in the north, but there was no guarantee I would make my Singapore connecting flight.

Then a window of opportunity opened.

As costs mounted for dealing with the estimated 250,000 people stranded by the airport blockades, Thai authorities opened a sleepy Vietnam war-era military base around 150 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital.

U-Tapao suddenly became Thailand's main international gateway, so I decided to head there.

The first thing that struck me after an uneventful three-hour drive to U-Tapao was the crowd -- there were thousands of people crammed into a small complex that just a week ago was handling only a few charter flights a day.

People were everywhere -- businessmen, backpackers, holidaying families, taxi drivers, airport officials, soldiers, hotel staff, buyers, sellers, brokers and volunteers -- all primarily engaged in one activity ... queuing.

They were queuing for food, for the toilet, to check in. In fact, it seemed many people were queuing without really knowing why or what for.

By the time I found a queue for Singapore Airlines at around 2:30 p.m., more than 100 people were in front of me -- waiting for the check-in counter to open for a flight only scheduled to leave at 7 p.m.

Despite the heat, the crowds and the general slow pace of activity, people were in a good mood, perhaps excited at the prospect of finally going home.

HARDSHIP AND WOE

Passengers compared notes on how long they had been stranded (being based in Bangkok, I scored poorly) and tried to out-do each other with tales of hardship and woe.

All the while, airline staff plied us with water to keep us hydrated in the oppressive heat. Other staff kept checking and re-checking our details, wary of anyone sneaking into the queues that snaked everywhere.