'We are so tired. When can we go?' the 25-year-old said, recounting his real-life version of Hollywood movie The Terminal.

He and two other Iranian friends are among some 300,000 foreign tourists stuck in Thailand after anti-government protesters seized Bangkok's two airports last week.

The government is providing free hotel rooms and meals for the stranded, but Mr Golbabaei said he was told the vouchers had run out, and they had no money left after holidaying in the beach resort town of Pattaya.

'Nobody is helping us. We are the last tourists in this airport,' Mr Golbabaei told Reuters as his two friends slept on the floor wrapped in blankets.

There was a general sense of cautious relief among the stranded tourists after makeshift check-in desks were set up at about half-a-dozen hotels, plus a conference centre in downtown Bangkok.

'I'll be happier when I see the runway,' muttered Australian tourist Jason Payne, in a posh Bangkok hotel.

Yet the desks, like those at the Centara Grand in Bangkok's main shopping district, are only the first step on a gruelling journey that will take most through the cramped U-Tapao naval base about three hours' drive away.

When asked what they expect at the Vietnam War-era airstrip, 33-year-old Payne and fellow Australian Juliet Gleeson simultaneously exclaimed: 'Chaos!'

The single-runway airfield can handle about 40 flights a day compared with the 700-flight capacity of Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi.

Ms Gleeson, 40, said she faced a convoluted trip even after the flight she is due to take gets back to Sydney, as she must find transport for the 860km journey to her Gold Coast home.

'And who's paying for that? That's what I would like to know,' she said.

The long wait has begun taking a toll on the tired and frustrated tourists. About 280 have sought medical treatment at U-Tapao, with most suffering from complaints including headaches, vomiting, fainting, cold, and food poisoning, the Public Health Authority said yesterday.

It added that all hospitals across the country had been ordered to give 'free medical service' to affected passengers.

The ministry had also provided mobile toilets for the more than 5,000 passengers at U-Tapao.

Nations around the world are meanwhile scrambling to evacuate their citizens. About 40,000 travellers have left the kingdom so far, Tourism Minister Weerasak Kohsurat said yesterday.

Australian airline Qantas yesterday sent an extra plane to the southern resort town of Phuket to bring home hundreds of travellers, while Air France-KLM said it would operate a similar flight.

The French government said a heavy transport plane would fly from U-Tapao.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said yesterday that national flag carrier Garuda will soon take 165 Indonesians home.

'We are preparing to evacuate another 210 Indonesians,' news website Kompas.com quoted him as saying. He said that the government would consider evacuating all citizens through possible access routes via Kuala Lumpur.

Thailand has been under pressure from frustrated governments over the fiasco.

Mr Weerasak yesterday said he would do everything to send news to the world that the kingdom is doing its best to send stranded travellers home.

But not all of the travellers found their extra stay in Thailand a burden.

'We have no jobs, so we are not worried about missing work,' said 65-year-old Maryvonne Prokop, part of a tour group of French pensioners. 'No problem. No stressing.'

The Iranians still stuck at Suvarnabhumi said they were treated well by the supporters of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy, who gave them meals, water and blankets.

But as he watched a group of yellow-clad protesters walk by, Mr Golbabaei admitted he was perplexed by this latest escalation in Thailand's three-year-old political crisis. 'I don't know what it's all about. It's a Thai problem. I just want the airport to open so I can go home,' he said.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, XINHUA