Anchorage Daily News

An Anchorage family on the sidelines of a threatened government coup in Thailand last week was stranded south of Bangkok on Sunday -- but safe for the moment, along with about 100,000 other international air travelers.

It could have been a lot worse, said Melissa Davis, 47, who flew from Anchorage to Thailand in mid-November on a month-long vacation with her ex-husband, Nathan Watkins, and their 8-year-old daughter, River Watkins.

The primary destination of the journey was the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, where they worked a week as volunteers, Davis said. After completing their visit there, they'd just flown back to Bangkok, where they were due to catch a plane to Phuket, a beach resort to the south.

Just as their plane for Phuket took off, the airport was overrun by members of the People's Alliance for Democracy, protesting the coalition government led by Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat.

"Our plane sat there for a long time, and right after we took off they stormed the airport," Davis said, speaking long-distance by cell phone.

Now the family is biding its time at the resort. So far they have no complaints, she said. The weather is paradise-perfect. But they've heard their scheduled return to Alaska on Dec. 5 is likely to be delayed by eight days, or even longer.

"We have no idea when we're going to be able to leave at this point. It's a mixed blessing."

Nathan Watkins is a welder on the North Slope and due to return to work, while River, a third-grader at Polaris K-12 School in Anchorage, is already missing classes.

On the positive side, the Thai government just announced it intends to pay all stranded foreigners 2,000 baht apiece (the equivalent of about $171 U.S.) for each day they're detained.

"Right now I'm standing on my balcony overlooking the beach in a bungalow that costs $30 a day. So in other words, it's much cheaper here ... and they're going to pay us to continue our vacation."

Tourism is a critical sector of the Thai economy, and the closure of the airport was a huge blow to the country's reputation as a safe and reliable vacation destination. Government officials in Thailand were predicting the tourist industry there could lose as much as $4.2 billion between now and the end of the year.

Meanwhile, according to Associated Press accounts, government supporters converged on the capital on Sunday in a counter protest to rival those who seized control of Bangkok's two airports and forced the prime minister to run the country from afar.

So far violence has been largely contained to Bangkok. Neither the army nor Thailand's revered king have stepped in to resolve the crisis -- or offered the firm backing that Somchai needs to resolve the leadership vacuum.

Explosions on Sunday hit the prime minister's compound, which protesters from the People's Alliance for Democracy have held since August, an anti-government television station, and a road near the main entrance to the occupied domestic airport. At least 51 people were injured, officials said.

The alliance says it will not give up until Somchai resigns, accusing him of being a puppet of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the alliance's original target. Thaksin, who is Somchai's brother-in-law, was deposed in a 2006 military coup and has fled the country to escape corruption charges.

Thousands of government supporters wearing red shirts, headbands and bandanas joined a Sunday rally against the protest alliance. Some danced and clapped to music blaring from loudspeakers. They have adopted red to distinguish themselves from their yellow-garbed rivals.

"This is a movement against anarchical force and the people behind it," government spokesman Nattawut Sai-Kua told The Associated Press. "They want anarchy so that the army is forced to intervene and stage a coup."

But the army, which overthrew Thaksin among other previous coups, says it has no plans to oust Somchai. Still, the military's failure to back up Somchai's efforts to restore order give the impression it alone will decide how the situation will be resolved.

Also distancing himself from the crisis has been revered 80-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who as a constitutional monarch plays no open role in politics but who has healed social fractures in the past.

"No one else can fix this. The country is so divided. The only uniting figure we have is the king. If he tells both sides to step back, they will," said 36-year-old coffee shop owner Natta Siritanond.

A government spokesman denied rumors that Somchai had left the country, saying he was operating out of the northern city of Chiang Mai -- home of the elephant park -- and traveling to Nakhon Phanom province, a northeastern province 370 miles from Bangkok.

Find George Bryson online at adn.com/contact/gbryson or call 257-4318. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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