Sipping a cappuccino from a plastic cup in between seeing patients at Mater Dei Hospital, Corinne Ward relishes the feeling of normality after being stranded in Thailand, in the middle of the anti-government protests.

Mrs Ward and her husband, Martin, were scheduled to return to Malta on November 30 but, when Thai protestors occupied Bangkok airport, their dream holiday turned sour.

In Malta since Friday, the couple try to laugh off the ordeal but their mind is set - Bangkok is off their travel itinerary for good.

The couple, who both work in the field of nursing, usually book their holidays at the last minute because of their frenzied schedules, but this 15-day trip to Malaysia and Thailand had been planned a year ahead.

"We had had such a busy year that this was the one thing we were looking forward to - just getting away from it all," Mrs Ward says.

After an enjoyable week in Malaysia, they travelled to Thailand, where the unrest by the People's Alliance for Democracy had already began but was still on a small scale.

"We continued with our holiday as tour leaders joked we may have to return home on an elephant. But we were not letting anything mar our trip," she says.

Mr Ward recalls how in the evening they were watching the demonstrations unfold on the television and, although they occasionally saw PAD protestors dressed in yellow pass by their hotel in trucks, they never felt intimidated on the streets.

The couple tried to remain calm, following the news every night in a bid to establish what was happening. When militants stormed Mumbai, India, the international media diverted its attention, and the Wards had to rely on local newspapers. Confusion reigned due to lack of information.

"It began to feel more serious; this was more than just sitting tight and biding our time. There was a lot of uncertainty and nobody could tell us if this was going to take a week or a month," he recalls. When the protestors stormed the airports and camped there, halting all air traffic, they began to worry. Their flight home on November 30 was cancelled and the best option their airline, Emirates, could offer was December 5, via Kuala Lumpur.

"At this point I was concerned about work and all my family was worried sick. They could not understand that life in Bangkok continued pretty much as normal," Mrs Ward adds.

In a bid to ease the ordeal of the thousands of stranded tourists, the Thai tourist authority covered the costs of the extra stay of those who had checked in at hotels registered with the Bangkok Hotel Association.

The Wards were spending longer hours in the safety of the hotel, only venturing out to seek information from the Maltese consulate or the airline.

Desperate to leave Bangkok, their choices were stark - either travel out and fork out €5,000 to get on board a KLM flight, or catch a private jet to Singapore for €10,000.

On December 1, the Foreign Affairs Ministry established contact, which was a relief, but the Wards knew they had to plan their way out on their own. That day they queued outside the Emirates office with 600 others trying to leave Bangkok.

The long wait led to the same reply - the only way out was taking the 30-hour journey to Kuala Lumpar.

"We had to bite the bullet. We knew this was going to be difficult, but never assumed it would be a nightmare. We went to three agents who all quoted different prices, information and times. But we had no option," Mrs Ward says.

They packed their two suitcases and set out on the journey, which they had been assured would be aboard a VIP bus with ample leg-room and air conditioning. They were in shock when a small van showed up 40 minutes late - they were 10 people and plenty of suitcases, but the van could only take nine people and no luggage.

Somehow, after piling most of the suitcases on top of the van, the small group settled in, squashed and uncomfortable, but eager to get out. After four hours, the van stopped at a village in the middle of nowhere and the driver started shouting at them to get out.

"We had heard earlier reports that a busload of American tourists had been dropped off in an abandoned field and robbed, so I feared the worst," Mrs Ward recounts.

Without a word the driver drove off, and the group, shaken by his reaction, had to rely on the broken English of a woman who said another van would pick them up in three hours.

In the meantime, they had to wait in a dinghy place where "the coffee was foul", and no information was forthcoming.

"The mood of the Thais had changed and everybody had become aggressive. At one point when I asked for the receipt, one woman nearly threw her mug at me. Nobody was accountable for their actions, or answerable to anyone, and we just had to hope for the best," she adds.

They changed buses and vans six times, and each time they had to wait for hours on end without knowing when they would be picked up. Finally, after 40 hours of travelling, their journey ended in Malaysia. However, the ordeal was still not over.

They were told the Emirates flight out had been overbooked so they had to show up five hours before in the hope of getting on board. They made it and thankfully, appreciating their distress, the airline bumped them to business class.

"We really saw the bitter side to Thailand and I'll never return," Mrs Ward says.