REACTIONS continued to vary today to the Bangkok airports blockade and its long-term effects.

One stranded Australian tourist said her honeymoon of a lifetime had turned into an ''unbelievable nightmare.''

So who pays? That was the question she and many other people were asking after a week that turned the world against Thailand as a tourist destination.

From Pattaya, newly-wed Jennifer Clarke told a newspaper in Australia: ''We are stuck here. There's no end in sight. There's chaos and mayhem at the airport where we are trying to get on a flight.''

Other Australians stuck with the honeymooners at the Ambassador Hotel were planning to refuse to pay the accommodation bill and to barricade themselves in their rooms if necessary.

''They are saying that it's not their fault all this has happened, so why should they pay?''

Indeed. On the other side of the debate, Natjarong Aakpemsub, leader of the Phuket Watch protest group, told Phuketwan today that the People's Alliance for Democracy could not be held responsible for the effects of the airports blockade.

''In wars, some people get hurt,'' he said. The leaders of the PAD have had to put the best interests of Thailand first, he said.

''There will certainly be effects, but these will be short-term, not long-term,'' he said. ''The tourists will return next year.''

Khun Natjarong said that in 1997, the economic crisis affected many businesses in Thailand. Today, there were similarities.

''It's a Hamburger Crisis, caused by America. The global economic crisis is what will affect Thailand most, not the PAD. The economic crisis will be longer-term.''

PAD leaders in Thailand would continue to try to educate and inform people about their objectives.

Some members of the PAD on Phuket would be affected by what has happened. Those people would be helped to find other jobs by other PAD members.

Hotel owners, rubber plantation owners and other leading businesspeople on Phuket all had an interest in pursuing the PAD's aims, Khun Natjarong said.

Some PAD members will stay in Bangkok to help clear the airports. Hundreds of Phuket protesters are heading home today.

''The price of achieving new politics in Thailand is not cheap,'' Khun Natjarong added.

The PAD plans activities at the Saphan Hin public park in Phuket City at 6pm on December 5 to mark the birthday of HM The King.

This will be followed on December 7 by a thank you dinner at the park for the members of the Phuket PAD.

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