Honeymoon couple: Our Thailand ordeal

A HONEYMOON couple told the Foreign Office to "step up its game" after claiming it did nothing to help them leave troubled Thailand last week.

Rayna Malde and Neil Chandarana, of Barnet, spent £1,500 on flights, accommodation and phone calls after Bangkok's airports were overrun by anti-government protesters.

They managed to board a flight to Germany from a military airbase early last Monday, four days after they were due to return home.

Ms Malde, 28, said: "If you own a British passport you like to think you can rely on our country to help you get back home in a situation like that.

"When I called the British Embassy they just told me to try phoning the airlines. It needs to step up its game."

The couple were among thousands of tourists stranded after the People's Alliance for Democracy shut the international Suvarnabhumi and domestic Don Mueang airports. They were due to fly home the previous Thursday but heard from a taxi driver on the morning that the airport was closed.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We had 50 to 60 staff but there were 6,000 British people out there. There was a limited amount we could do for any one individual."