Bangkok’s massive multi-million dollar airport terminal tonight resembles a night market. It’s teaming with yellow-clad protesters and lined with make-shift stalls selling badges, t-shirts, stickers and jewelry, as well as food and drink. Outside, the passenger drop-off zone is a sea of yellow protesters rattling their plastic “clappers” as they listen to fiery speeches from the top of truck.

The approach road to the terminal is lined with cars that reflect the largely middle-class character of the protesters – the SUV is the vehicle of choice. There are several security checks along the way, where guards wielding metal rods and golf clubs stop and search approaching cars. It feels like the anti-government protesters are settling in for the long-haul. 

SLIDESHOW: Airport under siege

All flights remain suspended, and the estimated 3,000 passengers – most of them tourists – stranded last night when the airport closed have been moved to city-center hotels.

But who exactly are these protesters clad in yellow – the color associated with Thailand’s king – who risk crippling Thailand’s lucrative tourist industry? And what do they want?

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 BANGKOK, Thailand – Late tonight, one of Asia’s busiest airports remained under siege, sealed off by several thousand anti-government protesters. The protesters, clad in yellow – the color of the king – sat on mats and cardboard, in the road outside the main terminal building, where cars and buses usually drop off passengers.

They were listening to fiery anti-government speeches, interspersed with Thai folk songs blasting from the top of a truck, also draped in yellow. At one point, a protest leader, speaking in perfect English, apologized for any inconvenience to the thousands of stranded passengers. “Please understand that our purpose is to stop this corrupt government,” he said. The crowd of protesters shook their plastic “clappers” in approval.

VIDEO: Thai protesters close airport, battle police

The pleas didn’t garner much sympathy with the bewildered passengers inside the terminal.

“I just wanna go home. I like Thailand, but I don’t like this,” said one man, as he lay on the floor, waiting for news of his delayed flight to Sweden. Nearby a young couple nursed two sick infants.

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By Ian Williams, NBC News correspondent LAGUNA, Philippines – Robert Zeigler was a terrific host, bubbling with enthusiasm as he told me about the new varieties of rice that could bring enormous relief to the world’s poor.
“This is a transformational technology. It gives me goose bumps,” he said, pointing at clusters of rice stems emerging from a flooded paddy field. “These are tailored for floods. They basically hold their breath underwater.”
He was pointing at a new variety of flood resistant…(read more)