"If our parents did not allow our land to be expropriated, you would not have this today," said Chuan Klamwhao.

Chuan said the VIP card would strengthen the relationship between the airport authorities and the villagers. He said after Airports of Thailand (AOT) succeeded in grabbing the land he and his brother inherited from their parents a decade ago, the AOT never talked to him and other villagers again.

Though the airport made Chuan's life worse - he has not been able to generate the kind of income he previously earned - he is still glad his plot was part of the "pride of the nation".

Last year when ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and other Cabinet members took the first flight from Suvarnabhumi, Chuan wanted to watch and decided to walk in. However, it was not so easy.

"I was upset when a guard asked for a permit. Why did I need permission to see what was happening on land that once was mine?" he said.

Chuan was not the only villager left with a worse life. Thithawat Kaewchuang, chief administrator of Nong Prue Tambon Administrative Organisation, said many villagers had stopped running their own businesses to becoming daily workers.

Before becoming an airport, almost 20,000 rai of Nong Ngu Hao, or cobra swamp, was full of fish, water mimosa ponds and mango orchards. Swang Meeboonrod, 57, once farmed water mimosa from a three-rai-pond. She now collects water mimosa from another villager's pond, earning just Bt160.

"I have made a living from water mimosa farming for a long time. It is the only skill I have. I could not switch to any other job," she said.

Pennapa Hongthong

The Nation