jackcorbett

Speaking from personal experience in the U.S. I once tried to send a book I had written to Kelly McGinnis who had shot his ex wife's lawyer. The authorities did not want Kelly to have my book in his hands so I was summoned by the country sheriff at the jail where Kelly was incarcerated. There I was interrogated by a Sergeant Ketchum who produced the book I had tried to sent to Kelly. Sergeant Ketchum then produced a small plastic evidence envelope that contained a Marijuana leaf claiming I had tried to send narcotics to Kelly.

So if the American police authorities could try to frame me by planting Marijuana in one of my books, there is not a shadow of doubt in my mind that this was done here in Koh Tao. Incidentally, even a lot if not most Thais are not buying this one. Apparently there is a THai expression that means: "Sheep". And that's what the Thais are calling these Burmese, "Sheep" (Patsy's)

I don't believe the confession.

I don't believe the Brit guy and girl were having sex, or even together.

She was dragged off and attacked, he ran to help, now that story makes sense.

I believe it was a Thai related to the head man who is guilty, else why would they covered up for so long.

Allow me to expand on this. Many are probably skeptical. Why would an uneducated, poor Myanmar worker confess to this heinous murder when the result will be almost certain death? Let me suggest the following. Certain assurances are made by the Village Head Masters family and in cooperation with the police significant (For a Myanmar family) amounts of money are given to the family of the accused Myanmar worker. Promises are made to him that if he confesses his mother and father and sisters and brothers, his whole family will never want for anything. He is told that if he sacrifices himself he will be the savior of his family and they can surely rise above their poverty and position forever. What greater gift can a wayward son give his family? He's deprived of sleep, He's frightened. He's certainly guilty, in his own mind, of being a worthless sod. Finally, he has the opportunity do make "Merit", to do good and so he gladly confesses and is provided all the lurid details of the crime by the police and coached on the reenactment. He will go to his maker certain he did the right thing. That's just my take on things. An enterprising reporter or investigative writer with skill far greater than mine might want to follow up and pay a visit to the village in Myanmar where the poor son of a bitch grew up and see how his family is getting on with their new found wealth.

" An enterprising reporter or investigative writer....."

Good post, but this makes me wonder. Are there any in Thailand or are they all scared to look under rocks and in dark places for the truth? They say the truth hurts. In some cases it can get people killed.

Yep....the truth does hurt. Most of you have heard of Neil Hutchison's books...Money Number One, Fool in Paradise, The Fool is Back, etc. But when is the last time you've seen any of Neil's books in the bookstores here? A few months ago I noticed at Asia Books that none of Neil's books were there and when I asked the bookstore attendants they told me that a number of Thais had complained that Neil's books were giving Thailand a bad name. So I went to Neil's web site moneynumberone.net and asked what happened. One thing led to another and I wound up meeting with Neil a few times, and of course I found out this was completely true. Influential Thais viewed Heil and his books as a threat to the status quo, that status quo being that money is number one and not just with bar girls. It's on every level in this society.

Imaginary Russian as always sexy as in the picture above.

The real one is Pattaya are mostly old, fat, urgy.

Worst of all, they are so cheap stake, they refuse to even pay for a beach chair, and thinks that Thai beach are for free! This is Thailand, not Freeland.

The Germans are different.

They don't mind pay for the whole day (shade + chair), but only stay for half and hour.

I am still waking up rethinking this whole Russian in Pattaya thing. Less than one week ago, I just returned from spending nearly one month in the United States where for the first time I took my Thai girlfriend. In the United States my girlfriend and I hooked up with two American friends who have recently married Thai women and our small group was able to visit three American strip clubs, two of them in the Saint Louis Metro East and one of them (Cheaters where some of the scenes for the movie "Showgirls" was filmed) in Las Vegas. Then back to my condo here in Pattaya where I am acting as the chairman of the committee overseeing our small (62 units) condo community. My girlfriend and I have also resumed our exercise activities at the five star fitness center where we are members. Here's some of my observations from my return to the U.S. and very recent experiences with a handful of Russians.

First off, some of the comments here about the boorish, rude behavior of Russian tourists here in Pattaya are very accurate. I invite those who are able to get it to view my video, "The Russian Walking Dead in Pattaya" on You Tube to see how much I agree with such sentiment. However, the key here is that the Russians in this video and those who are most visible here on Pattaya's streets are 1. Tourists for the most part and 2. Those Russians who have chosen to spend time in Pattaya. What this boils down to is such a select group of Russians might not at all be an accurate representation of Russians in general.

As for our recent visit to the U.S. I must report that Americans today (here I will generalize) are not the same Americans I grew up with. Don't get me wrong now. Our experiences were on the whole very positive. I am certain my Thai girlfriend is reporting overall that Americans are in general hard working, polite, helpful and that they are excellent drivers. And from my perspective over the last few months I am much more prone to buying American than I was ever before and that I have become increasingly respectful of American values in general. All this being said, Americans have become terribly overweight. And as far as American women are concerned it was a rare experience to find a single woman who was at all sexually attractive. Consider that today according to stats I've encountered all over the internet that in 2010 (it is now 2014 where the figure is likely to be even higher) that the average American woman is a bit under five foot four in height and that she weighs 76 kilos. I am seven inches taller than that, and I"m now in my sixties yet the average American woman outweighs me. Bottom line is this. America has become a wasteland when it comes to encountering physically attractive women.

The landscape started to change as soon as we went back to the airport at Los Angeles to return to Thailand. The first leg of our return took us to Taiwan where for the first time in a month we were able to actually view women who were physically attractive again.

And then once we got back to Pattaya once again the landscape changed once more for the better. I have to say that here one encounters the best looking women (on the whole) in the world in the Thai women living here. Even so in recent years Thai women have become increasingly fat due to their addiction to junk food and to the internet, unwillingness to exercise, etc.

And now...the Russians. In the fitness center where my girlfriend and I work out in general the laziest people who work out are the Asians. When we see someone just going through the motions on the elliptical machine or the treadmill and this person is focusing on his smart phone or ipad instead of actually trying to sweat off all that excess weight, the person is bound to be Asian, usually Thai, Chinese, Korean, etc. (I think the Japanese have it figured out that in order to lose weight one has to actually sweat those pounds off). From what I've seen Europeans and other Westerners do not plug into their electronic devices to lose weight. The ones who actually come to our fitness center have apparently come to the conclusion that there is a connection between sweat and losing weight and that electronic devices to not shed the pounds. Among the Thais who exercise here there are however some notable exceptions and these exceptions are usually doctors who due to the rigors of their profession and all the hard studying that went into it actually have figured out that in order to lose pounds one has to actually work very hard in the gym in order to do it. But in general the people who work the hardest to be physically fit are the Russians. Especially Russian women.

Whenever I encounter a woman who's working out for an hour and especially for much longer periods than that, she's bound to be Russian. As for the Russian men it seems to me that most of them devote most of their exercise time in strength building exercise such as chin ups, and doing weights. It is no wonder to me now how many years ago when the Soviet Union was oftentimes bettering the United States in the Olympics how Russian men often dominated Americans when it came to the shot put, discuss throw, free weights, etc. I used to think it was due to the Soviet system that caused so many Russians to perform so well in the Olympics but from what I am seeing now, for some reason or another a large portion of the Russian populations simply likes to exercise.

You won't see the kind of bodies in the U.S. anymore such as some of these Russian women have. As I've mentioned, there's just 62 units in my condo building. There's at least two Extremely attractive and SLENDER Russian women living here right now. We had to discuss some business in our condo office with one of them the other day, and her husband, who the grapevine tells me is a wealthy man back in Russia. But the man's English is marginal. I found the man's wife to be very charming with an inner warmth that came through once she started to become comfortable with our office personnel. There's the slender Siberian woman who's been living in the condo beneath mine for several years now. Normally reserved and seemingly not outgoing, the Siberian woman speaks excellent English and she's utterly charming. There's the Russian family which has owned the condo above mine for the past nine years. The parents have been sending their children to the best schools here. They are topnotch. There's a new Russian condo owner here too, but he speaks very little English or Thai yet he's prone to talking to our Thai employees as well as the fence posts, and all the dogs and cats. And we have a renter whose command of English is excellent. I really wish he would have bought a condo here but he told me he's already bought a smaller condo south of us.

Overall, the picture that emerges of the typical Russian here in Pattaya is not a pretty sight. But there's a lot of notable exceptions. Overall for some reason or the other, the most friendly Russians I encounter are Siberians where it's terribly cold. I might also say that the most friendly helpful Americans are to be found in the Midwest and not in the big cities and the West. Perhaps the same might be said of Siberia where the people are more rural, and like so many Midwesterners very outgoing. And there's a lot of great eye candy here from Russia whereas I must unfortunately report there is hardly any left in the U.S where it's gotten to be so bad that even most of our film actresses have become much overblown and where even most of the strippers should find new roles in the latest upcoming release in George Orwell's classic, "Animal Farm".

The Yamaha SR 400 is overpriced and does not measure up in the power department to the likes of a Honda 500,and it costs more to boot. I expect it to vibrate at high speeds also and I doubt if it will go much past 80 miles an hour. I should be getting mine on Monday. So what to do about my beloved Nouvo Elegance now nearly 6 years old? I'm keeping it because it really is that good. For an all around bike for Pattaya I just don't see anything else that will beat it. As for the SR 400 it's going to be my toy and my time machine to the past. Been in the states for nearly a month now and got back, and that horrible carburator in my Elegance made me spend a good half a minute trying to start it. No such problem with my girlfriend's Filano because it has fuel injection, but hey, the Elegance started.

congrats for your new bike.

I can totally understand your words of toy and time machine for yamaha sr400, match perfectly.

happy and safe rides!

Thanks, Il2. I just took delivery of it today. Took awhile at the dealer to get used to the starting procedure, but once I got the hang of it, no problems. Drove very well taking it home.

automatic scooters also dont have neutral (above 10km/h anyways), it will engine brake all the time and use more gas.

I agree with tingtong farang here: refilling the tank evey other day is really annoying.

for example the honda click has 3.5 liter tank, having to refil every 100Km is really annoying and time wasting.

a full tank on a Wave 110 can go 200KM+

I usually reach 320-340KM with a full tank on my CB500

Click 125 has 5.5l tank.

That it has, and I have done road tests on a Click rental that prove it will get over 50 kpl on the highway. That's a range of better than 275 kilometers. So much for filling them up all the time, at least the new ones. But I recall the Click 110 I rented in Krabi a few years ago having a much smaller tank. But none of them handle well.

The autos do cost more to run fuel-wise, but where they really hit your pocketbook is in repairs and breakdowns - figure twice as many repairs at twice the cost for each repair as your auto gets older compared to older clutch or clutchless bikes.

I know. It's terrible. My Elegance is getting very expensive to operate. The other day I had to replace a bulb in the headlight. Cost 40 baht. Five years old now. I think I'll go out and buy something else before I have to replace a belt in the next five years for 800 baht.

jackcorbett , 112 has some issues if you dare to come up with good advice on buying bikes - if those bikes arent "Hondas". People have a choice whether to lower themselves by pointing out the facts. Waste of time. On a happier note - if your girlfriend takes on the lawn mowing , does she need a work permit ? HE HE. I envy you having a 3 acre lawn.

Well Nigel Jeffrey, One can lead a donkey to water but you can't make him drink.

This goes like a very stupid thread. A honda bash thread with guys knows nothing about bikes.

Especially sentences like honda click breaks apart from the middle right away tells me that person nows nothing about scooters.

OP just get a honda click. Dont listen these yamaha nuovo guys. I am sure they regret tjeir decision on buying a yamaha nuovo but just cannot confess it here.

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BS

Anyone ever seen one of these little jewels yet? A couple of days ago I stopped over at Watchara Marine hoping to find one of the upcoming 400 c.c. Yamaha SR400's to look at. I was informed that they will be available next month. There's two showrooms at this Yamaha dealership over on Sukamvit. There's the small showroom when you first come into the place and there's a much larger one where you will find not only the larger Yamaha bikes but also Triumphs, KTM's, etc and boats, etc. Someone in authority in the small showroom told me there was an SR400 already at the dealership...somewhere in the large showroom or next to it. So I looked and looked and finally went to the setup shop behind the showroom where a couple of the employees pointed out to me a brand new 150 c.c. R15.

It looked terrific and it was just begging me to drive it. It's not quite my style because it's a sport bike but I'd sure have fun driving it. And the quality seems to be better than what I've seen on Honda CBR 150's and 250's. I've got the brochure in my hand right now, and it reads, "Genesis to the World of R-Series". That seems to imply that an R series 250 will soon follow.

As for those in here who are extolling the virtues of Honda Waves and the like, the reason most upcountry Thais in the village buy Honda Waves is they can't afford anything better. And as for their "superior reliability" you guys aren't thinking clearly. If you buy a Yamaha Nouvo or the equivalent you ride and ride and ride. Except for niggly things such as replacing batteries, light bulbs tires and possibly an occasional replacement brake pad in the rear for 180 baht or so, you don't touch them. One of my good friends here has one of the first Yamaha 135 Elegances to come out and he's driven his Elegance for 34,000 kilometers and still not touched the drive belt. By now he would have already replaced several drive chains had he owned a Honda Wave and perhaps a sprocket or two, plus he would have been driving a dinosaur with a backwards clunky gear shift mechanism that people like myself who have grown up with traditional shift motorcycles with their one down and four or five up shift patterns will never get used to and won't want to either.

Let me give everyone an analogy. For 23 years I farmed for a living. Most farmers are intelligent, practical people who buy the most reliable equipment they can at reasonable cost. And this includes their mowers they use to mow their lawns with. I'd say my case was typical. I had a three acre lawn. Especially in the Spring and early summer the grass had to be mowed every four or five days. If the job goes beyond this period the grass gets too high and you can't get through it with a riding mower and you end up having to do it with a much smaller push type mower that is especially designed to get through tall grass and weeds. Unfortunately Spring time also means getting the crops planted, and when that time comes there's no pussyfooting around. You work day and night when it's not raining and the fields are not too wet. On the average you've got about 8 days to get your corn planted. And somehow you still must find the time to get the yard mowed.

The problem was, until thirty years ago or so, most riding mowers were unreliable and needed a lot of attention, and in my case I had something like 150 trees to get around. But after having to contend with equipment that was not up to the job, I bought a Grasshopper mower with a 52 inch deck. I had my doubts at the time. The Grasshopper looked rather flimsy. It certainly looked too fragile for serious work at the farm. But it sure would get around the trees, and it was efficient and fast with a zero turning radius (it could turn on a dime). My grasshopper had a hydrostatic transmission that made the machine fully automatic much like automatic motorbikes like the Yamaha Nouvo, Airblade, PCX, etc. The grasshopper had two slender wands I'd pull back to make the machine go backwards or pull one way or the other to make turns. If you want to go fast you just push the wands forward and if you just start pulling them back. You can inch up to a tree or an obstacle at one tenth of one mile an hour if you like because my grasshopper had an infinitely variable transmission.

But the greatest surprise of all is the Grasshopper was extremely reliable. THe thing would always start. It had a great engine, but once in awhile I'd break or stretch a belt especially if I was going through wet tall grass. But it would only take me ten minutes to replace one of the two belts because the entire mechanism was so easy to get at and manipulate. And the transmission was terrific.

Let me give you an idea of what this machine is all about. Grasshopper web site And here's a you tube video

Think about it---the stress placed on the belt and transmission of such a mower is far greater than what is put on the belt of an automatic motorbike especially when going through tall wet grass. And as for fun and ease of use, I'm heading out to my farms in the U.S. from Thailand in just one month with my Thai girlfriend and I'll be borrowing a grasshopper and make her do a little lawn mowing just for fun and games.

jackcorbett , i was going to start a collection for you untill i realised that , by not having to upgrade the tires and susspension on the Yamaha to make it safe (as you would have had to on the "Honda" , your "quids"(Dollars) better off. ERGO - drinks are on you!. The Chinese "copies" in vietnam probly use component parts from the same factories as Honda.

Nigel Jeffrey. Come to think of it, I should ring the bell for all of you. When I was in the U.S. I must have been driving close to 100,000 kilometers a year. I figure the depreciation on my Mazda Miata sportscar and my Dodge four wheel drive ran into the thousands of U.S. dollars for a single year. Perhaps I'll just keep my carbed Yamaha Nouvo Elegance and get one of the upcoming "classic" Yamaha SR 400's for 250,000 baht or whatever it costs just for the nostalgia of old times revisited.

Jefferson City? Actually I'm from Illinois but I did spend a little time at the University of Missouri in Columbia (good law school there) and also lived all over the St. Louis area.

Jack I highly doubt you took the time or effort to read my near 1000 posts so I will take what you say with a grain of salt.

I have read many of your posts on motorbikes and your knowledge in many areas is good but I find your reviews biased. Does your buddy own a Yamaha dealership here lol. I have ridden Yamaha and many are good bikes but I think Honda is ahead with the airblade and the PCX in the scooter range. The Yamaha Elegance you drool over is not a stable bike at highway speeds as the seating is way too far forward. You yourself talked about Yamaha moving the seat forward to provide agile handling similar to the airblade but this is not the way to do it. Why sacrifice road safety for niftier handling in town. The airblade has superior engineering and does both fine. Sure the elegance has a higher top speed but it is usless due to its stability issues. Secondly any bike will begin to outrun its breaking capabilites after 100 khm without a rear disc. Thirdly you yourself taked about trading your Nouvo for an airblade in one review I read.

The airblade is a well engineered bike and I have had one with 20k and original suspension at speeds over 100 kph with two passengers and 160 kilos on the bike with no problem or issue.

Regarding build quality both Yamaha and Honda have cheapened their bikes in some ways. For instance a friend of mine who has a tricity recently replaced plastic screws. The new honda click has many cheap plastic parts as well as one rear shock. I don't think they were nickel and diming like this when they built the airblade and elegance a few years back. Seems like corner cutting to keep costs down in a tough economy.

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I mentioned that I might trade my Nouvo (MX) for an Airblade in that review after renting the Airblade years ago in Krabi. I had also rented a 110 c.c. Honda Click then and I viewed the Airblade as being very superior to the Click stability wise. But in those days the Airblade was a 110, and when Yamaha updated its Nouvo to the Elegance it increased the Nouvo MX's displacement from 115 c.c.'s to 135 cc's while introducing water cooling. And as you gathered from my reviews it repositioned the Nouvo's seat 2 inches forward and higher in the Elegance. This made the Elegance turn much quicker than the Nouvo MX while its horsepower went from 8.9 to 11.2. So if the Airblade had a slight edge on the Yamaha Nouvo MX back when the Airblade was a 110 and the Nouvo MX was a 115, the Elegance wound up outclassing all three bikes.

Since then the displacement of the Airblade was expanded to 125 cc's and from what I've gathered the horsepower is similar to the Elegance's. And both bikes will completely outclass the likes of a Click, Yamaha Fino or Filano or Honda Scoopy when it comes to stability and handling. The Honda PCX, the Nouvo 125 SX which replaced the Elegance, the Elegance and the Airblade all have the upper underbone brace that these others lack and this makes a huge difference. But of these four on the highway the PCX 150 will easily feel the most stable. So, I am not anti Honda by any means. Go one size larger tires as I have with the MIchelin Pilots and I'd say the Nouvo Elegance or SX with its larger diameter wheels will edge out the Honda Airblade 125 at higher cruising speeds and if the ride on an Elegance or SX starts to feel jittery at speed this can be remedied by sitting further back in the seat. So a sligoht edge must go to the Nouvo Elegance or SX over the Airblade. But all 3 will be cheaper and handier than the PCX in town.

I think we both are agreed that the Click and other floor boarded models mentioned here are completely inferior to a PCX, Elegance, Nouvo SX or 125 c.c. Airblade in nearly all important respects. In my opinion Honda should be focusing on the 125 Airblade instead of the Click because it will compete price wise with a Yamaha SX while offering comparable performance and quality. But I suppose both Honda and Yamaha have rightfully figured that there's more than enough fools around to who are willing to believe such bikes are equal to these much better put together products. All that upper bracing doesn't come cheap while adding that second rear shock further decrease's Honda's or Yamaha's profit margin along with the other superior engineering goodies that such premium bikes offer over their cheaply produced stablemates.

Pulled the trigger today on a second hand Nouvo SX. Thank you for all your input.

Way better then a airblade which were/are overrated imho!

Based on what information? The airblade is/was and excellent bike with superior build quality to the sx and the airblade as well as the new click. It is a stronger, tougher more durable bike as well as more agile. Just as good as sx and less than half the cost used. A few thousand baht budgeted for belt and brakes and the excellent engine will likely outrun and outlast the sx new.

Based on my personal review after owning both thus imho. the airblade was underpowered with a sub par suspension.

Of course honda must have been so imoressed with the sales and they couldnt keep up with production and thought it would be a better idea to discontinue the model in thailand.

I agree with you Yankee99. I quibble with losworld and just about everthing he wrote.

Pulled the trigger today on a second hand Nouvo SX. Thank you for all your input.

Way better then a airblade which were/are overrated imho!

Based on what information? The airblade is/was and excellent bike with superior build quality to the sx and the airblade as well as the new click. It is a stronger, tougher more durable bike as well as more agile. Just as good as sx and less than half the cost used. A few thousand baht budgeted for belt and brakes and the excellent engine will likely outrun and outlast the sx new.

On what do you base this conclusion? We will be satisfied with nothing less than the facts.

I remember when Honda had just started its invasion of the U.S. market. Back then if I recall even the 350 Honda CBR was still not available and the largest Honda was a 300. I think it was called the dream. If I recall Honda was advertising fuel economy running 150 mpg or so for its 125 models. Those were manuals. One can approach such numbers even with a Nouvo 135 while driving on the highway and keeping one's speeds at moderate levels---say 80 kph or less. As for city driving, if you get on a Nouvo 135 (with a carburator) and drive normally you aren't going to do that well. It's got a lot of torque and one tends to use it. Now...get on a Nouvo SX 125 and you will find that you will drive it in the city much more conservatively. One of the reasons is you've always got that little computer in front of you monitoring your fuel economy. One tends to lighten up on the gas to get better numbers on the computer monitor. Now...get back on a Nouvo 135 Elegance again and if you are paying attention you can duplicate the type of city driving you were doing on the Nouvo SX. When you do you will find that your city mileage is almost as good as you had been getting with the 125 SX. The difference (in favor of the 125 c.c. SX) in my opinion is due to the difference in engine displacement rather than in the fact that the SX is fuel injected and the Nouvo Elegance has a carburetor. You've got about 8 percent more volume in the cylinder of the 135 and that's roughly the difference you will see if you drive both bikes conservatively in city driving.

I had a sonic before getting this suzuki skydrive.

Went to the Honda bike dealer yesterday with Misses... she kept ogling at the new PCX... sheesh...

Don't worry, my wife has been doing the exact same. She doesn't even ride. Haha.

So did you check out the wave? What's your thoughts?

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Hi Thaiwi,

I actually prefer the weight of Wave as compared to PCX.

I myself weights 70kg while Misses weights 65kg.

Either Wave or Sparks should be able to carry our total weight of 135kg without much choking.

The only set back is when we ride thru a paddle of water on Wave/Sparks, the water from the front wheel will bound to reach my feet.

By the way, the sales person claims that PCX150 is able to clock over 50km per litre!!!

On a displacement of 150, I would be say that is really miraculous.

Suzuki Skydrive 125i is doing about 35km per liter...

A PCX 150 will do over 50 kpl assuming the driving is highway and speeds are held to reasonable limits, but surprise surprise, so will a Yamaha Nouvo 125 SX and my Yamaha Nouvo 135 Elegance with a carburetor. I have done a number of road tests to prove it. The killer is city driving. All three are automatics. So much for the myths spread around here that such automatics are gas guzzlers.

I Hate autos.

I don't like driving with my feet in front of me

I hate their small 14" wheels that make it feel unbalanced

I dislike the lag when you go to accelerate from a stop

I dislike being able to down shift to pass

But they are easier to load up with groceries or have space under the seat.

I hate the crappy suspension on them. They start rattling earlier and take bumps and potholes as good as my 94yr old grandmother...

Personally I agree that the Wave 125i is great, great gas, you can put a basket on it, it has larger tires, absorbs more of the road and in bangkok you don't have to worry about working the clutch all the time.

If you can an older carbed model any mechanic in the country can work on it for next to nothing.

Whereas most autos might have 14 inch wheels, the Nouvo's have 16 inch. And most Waves come with skinny tires. I have outfitted my Nouvo Elegance with one size larger tires. If I recall a Wave has a 17 inch wheel.