jackcorbett

This is the same shop I bought my Michelin Pilot Sporty's for my Nouvo Elegance. The tires are an excellent upgrade from the stock IRC's and I agree with the others here about the excellent service from this shop and Gob. 2 kilometers north of Pattaya Nua on the West side of Sukumvitt seems about right. It's 150 meters just before you drive under the overhead pedestrian bridge that crosses Sukumvitt. There is a Maxxis sign over the shop.

The only aftermarket grocery hooks for the PCX that I have seen (I really haven’t looked because they don’t interest me in the least) mount on the handle bars. They look as if they would work as well as the factory installed hooks on the Click or Nouvo, etc. That they are in a different location is, I think, irrelevant. A friend with a new PCX 150 has two hooks on his handlebars and a large Givi box on the back. He can easily transport 6 (or more) bags of groceries on his PCX in the box, under the seat, and hanging on the hooks. I happened to be at Lotus on Sukumvit on my PCX 125 during the Great Diet Cola Shortage of March – May 2012. Lotus had some Diet Pepsi, so I bought all they had, about 25 to 30 1.25 lt. bottles. As I pushed the cart with my Pepsi toward the parking lot I kept thinking to myself “how the hell am I going to get all this stuff home????” And these were loose bottles in shopping bags, not plastic sealed cartons. I was able to secure all of the bottles on my PCX with bungee cords behind me and drive the 10 km back home. Not a scratch or scuff on the PCX. Had it been 2 cases of beer in cardboard boxes (or a desktop computer CPU) it would have been a piece of cake (I might have also wanted a few pieces of strong string for added stability). That your friend is mechanically challenged doesn’t prove much, I think. In the name of full disclosure, I have a rear rack on my PCX 125 (and I have since added a 33 liter box and a grab bar, which adds even more points to easily attach/anchor bungee cords), so it was pretty easy to put the bottles of Pepsi in double bags, pass the bungee cords through the bag handles and secure them to the rack, some on the rack and some on the seat behind me. To my amazement, one bottle was able to work its way out of the plastic bag due to the pressure of the tightly pulled bungee cords and fell on the street and exploded – bummer! But if you want to use a PCX as a substitute for a pick-up truck, with a few minor and cheap modifications, you certainly can, and carry as much if not more than on a Nouvo – try thinking outside the box, just a little bit.

I have and have had 3 automatic Honda motorbikes in the past 5 years, all bought brand new. Not one has ever failed to start the first time, not once! I don’t use my PCX like a tractor. Do you use your Nouvo like one? I guess I won’t be surprised if your answer is “yes”. If I lived in Kansas or the Land of Oz with Dorothy and Toto, 100 miles from the closest neighbor, perhaps a kick start would be a valuable feature. But this is Pattaya, Thailand. I never have any problems with my little automatics, but if I do have a problem with a motorcycle where it won’t start (I have had a few with my 750 Shadow), I call my mechanic who comes to my house and takes care of the problem for B150. If he cannot fix it at my house, he and his friend push my bike (amazing to watch!) back to his shop and he brings it back when it is fixed, again in the range of B150. Of the features I would add to my PCX, a kick start ranks just above a kitchen sink and just below a porta-potty.

Face it – the Nouvo Elegance was a great bike (rather ugly, but nonetheless a good bike) when it was first introduced, but it has been left in the dust by the PCX on every (read my lips, “every”) important feature, including practicality, versatility and usefulness (meaning, of course, driven and used as a motorbike “should” be used). Yamaha has given up on the Elegance for good reason. You should too……

Is this guy another friend of yours? You and he have a lot in common ideas wise.

Next.........

First off I have a car for doing the pick up imitation bit.

I can add a sidecar to my Nouvo Elegance and put a lot more stuff on my bike than you can.

My point is, sure you can add hooks to the handle bars of a PCX and impair the bike's handling. You can add luggage to the rear of the bike and make it even more difficult to park and easier to get sideswiped as well. And while doing that add even more cost to a bike that is already according to many here, way overpriced.

But the most nonsensical thing you have posted so far is this: " has been left in the dust by the PCX on every (read my lips, “every”) important feature, including practicality, versatility and usefulness (meaning, of course, driven and used as a motorbike “should” be used).

There is no way that the PCX begins to compare to the Yamaha or for that matter to many other bikes for practicality, overall usefulness or versatility. It might ride better due to its substantial greater weight. It might look better to some. It might perform a little better on the highway. However, now that I've upgraded my tires I'd venture to say my Elegance is going to be very competitive in that department while being the PCX's master in city traffic and be clearly the more versatile all rounder. If the Yamaha wasn't, you can bet your last dollar that I would have traded a long time ago because I certainly can afford to do so.

I don't see fuel economy or distance between fill ups major points for bikes or a comparison between models. For me, decent pick-up, comfort and style are the main things to consider, and the PCX is way out ahead of all of the other available bikes in all three; nothing else is even close. It is more expensive, but you get what you pay for. I am amazed at the number of nonsense posts comparing the number of hooks to carry groceries (the PCX has none, but they can be added easily), the ease and ability to hook on bungi cords to carry your sofa on your motorbike, and comparisons down to a fraction of a km on fuel economy. But if your motorbike is your only transportation and you have never heard of a baht bus or taxi and 5 or 6 baht per week is a major financial expenditure, then such concerns may be important -- not to me. I think that people thay worry about such things have a lot of free time and not much sense.

Take a good look at the PCX before you mention putting after market hooks. If you put one in front of your knees where the hook appears on other bikes. the under carriage is too horizontal to allow grocery bags and the like to hang without falling off. One can improvise and put hooks or other devices on the handle bars but it just won't work putting one where you'd find one on the Nouvo for example. You can make light of this all you want, but we will put up to 3 to 4 grocery bags on that front hook. And we do this about once a week. As for hanging things on the back seat with bungee cords, you just can't do it without scratching up the bike. My neighbor Pier tried it and that's what happened. And what about the absence of a kick starter? What happens if your battery goes dead or your starter fails? I've often had that happen with tractors while farming and if you have a corroded terminal on a battery or on the starter where the cable connects it you will be dead in the water until you scrape the corroded terminal clean to get the electrical charge through. The kick starts get you started in such cases.

Face it--the PCX is a beautiful bike with a lot of good points but it's simply not nearly as practical as a Nouvo Elegance.

I'd say it is. I remember Honda claiming around 103 mph or so for its CB 350 (which actually had around 325 c.c's). That was my first bike. My second was a Honda CB 450. Horsepower figures for the two were 36 and 45 bhp respectively. The 350 was basically a 90 mile per hour bike. Perhaps on a good day she'd hit 95 according to the speedometer. The 450 was good for around 100 or so. Much later I got a 650 BMW R-65 twin rated at 50 horsepower. Top speed on it was around 105 to 110.

Difficult to believe anyone would choose such a way to end it all. From what I saw of those crocs when I went there, they were so spaced out or doped they would have a job to even recognise a potential meal.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Thaivisa Connect App

Check my "Feeding Crocodile" video out on my You Tube channel to watch how crocodiles react when food is put right in front of them.

I have used Pattaya 2 U for years and I never knew that they "retailed" laptops. I know that they will send their people around to other stores to obtain hard to find parts, but a retail laptop sales is nothing I have ever seen there

I have during the past 2 to 4 years bought two laptops from Pattaya 2 U. But not recently, however. I believe they still have several popular models available upon request. If they do, you can be sure I will be getting my next laptop from them. Today, it was the owner who got on my problem. I believe this shop to be far far superior to any other I've been around. Through the years I've found the owner to be very sharp and straight up and up.

Ten months ago I bought an Acer 4830 G from Banana IT at the Central Shopping Mall so the warranty is "theoretically" good until 9/30/2012. However, two days ago I could not get the DVD drive to pop out the DVD's. The drive reads, however, and one can trip the latch to release DVD's by inserting a paper clip into a small hole in the dvd door. So I took the laptop to Banana shop with my receipt in hand. There I was informed that my laptop would need to go to Bangkok. Since having my laptop laid up for an indeterminable period of time was unacceptable to me I suggested that Banana order a replacement for me and call me when it came in. When the person behind the counter told me I'd have to wait a month, I just about became unglued. I just flat out told the guy I'd take my laptop down to Pattaya 2 U at Tuk com and get a new drive there even if I had to pay for it. The guy said that would be second hand, and that I could get a DVD drive that attaches to my laptop through USB. Well......it only took Pattaya 2 U ten minutes to find me a new replacement DVD drive but I had to pay 1700 baht since I had not gotten my laptop at their shop.

My mistake, which I wish to pass onto everyone reading this post is that I had not gotten my 4830 Acer at Pattaya 2 U in the first place. After all, I had gotten laptops there before and have always had great service with them. They have parts and a good half dozen techs working there, and it they don't have the parts they're going to find what is needed at another shop close to theirs. As for Banana IT, from this point forwards I won't ever spend as much as 100 baht there again. As for Pattaya 2 U, I highly recommend the place and unless something drastic there changes I'm buying all my future laptops there.

Sharktooth-----As far as I can determine, the Nouvo SX is the latest evolution of the Nouvo which started the automatic's popularity in this corner of the earth. It's been around for ten years, comes with twin shocks (single shocked bikes do not measure up when the going gets tough, ample under the seat storage, and large diameter 16 inch wheels. I bought my first Nouvo in early 2006, kept it for three years without incident, and it is still going strong in the hands of my ex neighbor who bought it from me. I've now had my 135 c.c. Elegance for over 3 years and it's been just as reliable as my first bike. Although I believe the Suzuki Hayate is a good bike, I feel it is a clone of the Nouvo series. It costs less, but I do feel you get what you pay for, and that the clone does not quite measure up to the real deal. Keep these costs in perspective though. Out the door a Nouvo SX is roughly 58,000 baht with mag wheels versus 800,000 baht for my Honda Civic which is 14 times more expensive, which is totally inferior to my Elegance for in and around town. On the other hand the Civic is far superior to not only my Elegance but to all other bikes for longer distances in terms of all around utility, safety and comfort.

For me the decision on whether to buy a used bike or a lesser bike than my Elegance in order to save just 10,000 baht is absolutely pointless. I'll spend that difference for a wall decoration without a moment's thought, and just about everyone here would do the same i especially if they were living back in their home countries. But even though I regard the Nouvo as the best in its class, it's still not quite good enough for me so I recently went to Michelin sporty tires one size larger than stock. With this improvement both ride and safety is considerably improved and I now regard my personal bike as the absolute finest machine out there for driving in and around this city. Even the PCX won't measure up to my Elegance in its present form. First off, although I can't prove it, my feeling is the PCX will be more expensive to maintain as I have been seeing more and more reports of issues that force their owners to bring them back to Honda while I've not been seeing the same volume of reports for the Nouvo series. The PCX does not have a hook in front of the driver for carrying extra items such as grocery bags. It does not provide for mounting larger items across the seat behind the driver whereas the Nouvo has a rail behind the seat and anchor points for bungee cords. It does not have a kick start so you can more easily be stranded if the electrics

fail.

As for the lesser bikes, such as Clicks that do not have dual shocks, Mios, Finos, Scoopies, etc they simply aren't nearly as stout as the Nouvo series of bikes and are usually under tired by comparison while often lacking needed features such as large under the seat storage, comparable power, or enough rubber on the ground to provide a larger margin of safety as well as more tractability at higher speeds. Lastly, and this point I cannot emphasize enough---the lesser bikes are made in my opinion for either those who cannot begin to appeciate the engineering superiority of superior machinery or those to whom as little as 10,000 baht makes a huge difference in their family's finances and this means many Asian buyers whose monthly incomes are incomparably less than those of most members of this forum. Keep your eyes open and you will see exactly what I mean. On the highway for example you won't see many Thais keeping up with a PCX or Nouvo if they are driving Honda Waves equipped with their standard skinny little 60 mm tires. This is because they are either clueless or because moving up to a top automatic or even upgrading their tires is too much of a hardship on their pocketbooks.

I am waiting for you. Let me ask again....W-h-a-t is a Nouvo SX a clone of?

Depressingly similar to the Hayate, particularly the 2009 model.............. Honda Click etc etc. They all look the same.

Now go on.........jog on, there's a good girl

The Nouvo first came out in 2002, ten years ago. The Suzuki Hayate came out much later. And so far as Honda is concerned it woke up from a deep slumber after Yamaha got a huge head start on it with the automatics, but it took years for Honda to discover that the automatics were a great thing. So you really got it backwards by calling the Nouvo a clone and insinuating jtiger can't afford a PCX. I like the PCX and I like the Nouvo. Jtiger simply thinks the PCX is a bike for wanke_rs

Jtiger can afford about anything he wants.

What is the Nouvo SX a clone of by the way?

Blimey..........who woke you up?

Go back to sleep.

I am waiting for you. Let me ask again....W-h-a-t is a Nouvo SX a clone of?

(and as for ugliest bike the PCX wins that honor hands down, it looks like the offspring of a motorbike and a tuk-tuk).

Usually said by people that can't afford one.

At least the PCX is instantly recognisable whereas the SX is just another, well, clone of all the other clones.

Jtiger can afford about anything he wants.

What is the Nouvo SX a clone of by the way?

Results have to be understood in the context that many people come here to retire (and die). But even so, the vehicular accident rate in Thailand is ridiculous.

I would consider the US annual road death toll of 40,000/year to be more ridiculous considering much more strigent and high tech law enforcement, less corruption and supposedly better standards of driver testing etc.

If you look on the web you will find statistics that apply that 40,000 figure in relation to how many vehicles are registered or how many miles are traveled. Put in this context, Thailand has ten times more traffic deaths than the U.S. does. There are European countries that do better than the U.S., Germany to name just one example but it's nowhere near a 10 to 1 ration such as we have in Thailand. I will suggest that Pattaya has a much higher death rate than this 10 to 1 figure given the attitudes of the drivers here. Example....go to Korat..the people are much more polite when they drive, drive more slowly at an unfrenzied pace, and tend to be more observant of the traffic regulations. Given the homicidal mindset of many drivers here in Pattaya, I'd say the rate is off the charts compared to Europe, the U.S., Australia etc.

Well that's just it. The old model with the carburetor is just so fine a machine that switching over from a low mileage one to the SX just doesn't make sense. However, in my opinion switching over from just about anything else, to the smaller SX does make sense. (except for those in love with their PCX's). II is going to be easier to start if one is parking his bike for extended periods of time. It's going to offer (in the city) a bit more range with better fuel economy. And I do like the looks of them. But, as I mentioned in an earlier post with roughly 10,000 kilometers on my 135 c.c. Elegance, I had the battery and spark plug changed and switched tires to the Michelin Pilot Sporty's and the bike drives just about perfect now.

its time to stop the corny remarks about the police force .... its no longer a joke .....i cannot understand why a country such as australia does not slap a travel ban on this place immediately ...the phuket police are nothing but tea money collectors , they see tourists purely as a source of income .... until corruption is dealt with we will live in a lawless society ... so time to bail , tell your friends , colleagues , business associates stay away ....go to Myanamar ....

If I am reading your post correctly ... you want the Australian Government to 'slap a ban' of Phuket or on Thailand?

Phuket maybe be difficult to do because it's not a Nation.

The whole of Thailand is not Phuket.

Governments can, and frequently do, slap travel warnings and advisories on countries and various parts of countries that they consider not safe.

Usually this is because of a major threat such as civil war or major civil disturbance, but in these cases they withdraw all government personnel, including consular services, advise their citizens to leave the area immediately and issue the warning against all unnecessary travel to the affected area.

In such cases travel agencies, cruises etc have to also avoid the area as they may be held liable.

Now I am not suggesting that Australia should go to such an extreme measure, but the threat of such an action of other incidents occurred is a powerful economic weapon, especially in tourist dependent areas.

As for the Australian travel agencies selling holidays to Phuket - if they cannot guarantee the safety of one of their own, how can they guarantee it to their customers - it will be interesting to know if greed overcomes prudence.

Crobe

Many years ago when I was married my wife and I booked a combination tour of Israel and Egypt. But when the U.S. bombed Libya all tours were canceled including ours. So we simply booked a flight to Tel Aviv and got with an Israeli travel agency which booked us into Eilat (Israel), the Cairo Nile Hilton and Luxor as well as arranging for us all our transportation. As I recall there was no widely reported incidents of violence other than the day to day normal terrorist activities occurring in Israel. The key was during and soon after the bombing terrorist activities were suspected to escalate. They didn't and we ended up having a great time in both countries with the exception of the food poisoning we both got at the (otherwise excellent) buffet table at the Nile HIlton. I will add, however, that both the Egyptian and Israeli police and other security agencies were extremely vigilant.

Example.....For a brief period of time my wife and I separated on an upper floor in the Cairo Egyptian museum. After getting back together a few minutes later my wife told me that a security guard had tried to feel her up. We then went down to the exit gate and I started to really carry on at the ticket area. Needless to say, I created quite a scene there which prompted several individuals to escort me to the museum curator's office. This man was very cordial. He immediately called in his head of security and the two of them immediately took my wife up to the floor where the incident had occurred. I was given magazines in English and refreshments as I waited for everyone to come back to the office. When she came back, my wife told me that after pointing out the security guard they all went to a room together where the guard was seated in a chair. The head of security then beat the guard up right in front of my wife and the museum curator.

The message was quite clear to the security guard, the crowd around the ticket booth and us----1. "Egypt does not allow the locals to screw with the tourists," 2. The word of a tourist is taken over the word of security guards and the like, and 3. Egypt is willing to take stern measures to protect such as valuable asset as tourism.

Each to his own. But a smaller bike is much more relaxing to cruise through traffic on. A bike such as an Elegance is in its element here. To my mind if I traded for anything bigger, I'd want to go back to the Elegance simply because it does everything so well. I could go with a PCX. But nothing bigger than that. Just put Michelon Pilot Sportys on the Elegance--one size bigger than stock so I am getting a slightly cushier ride now. 80-90's on the front and 90-100's on the back. Went to Khao Khew Zoo today in Si Racha. Took three other people. Perfect--in a car. I think on a run like that on anything that has just two wheels is like throwing the Christians to the lions.

I've sat on both Syms and I'll bet I can beat how out of both of them in a race through Pattaya traffic with my Nouvo Elegance. I'd squirt through spaces they couldn't' begin to get into.

Rented both while on holiday in the south a couple of months back. The Click 125i felt like a different generation of scooter to me.

No contest IMO. Honda wins this one hands down.

Uh really? I would never have a bike with a single shock off to the side. Let's face it, that's a cost cutting measure and when the going gets tough it's just not going to cut it with the better engineered bikes, which includes by the way, the PCX as well as the Nouvo. Let's face the rules of logic. If one shock off to one side only was up to snuff, then why have Honda Waves and practically everything else not been designed with that single shock years ago? The reason is starring us all right in the face. It's inferior, that's why, but it's cheaper

Check out my Looking Glass Magazine article on the Nouvo SX. Just google it. Jack Corbett Yamaha Nouvo SX. I think I came pretty close considering I hadn't ridden one yet and it had not quite yet been released in Thailand. Since then I've driven a friend's new SX and I've got some fuel mileage figures from him.

It drives nice. Doesn't have the torque of the 135 Elegance, but my friend says it does a lot better when you rev it up. He's getting now 39 kpl in Pattaya. That compares to the figure I got on my Elegance of 33 kpl. Much of the time I had my girlfriend on it with me. My friend is, however, a lot heavier than me. That's still 18 % better fuel economy but do keep in mind the tank is just 4.3 liters versus 4.8 for the Elegance. BUT.....driving single, my weight is substantially lower than his so I'd be getting well over 40 driving in Pattaya. The bike has a few very minor styling improvements over the Elegance but in my opinion even these incremental changes add up. I'd say the Elegance is not a bad looking motorbike but it's not all that great either. But.....the little improvements all add up to making the Nouvo SX a good looking bike.

So here's my overall prognosis. With still less than 10000 kilometers on my Elegance I'm keeping it. At least for a year or two, and in a day or two I'm upgrading the tires to Michelins. It's just a great bike with excellent handling and a lot of get up and go. However.........the new SX is in my opinion a tad better overall. So I'd buy one in a heartbeat, even over the PCX which I also like. It's better looking than my bike, I believe it is going to get around 10 or 15 kilometers more per thankful IN TOWN, and with the fuel injection it's going to start easier if it's not been run longer than a week or so.

Will probably rent one for a day or two to do a little more extensive testing.

I think I'll go out soon and get Dunlops or Michelins for my Nouvo Elegance. Several years ago I exchanged my wire wheels and stock tires for tubeless tires and alloy wheels and have not had one flat since. I asked the dealer to put identical tires on my bike as I saw on a display model But these tires always seemed quirky. But never had an accident. Not on the Elegance. It was while testing the CBR 250 that I broke my clavicle and believe me I'm still paying the price on that one. But I think I'll keep the Elegance around for a couple of years, especially now that I got a Honda Civic for the longer hauls. This 135 c.c. Elegance just does about everything I need it to do so well. It's got gobs of torque for one thing. I just can't come up with any other bike that will do the jobs better than this Elegance will.

I've made no secret of the fact that I also like the PCX. One of my best friends says he hates it and says it's about the ugliest bike there is. I don't agree with him at all. I like the PCX and if I were to buy one I'd have it in red. Anyway...the Elegance and a lot of other bikes have something the PCX doesn't have and that's a kick starter. Two nights ago, I got a phone call from a German friend of mine. He wanted me to go downstairs to look out for a mini van that had his luggage in it. So I did and sure enough the mini van was just outside our condo so I had our security guard take the luggage to hold it for my friend. My friend had driven his new bike to the bus station where he kept it overnight while he went to Bangkok. On his return he got the mini van driver to take his luggage and he then instructed the driver to take his luggage to our condo building. But.....his motorbike failed him and that's when he called me. He had just bought a brand new Kawasaki Ninja 650 a couple of weeks ago and had traded in his one or two year old 650 Kawasaki. Later Michael determined that the Kawasaki dealers do not put batteries in their motobikes until a customer actually orders one and then they install the batteries at the dealerships. Michael told me that he's been told that 30 % of all the bikes wind up with defective battery installs because the mechanics do not tighten the terminals properly. So this caused Michael's battery to slowly lose its charge. So.....Michael was unable to follow the minivan taxi carrying his luggage to our condo. Had Michael had a kickstarter he would have been okay. AS it was he was lucky to have gotten hold of me. About an hour later Michael was able to get his bike started at the bus station by either having someone push start him or using an incline to get his bike up to speed so he could put it in a low gear and pop the clutch. The next morning Michael had me go out and buy a car jumper cable which we used to start his bike from my Honda Civic, which only took a few seconds.

Bottom line is this. A PCX does not have a kick starter. A Nouvo does. Once I had trouble starting a Nouvo. It was my previous Nouvo MX, but I was able to kick start and that solved the problem. In over six years of driving Nouvos, first my MX and then my Elegance I have never never had either of them fail me with the exception of several flat tires I had gotten on my MX which had the wire rims.

I don't know, I live in BKK.

I guess whomever sells scooter tires should be able to order them from BKK for you.

Read post #14, maybe you can call this place where I got mine and have them mailed down to you.

The pic has the guys business card on it.

http://www.thaivisa....__ nouvo tires

I also notice my brake pads have lots of life left after 8000KMs and I ride like I stole it.

I brake hard and late all the time.

Light bikes (and girls) are awesome!

Many thanks. As for light bikes, they are the perfect devises for getting around here in the city.

I swapped my tires to stickier rubber (Dunlop TT900 front, IRC ? rear) soon after I bought it.

It's been 8000KM and they still have deep traction grooves.

I'm guessing scooters are so light and underpowered that most tires last a long time.

Wantan has a good point, oxygen and UV destroys rubber.

I highly recommend the TT900, I has great traction because I can't skid it no matter how hard I've tried to.

The bike just slows down and stops instead.

Where can you get the TT900's in Pattaya?

A friend of mine whose 90 year old mother was in Bangkok Pattaya Hospital claims his PCX was stolen from the BPH parking lot. Considering the normal procedure there is one gets a receipt from the security guard upon leaving the lot and needs the receipt to pick up his bike after seeing the doctor, I thought this was tough to see how it could be done. However....just several weeks ago, I noticed two guys who were not working security hanging around where the attendant normally sits. I was not given a receipt and when I came back to pick up my bike later and the security guard was now where he should have been, he never asked me for one.

http://www.thailandlooking.com/looking/wonders.html

I'll let this do my talking for me. Perhaps it will explain why most of my friends who live here feel that living anywhere else in the world is boring in comparison.

I agree. That first of all we need to have that poll. Secondly, I will be the first to say, I'm no engineer. But I've often looked at my Elegance and thought to myself...."there's got to be some extra room for a larger fuel tank here. There's a lot of clearance here and there's a lot of clearance there so would think there is easily enough room for at least an extra 2 liters of fuel without much difficulty. One would think Honda or Yamaha would be able to figure these things out but I think both companies are unable to see the obvious.

It's a godsend compared to LA. Last year with over 2 hours between my international flight from Bangkok and my domestic connection to St. Louis I still managed to miss my domestic flight. For one thing there was this impossibly long line at U.S. customs. Eventually I managed to talk one of the employees into letting me jump ahead of the line due to the timing of my domestic flight. Was unable to get on standby flight and had to pay full price for an entirely new ticket not to mention having to stay at a hotel for the night. No direct flights to St. Louis by the way, which used to have the busiest train station in the entire world. Had to fly to Atlanta then wait over 2 hours in the airport, and finally I got to fly backwards to St. Louis.

Oftentimes I've had to wait at the L.A. airport for 8 or 9 hours for my domestic flight. First thing to close are the book stores. So no new magazines, paperbacks, etc. Restaurants all close by 1 a.m. or so. Can't even sit in McDonalds drinking coffee while waiting for a 6 a.m. flight. For over five years now LAX looks like a construction zone. Aside from the long line at U.S. customs contributing causes to my missing my flight were the shuttle bus after landing having to drive a very long distance for a ridiculous amount of time getting from the landing strip to the terminal and the great difficulty I had just being able to find the ticket counter for my domestic flight. Believe me, Suvanarnabumi is a total class act compared to LAX. I can easily get help throughout the airport from personnel who seem anxious to please, taxis are both cheap and plentiful, meals are much cheaper and better there than in U.S. airports, and the restaurants, shops and bookstores never seem to close. And for those who do smoke, there's plenty of smoking rooms that are conveniently located.