(Note on the current political situation in Myanmar/Burma - I'd definitely take a "wait and see attitude" at the moment, but don't dismiss Myanmar from your mind when things calm down. Staying away will just hurt the ordinary people by taking away the few meager chances they have to supplement their income -- NOT THE GOVERNMENT. And Tourism is their only chance to have contact with the outside world increasing the opportunity for Democracy in the future.)

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Suvarnabhumi is the new Bangkok Airport and a nightmare. Multiple flights deliver luggage on the same carousel. If you are in transit, you can't get onward boarding passes until 5:00 a.m. and the lines are incredibly long...just a big mess. I hope they re-think this entire onward boarding pass procedure because it would be very easy to miss a connecting flight. And now they are discussing transferring some flights back to the old Don Muang Airport. Let's see how confusing they can make it...

We decided to gut it out and fly Chicago-Tokyo-Bangkok, arriving about midnight and stay in transit since the flight to Yangon was early the next (or same) morning. There is a transit hotel with day rooms down Concourses A & G, called "Louis Tavern." They have a limited amount of very nice rooms with bath. Four hours is the minimum time they will book, $60, and then there is an additional charge for each hour past the four-hour minimum. At first we thought of just sitting in the Thai Air lounge for the night but they close at 1:00 a.m. and don't reopen until 5:00 a.m. That's why we caved and booked a room.