steventoo

Hey, I know that guy. He's the former room mate of a few friends here on Koh Tao. I only met him a couple of times despite hanging out in their house a fair bit - he spent most of his time here hanging out in his room by himself. As far as I know there was no girl on the scene.

Ugh, dengue. I had it just before Christmas and I wouldn't wish it upon anybody. It was awful, but Bangkok Hospital Samui is a nice place.

Thanks, folks.

I guess regarding accommodation, since it's the high season, I might have to be prepared to pay around 900-1,000 baht a night.

We don't see many posters from KT here so you might not get many responses! (or did you notice ? ) they all have their heads under water!!!

Hey, come on. I haven't been in the water in three weeks! (ear infection then dengue, ugh)

There are some great places to stay outside Sairee - but there's not much to do outside Sairee, either. Then again there's not much to do here besides dive and drink, but I guess that's the attraction for some.

I haven't heard of any jellyfish around here since the beginning of December, and even then they were merely annoying and not dangerous.

I can't help with accommodation much. Try Asia Divers Resort. It's peak season at the moment, so expect high prices and low availability (and lots of idiots on bikes).

I will be studying, but not at a language school.

I will be taking fairly serious professional level scuba courses, both recreational and technical, beyond instructor level.

Interestingly, I originally intended to apply for a tourist visa (and had an application filled out) but as soon as I mentioned to the consul-general that I was taking professional level courses, she said that I shouldn't do such courses as a tourist and that I must apply for a non-immigrant ED visa instead. If I were taking courses that weren't at a professional level the tourist visa would have been fine. She insisted that I gather the required documentation from the scuba school I would be training with and reapply, and said that she would not issue me with a tourist visa for my intended course of study.

Thank you very much for the replies.

Sounds like this is a pretty good visa to have.

After reading the above, am I correct in now thinking that the reporting at an immigration office is only necessary if I want to stay longer than 90 days at a time in Thailand, without crossing the border? If so, that's fantastic - as I said, I have to head home and to other places during my studies, and will not be able to spend more than 90 days at a time in Thailand anyway.

The visa was not issued to study the Thai language, so hopefully there will be no impromptu language tests

Hi,

I have been given a multiple entry non immigration type 'ED' visa to study in Thailand.

The consul-general herself told me that I am required to leave and re-enter Thailand every 90 days. There was no mention of anything more complicated than that. I asked.

However, there is conflicting information on this website and on others that I have viewed, and I'm starting to think that the process is a little more involved than what was indicated to me during the application process. From what I can gather it's necessary to report to an immigration office (in my case, probably Samui) every 90 days to extend the visa, regardless of entering or leaving the country.

My question is this: With a multiple entry 'ED' visa, will leaving and re-entering Thailand preclude me from having to report to immigration every 90 days? As in, rather than extending the existing 90 day entry, does a new one begin, regardless of visiting immigration? The visa is valid for 12 months and specifies "multiple" entries, which I was told (again by the consul-general) means "unlimited."

As it is, I will be leaving the country roughly every 90 days anyway for weddings and conferences both at home and abroad until at least February 2013, and I'm wondering if that has any impact on the new (to me) requirement to visit an immigration office.

I searched here for some answers before starting this topic but couldn't find anything concrete. Perhaps I was using the wrong terms.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

The men said that they had run out of money and were unemployed, so they decided to take money from the ATMs.

Oh, the irony. I guess that in this case, the ATM's weren't foreigners.