I do believe this is banned no?

Though i often read of a few guys living there from 2+2 whilst playing?

Anyone let me know if they have done this or know more about it at all please? any info at all would be great....

My friend is currently trading in Bangkok for the time being and im thinking i may move there for 2-3 months.....

any help would be brill, thanks...

Nothing againts Thailand, but they are a scam infested country. One of the countries with the most counterfit items, some middleeast county is second. Thailand also dosent believe in woman enertainers, most are lady men. And they have more taboos, than anywhere in the world. And I saw once on "Locked Up Abroad" they have cheap Heroin

thanks for your pointless and annoying reply. do one.

Read the travel forums. THere is a Thailand thread, lots of good advice from poker players. I believe it's technically illegal, but many poker players are doing fine there

How easy is it to get bank account? Supposedly if you go on the right day or to the right bank they won't require much more than a passport.

What's the deal with Visas over there?

Getting a Landline phone/Internet/cable - Anyone know how long this would take there?

Thailand is a beautiful place, has great weather and is pretty inexpensive.

Main issues are getting a bank account/ visa process.

Hope someone has some experience with this.

You won't have any trouble getting a bank account with most of the banks in Thailand with just your passport.

Depending on your country of origin, you get 30 days stay without need for a visa once you fly in. You can get a 60-day tourist visa from any Thai embassy outside of Thailand, and extend it by 30 days at an immigration centre inside Thailand. So you can stay for 90 days without having to leave. When you do have to leave you can come back as soon as the same day. Thai Air Asia has cheap flights to/from nearby countries.

I had my internet set up in the landlords name ready for me moving in. If you have a good English speaking rental agent just tell them you need internet on the day you move in and let them sort it for you. All your bills you just take to 7-eleven with the cash and pay them.

Internet can be sketchy at times but you can get a 3G simcard pretty cheap for your phone, and just broadcast a wifi network from that as a backup. Also get a UPS backaup for power outages if you're not playing on a laptop!

I'm about to take a 1-year Thai language course and will get a full time education visa (ED Visa) for this that will allow me to stay in the counrty without leaving for the whole year, but still requires a visit to the immigration centre every 90 days to report status. The school has to report your progress to immigration also, so you can't really just sign up for a course to get the visa and not go to classes. But can be as little as 1 day per week.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/92/travel/

Daleroxxu......how much does the thai language course cost in USD?

liking this idea a lot

thailand got dope golf too from what i hear

major ++++

i think the cost is around $800USD per year for the language school and the school helps you apply for the visa.

My last visit there in 2006, couldn't log on to either FTP, PP or Stars-poker sites were blocked by the government. Has the situation changed since then?

If you can get around that...then I'd say Bangkok is ok. Just ok (yes, Tangram16 speaks Thai well enough). You're going to get homesick after three weeks or so.

I studied Thai many years ago at large university in the Western USA. At that time, it was only a one year program, but it was sufficient for my needs. Since then, many schools offer a full three year program.

If you have to do the expat thing, start somewhere more civilized, where English is widely spoken, like CA, OZ or HK, where you have access to live games as well. You can always visit Thailand.

PokerStars is not censored at all. When I've been sent links to pages on the betfair or full tilt websites they always get blocked and re-directed to a thai government page.

Most people will use a VPN service to get around internet censorship. I only play on PokerStars so not a problem for me.

Everyone speaks English in Bangkok, even people you would expect to be uneducated (shop workers, taxi drivers) can speak enough for you to get what you need from them. They are taught English from an early age in school now in Thailand. Most of the people working in retail jobs, restaurants, etc. in the city are young school / university students, no problem speaking English with them.

Large parts of the city are as well developed as any city in a first world country, and there's fast and air conditioned sky train taking you between such areas.

For live games there's direct flight from Bangkok to Macau airport with budget Air Asia is very cheap and only a couple of hours. There are some illegal live games in Bangkok but you would need to know someone who could introduce you to play in them.

I might consider moving to some asian country with low living costs (for a year at least).
How much money would I have to plan with to have a decent living there?
Talking especially about rents etc..

My condo is ~$850/month. You can live cheaper or more expensive than depending on standard of accom and location. There is a twoplustwo'er that rents a place for about $200/month and likes it.

I can recommend this agency for condo rentals in Bangkok: http://www.bangkokcondorentals.com/i...crt=2&Itemid=3

Internet ADSL is $40/month.

Air con can get expensive if you have it blasting 24/7. Budget around $100-250 per month for electricity depending on how much air-con uou use.

Meals, i spend $12-15 for a 3-4 course meal with drink for foreign food, less than half that if I go to some small restaurant and eat Thai food. All the good foreign restaurants and some good Thai ones too you can have delivered to your place by ChefsXP http://www.chefsxp.com for zero markup between 10am and 10:30pm.

A ride on the sky train around 60 cents. A 20 minute taxi ride is a couple of bucks.

If you want to go out drinking and shipping girls every night you could spend a lot of money in Bangkok, but other than that it's hard to really spend a lot of cash.

what about cambodia next door, isn't it cheaper amd easier for visa?

a while back betfair was the only site you needed VPN for

don't know if that is still the case but at least other sites work without one

check out the travel forums. thailand has 2 huge threads there filled with info

Yeah you can just buy a 1 year Cambodian visa for like $200.

Yes it's significantly cheaper.

It's a very undeveloped country though. The contrast between Bangkok and Phnom Penh is stark. Would be a pretty big shock to the system for most westerners to go live there.

I'm afraid Bangkok's got him now..

You'll get cheaper than that condo site if You can be bothered having a wander around the area you want to stay. I stay in the same 2bedroom as this http://www.bangkokcondorentals.com/i...3&limitstart=0 and pay 15K baht ($490 usd) whereas they have it listed as 22K. I found mine by just wandering around the condo and calling numbers advertised in the apartment windows.

Condos with government rate electricity make a huge difference (3.2 baht per unit or so.) My electricity is never close to $100 per month. It is usually under $30 (although I don't sleep with air con at night I use it a lot during the day.) Some condos charge stupid prices for electric like 9 baht per unit etc.

As for tangram16, I don't know many that have come here for a short time and not had a pretty awesome time tbh. Homesick in 3 weeks? Been here 3 years and still not homesick.

If you are gonna do the expat thing, start wherever the hell you want to IMHO

Islands & Mountanous areas in Thailand with the best internet?

I'd have to think Chiang Mai is up there for the mountainous play.

Yeah my condo was listed first at 35k then 30k and i got it in the end for 26k. Don't know anyone in the building who is paying less, or seen a private ad for less, in this building. The agent will negotiate on your behalf with the landlords and you can definitely pay less than what the landlords are asking for.

There's been huge overdevelopment of condos in bangkok the last 3-4 years so there's a whole lot of supply, much more than demand. The owners are getting much less rental than they expect to get / were told they would get when they bought off-plan. Similar to the UK in that regard, big buy-to-let boom resulting in a whole load of brand new 1 and 2 bedroom apartments on the rental market.

We have government rate electricity but I have A/C blasting at 17 degrees C 24/7, even while I sleep.... so that costs. Someone told me that if you keep the A/C at around 25c it would take less than a third of the electricity of having it at 17c.

Water bill is almost nothing, like 200 baht per month.

Most condos have a free tuk-tuk that you can use to get to the nearest supermarket or BTS station. That's covered in the management fee that the landlord pays.

elitesdontexist - Most people chose Phuket for island/beaches and Chiang Mai for mountainous region. Phuket is pretty much a tourist place and the prices reflect that, a taxi will cost 3-4 times the price as bangkok for instance, there's some amazing beaches though if that's what you want. Chiang Mai is very cheap, beautiful, milder weather and more quiet, if that's what you want.

You can get decent enough internet in either of those places but you will still need a backup for internet and power if you're playing poker. Basically a mobile phone connection and UPS.

Best thing do to would be travel to the areas and check them out first hand before deciding which area is best to settle in for your particular needs. There's a bunch of poker players in Bangkok, Phuket and Chiang Mai, people chose what suits them best, big city, island, or small northern city.

@Dale - Best coastal/beach area in your opinion near Chiang Mai

Considering my needs, etc.

Chiang Mai is nowhere near the sea. There is sea like 300 miles south west from it but it's in Burma!

dale, u paying 2k month/rent on ur condo? can u post some photos of it?
tnx