You can't surf on the east coast. It is the South China Sea, there is no Ocean Swell.
If you want to surf I think Phuket and Krabi are the only options, even there the surf is quite small imo.

If surfing is your game I suggest Indonesia instead.

During the rainy season in Phuket the waves got pretty damn big at Kata/Kata Noi and Nai harn beaches, they had loads of surfers there. I think thats the best place to surf in Thailand (someone correct me if wrong?)

you're right. kata noi is number 1 for thai surfing

No way. In the south the whole villages greet you, and in the north people are more quite, but if you are nice guy you'll be treated nice as well.

Singha forever. I also recommend Singha water.

Ah, I only heard it from a friend so I could be way off.

Do you know of anywhere that has a good selection of European beer? The few places that I know of seem to have a completely random selection.

All the euro beer I've tried has tasted off. I don't know if it's been left out in the sun or several years old or what, but I've almost always been disappointed

Was at Nai Harn this afternoon, the waves were quite big on the left side of the beach (I'd say 1.5/2m). Only 4 surfers sharing the spot. They were doing pretty good rides, it made me want to try it

i'll have gf confirm it in the morning then we can sort it out kappp. 95% sure it says chiang mai on there though

awesome,will you take stars $$? neteller suspended, dont have moneybookers, dont have ongame account. I have ftp also kap. I'll pm you my address in a bit

if you want to learn to surf, you can take lessons on the south side of kata beach.

Thought you guys might like to see some of these pics. I've been living way out in Isaan the last 6 months with the gf getting my grind on, not a whole lot to do but sometimes see some cool stuff, and obviously ridic cheap. They have these rocket things on like everywhere now for the next few months apparently and everyone goes and bets like crazy on if the rocket will stay up for a certain time or not. Teams of people build the rockets and then typically bet their own rocket heavily, if they are pretty established then sometimes they will rig their rocket to fail and take the other side, or someone else will bribe them. Thais are such sicko degen gamblers, i'd wish I could start a casino here...., theres actually some serious money changing hands and apparently some of the bets are for 1 m baht or more, my gf knows some woman who pretty much bet all her land and lost it all. A new rocket will go up every half hour and they drop all over the place when they come back down, i think they cause quite a few accidents. A few of the rockets i saw just broke apart a couple seconds after launch and everyone scurries under trees, tables and puts chairs over their heads, the plastic chairs should save us . I picked 5/6 rockets I bet on correctly, but then my gf blew my winning listening to randoms and buddha or whatever and betting on others

yep

That's cool aags, nice to see something a little different in this thread. =)

After 2+ years of reading this thread I'm preparing to come in the next few months.

US citizen. My plan is to send my passport off to the Thia embassy where I can get a double entry stamp. They require incoming and outgoing plane tickets. Since I have no idea when I'll be coming back to the US I was thinking about buying a one-way ticket to Bangkok and a round trip ticket to Vientiane Laos leaving 90 days after my arrival to get my passport restamped.

Will this work? Is there a better way to get my initial double stamp?

that should work. 2 years of reading? what took you so long, lol. i guess it is a lengthy thread.

That rocket thing looks like a lot of fun. 2p2 should make a team for next years event and try to win some Issan land 555

does issan have interwebs?

Udon Thani ftw! that city is awesome

aags are you the guy I spoke to on ipoker who said they are living in Issan for 6 months? ipoker sn was something about not having work, wrote in thai

Thats not him but I know who you mean and he's poasted on here once or twice!

you get stamps from the airport and visas from embassies/consulates

it depends on the consulate what they ask for a tourist visa. some ask more and some less. just call your nearest one and ask before posting anything. you can also ask on thaivisa which consulate is easiest to deal with. since you are mailing your passport it shouldnt matter where you mail it.

with visa you are ok with only one way ticket. you dont need to buy that laos trip beforehand. book it from here when you know for sure when you have to leave the country.

also it costs $30-40 to enter laos since you need a visa to enter. you can visit for example malaysia for free so if the purpose of your trip is just a border hop flying then i would book a roundtrip with airasia to kuala lumpur

what happen if you arrive without outgoing ticket?
What is the cheapest outgoing ticket one can get? Im obviously not going to use it..

Generally both the airline you want to fly to thailand with (they'll be held responsible for the return flight if you're turned away) and the immigration officer can turn you away.

I wasn't asked for anything yet, but I have a proper visa, so that might be why.

Not sure why you'd arrive without one anyway as you got to make your visa runs every 3 months and land based runs only get you 14 day visas these days.

nothing happens if you have a visa

if you dont have a visa the airline might deny boarding for you

you can book cheap tickets from airasia promotions or maybe some airlines let you book a ticket and refund it fully/partly later if you cancel.

Just say your leaving by bus (land) to Cambodia or something I haven't been asked either time fwiw