Even METV is 60 days each visit, but you can hop out of the country for an hour and then back in for another 60 days.

Can also combine this via with a 30 day extension inside the country.

£150 though but you effectively get 9 months with a couple of country hops.

At Chiang Mai the process is simple. Unfortunately the wait times are horrendous, arrived 6am, finished at 2pm.

I hand over the school paperwork with 1900 baht paperclipped and passport (and 2 x photos), I greet IO in Thai and Wei, then stand for 15 minutes of processing.

Photo taken and told to sit down for anything upto an hour whilst your passport gets a second signature by a higher ranked IO.

Simple but time consuming.