bottom line is Thailand doesn't want foreigners to stay longer than 30 days. all surrounding nations have a more friendly visa system. I've been to all of them. I love Thailand but not more than Laos or Korea or Japan. The first thing Thailand needs to do is phase out the weed curse on the land.
I have friends in the Philippines who lived in Thailand for years and left because of the constant visa headaches and always changing irrelevant requirements. I've only been there for a month. then came back to Thailand.
who defines how long a tourist is a tourist? I went to Laos twice, the to Singapore once and got denied re-entry, and told I was over the 180 day visa limit. In the Philippines, I can stay in country for 3 years on one tourist visa. But yall insist none of that happened and there is no 180 limit. as far as my extension, all is said was it's expiration was one more week away....meaning that it had not expired prior to me going to Singapore. I knew I couldn't enter back into Thailand on that extension, hence the whole fukking reason that I went to Singapore, to get a NEW visa stamp. You think I went to Singapore thinking I could come back on my visa exemption??? wtf bruh, use your logic.