I’ve been here 7 months & my main reason was training MT
I would avoid on site gym accomidation, a lot of them are fairly dirty & noisy during the day so its good to give yourself a mental rest from the place, food is cheap so dont ever get meals with the gym or you will have to eat at a set time every day.
North thailand is half the price of south thailand, south thailans feels overly commercialised, very “touristy”. however the north is very quiet at night to & most places shut fairly early. you ned to try 3-4 gyms in each area & see what works for you. dont book anything long term up front
I applied for a 60 day tourist Evisa in England, i extended once in Thailand to give me 90 days, i then did a border bounce to Laos that give me another 30 day entry stamp, i extended that again for 30 Days at local immigration, then i did another border bounce to get another 30 day entry stamp, i extended once more at local immigration for 30 days.