more than 30 days in Thailand or Laos

You can easily extend a tourist visa stay in Thailand past 30 days, once or twice.

Thailand is a great country, and cheap. I think it would be ideal.

As for your dog, have a look at websites like Nomador, you could get a petsitter for free, as long as your current accommodation is presentable and in an interesting location.

I would highly recommend Khao Lak if you just want to live cheaply for one month and relax on beautiful beaches and maybe hire a motorbike if you feel comfortable enough and explore the beautiful surroundings. You can get a room for about 9000 Bhat per month and food is pretty cheap too.

@rbakker Thanks very much for the reply, I'll check that out.

@ThailandHereICome Wow! That's reasonable. Let me have a look! Thank you very much.

@rbakker you can only extend it ONCE

(per visit)

Thank you for the correction

For a number of years, Thailand has been very popular for the yearly Snowbirds, or winter tourists to stay for a couple of months during the worst of winter. Many of the smaller rental hotel-apartments-condos are set up with this in mind.

The current apartment I live at in Chiang-Mai, they do rent out a couple rooms for "short-term" rentals during the High season. The flat-apartment that I was shown by the building management was 48sqm, fully equipped TV-internet-laundry and small kitchen unit. 14,000Bht a month, but... once the snowbirds leave, I was told the owner would lower the priced around the Machr-April time frame.

Hard to give you any more info with out you providing WHERE and How Much you are willing to spend. Also, Philippines (30 - 59 day tourist visa), and Malaysia (90 day tourist visa) might be a good match for you.

@WiredTight That's great info, thanks. I'm pretty flexible as far as time goes and was originally thinking of Marchish. That kind of self-contained accommodation is just what I'd be looking for as long as there was somewhere to buy supplies. As far as WHERE, that's the issue really. I can't be bothered exploring somewhere new and doing all THAT kind of stuff, so having been to Thailand in the past, thought it was a good place to start looking. It's only since I've read these replies that I've started to think in terms of a budget, to be honest. In years gone by, I would drill down to the bare essentials at a time like this, but I have to be realistic, think of my health, of my wife worrying and so on, and get the balance right. Thanks again, I've never ever checked out Chang Mai because I'm a beachy type of person, but I'll have a look, especially considering the info you've supplied. Thanks again.

@WiredTight

we plan to be in Chiang Mia February 12-24. would the apartment be available ? would your landlord rent for two weeks

@terryball2009

I sent you a Private Message with building address and phone number.

.... and a few things I have thought about tin the last few days. Does anyone have any idea if it's esy to pay by Weixin or Alipay? and the thing that has got my head a bit mixed up: If I get sms 2FA messages sent to my Chinese mobile phone, will I be able to get them on that phone in Thailand or will I need to get a Thai SIM card and change the number for the time I'm there?

Any help on those would be much appreciated guys

@1wabit1

For your phone I would arrange a roaming package from China if they give that service

On the payment issue not sure..

@martinoo2002 Thanks very much, but I'm a bit dumb. Seems I just need to turn on roaming for the appropriate sim card in settings. They're way ahead of me, which in some ways is comforting, and in others ........