Thorn Tree travel forum

1

Alright!

2

The general consensus is that the wet season is no reason to not enjoy a visit.
Note too that in a normal year it is not wet season in the southern Gulf area (Samui etc) until Oct.
Lots more info in the first link below - and lots more poster comments in the mark one wet weather thread in the sticky FAQs at the top of page one.

Beaches and Islands Info
Wet Season Info
Some Tips on Not Drowning

3

Just to enlarge, if SE Asia is your goal and not just Thailand - well hell, it is dry season in the east coast of peninsula Malaysia, Malaysian Borneo plus just most of non Sumatran Indonesia.

Beaches and Islands Info
Wet Season Info
Some Tips on Not Drowning

4

"My goal is to go somewhere non-Western that could me occupied for 4-5 weeks at least"

Issan and trang area.

Instead of designing yourself to fit the world, you can design a life to fit your abundant gifts

5

That first link is some really useful info

I liked the idea of Thailand because it seems like there area a variety of very different locales from hectic cities to quiet beaches, spiritual centers and centers of mindless boozing. I want to go somewhere where I can bounce around from place to place with different experiences like that for a while.

That it is so far away is important because if I had a crappy time and I lived in (say) Australia I wouldn't care as much because I knew that I could easily return next year or next season and have a better time. However, I live as far away as is spherically possible so this isn't a place I could flit to very easily and would be more likely to expend future travel time on some other part of the world