just entered the land of smiley with an ED visa.
As I have done several Visa runs before it was a bit annoying when I entered Thailand.
"What you do here, German Economy so strong"
"I am not here to work" I respond
"Pleeaaassseee"
After 10 minutes like this and me showing my shool books and even my homework I have done they let me in.
My guess is they were waiting for some money there way.
I think this is a very common story. It used to be very easy to get and keep ED visas but just like with anything in Thailand, some people took it too far. There were schools that had most of their students never attend and I can certainly agree with that not being ok.
The thing that gets me is that well, even when i WAS working in Thailand, it was always jobs that Thai people either couldn't do (teach English) or didn't want to do such as work in scuba diving (I am sure you know that most Thais do NOT want to be in the sun to make their skin dark.)
Also, Chiang Mai used to be (it may still be for now) a top digital nomad location for the entire world. Little by little the government is chasing all of these people away that work online and only benefit the local Thai economy by renting thousands of apartments and of course spending money on life there. I think that especially in Chiang Mai, the locals are going to be in for a real bad surprise when the government finally succeeds in chasing these people away. I know that for many nationalities, the mass exodus to neighboring Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, is already underway.