Troubling visa

I would be on my way already within a month should I have all the necessary documents to apply for a non-immigrant (ED) visa to Thailand. Now I am just waiting for an invitation letter from my university in Thailand but they don't seem to be replying to emails that actively. And I think I need to apply that visa for October and arrive there with a normal stamp-on-the-border 30-day visa in the beginning of August, then proceed to Cambodia, Laos or Malesia... And when my actual visa kicks in, then come back and apply for a longer, proper student visa. Because my studies will be starting in October but the trip hopefully a few months before. It just seems to be in my nature to seek the hardest possible way of doing things apparently.