TravelingMan

Been to thailand many times without incident. Actually trained in a camp that rarely if any time had foreigners in it. It was actually the best experience of my entire life! We struggled through communication but I never had such training ever. Its a great place to train and dont let nothing hold you back from doing it.....

You can also try in manhattan: http://www.ultimategymny.com

I two at one time when I had a lot of time also they were closely aligned. These days many people follow a routine that might have them working their standup being boxing and or muay thai and some sort of ground game like BJJ, judo or sambo. This is becoming quite common nowadays. So look to the type of people who train this way and get an overview of how they do.

Learning Muay Thai from a videotape or DVD is difficult because the basics are really more than anything the core of what is to follow. You also need to know how to "safely" progess without damaging your shins or hips. Doing it alone also is difficult because of not having a pad holder though a heavy bag is fine for beginners. See if you can take at least one class or private lesson to get the basic actions down then a video can support that. Vut Kamnark's video series from unique publications show alot of the basics well and is probably good for someone just starting out. Rob Kamens tapes are very good but probably more toward the advanced beginner and up. I like Duke Roufus muay thai series as well.