Yes, mate - I can help you with that.

Just a couple of things -

Where are you from ? Do you not have a bike license from your home country ? Why do you want a Thai license ?

I only ask, because - if you do already have a home country licence then no need to do a Thai test, its a matter of transferring your IDP to a Thai license. However, without a non-immigrant visa ( i.e. your a student here, you work here, your married, you have business here ) you will be forever limited to a 2 year temporary licence, which isn't considered an international license. However, a Thai license isn't a bad thing to own - it has your passport and Thai address on it, you can use it as ID, show police or at a hotel, etc - easier/safer/convenient than carrying your passport.

There is some discussion - but even without an IDP, most countries DL's are accepted by the police for anything between 3-6 month, if you are in Thailand for anything longer than 3 months its advisable to get a Thai license, but other than that there is no need.

If you need one it will help to be on a long term visa when you arrive from you home country 60 day SE or 12 ( or 6 ? ) month ME - you need a certificate of residence from immigration .. there are different procedures in different areas, some immigration offices make you jump through hoops, some won't issue them, some charge, some tell you to go to your embassy in BKK, some will issue them without any trouble - but you will need some kind of residence - not so tricky, for 3,000B / 60 GBP / 85 USD a month you could rent a small apartment and use as a base.

Same as DLT - Dept. Land Transport ( where you apply for licenses ) some driving test centres have waiting lists of 2-3 months for a test appointment, some centres require you to do a computer theory test despite having a IDP, some test centres refuse to 'understand' the coding on certain nationalities licences and enter you into a full day of testing ( which again isn't hard )

You will require, copies of your passport, existing licences, a witchdokta medical check for $2.50 ( "..So, how do you feel today ? OK ? .. here is your certificate, thats 100B please, normally 50B, but today is a lucky day." )

If you want to buy a bike here, its no biggie - you just need a certificate of residence ( you can apply for 2 or however many you need, at the same time ) but owning a couple of Thai bikes myself, I have a feeling you will be restricted to where you can travel with a Thai bike - as mentioned - there is no carnet - ( I think I'm correct in saying you will need a Carnet for India ) .. However, there are ways around this, i think you just register you bike with the Malay AA and pay them the retainer or whatever the terminology is.

What bike were you thinking about ?
You will need a bike over 150cc to enter Laos ( but i have known people to have ridden small displacement european bikes into Laos ) and VN used to prohibit 'big bikes'. There maybe times, when riding a bike from outside Asia will get you a little more leeway and it may be a disadvantage riding an asian bike.

You talk of changing plates, as far as I know this is not possible - Its one of the reasons VN "keeps foreign bikes out" - as it has trade agreements, and high import tax, etc .. Its the same all over SE Asia, Thailand also has high import tax on motor vehicles, and to get your vehicle approved, official documents and plates would require an agent, take a lot of time at great expense ( like way more than it would be to buy another bike, if not 2 or 3 bikes in that country ).

My advice would to plan very thoroughly before you leave. Thailand has never been a great place just to rock up to and arrange stuff, its overtly bureaucratic country where you could easily hit a brick wall. I don't think a day doesnt pass where someone tells me "no can't do that" - it even happened yesterday filling my petrol tank up - "no sorry, thats full, no more" - "but i can get another 2 litres in there" "no cannot"

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Anyway, with regard to the license - Im happy to advise or point you in the right direction of some regional advice, the other points, I would leave for others. If there is some info you don't feel like posting, feel free to PM me.