Hello Vanda. Welcome aboard. Yes, I am happy to say that over the last few years this community has accumulated a fair amount of information relating to many aspects of photography in Thailand and beyond. The forum is not always active with new posts everyday, but I try and monitor the posts and answer questions as much as I can and there is also a core group of nice members here who will also give their input as well. And thankfully everyone is generally respectful and friendly as you mentioned.
In regards to the lists section of labs and etc, access requires you to have 10 posts before you can get into that area of the site. It is setup that way to encourage people to participate rather than only using the forum as a place for information. But 10 posts is not much and I am sure you will be there soon

Again, welcome to the group and hope to see some of your photo posts in the gallery as well.