After careful consideration, I have decided to go down the route of getting a DTV, purely because it's 5 years and I can return to work (working remotely in Thailand, for a non-Thai company).

Currently, I am on the retirement extension issued in Chiang Mai. I emailed the Thai Embassy Vientiane with some questions, one of which was to ask if I should cancel this before applying with them for the DTV, they said no need to. - Should I trust this feedback or cancel the extension before going to Laos?