Where are you in Bali? If Kuta, then yeah, that place is pretty lame. Try Sanur or somewhere on the north side of the island.

Probably not a problem, but it is good to mix it up just because there are interesting places around that are worth a visit. Try Bali or Vietnam. If you have the means, hang out and be a tourist for a little bit. I try to spend a few months out of the year outside of Thailand. Pretty easy to get a 30-360 day visa to some of these other SE Asian countries. It also demonstrates that you are more like a tourist than you are an illegal alien using the tourism system to work without the proper permissions.

Be sure to tell your taxi driver to wait for you. It's a residential area, so you have to walk out to the main street and there aren't really good sidewalks or anything... You will literally be there 3-5 minutes unless there is a line of one other person. Then 4-6 minutes.

Cambodia and Vietnam are also full page visas, and you have to use a service to get an invitation letter for Vietnam (cheap if you do it in advance). Phenom Phen is one of the sketchiest capital cities in SE Asia. If you will just fly out and back in for a 30 day visa waiver, you could literally take the cheapest round trip fare...

Any neighboring country will work and probably be comparably cheap. Vientiane Laos is generally considered an easy embassy to deal with, but is often crowded and Laos has a full page visa (takes up precious space in a crowded passport). Cambodia, Malaysia, and Vietnam all have their charms, so it is kind of up to what you want to do for 3 or so days while you go through the process. Bali is absolutely the most low traffic Embassy, and you would likely not spend more than 5 minutes dropping off and picking up, but Bali is more expensive for the flights... Worth it in my opinion for a 3 day place to chill, but it is substantially more expensive than any of the other spots above.

There are three steps with this kind of article. With the example that was stated before, the SMART visa was announced by articles and it was widely reported as the digital nomad visa. Then it came out, and no one seemed to know exactly how it worked. Then people start looking at it in the real world, and the details get more fleshed out.

I guess the fourth step is that things really don't change too much, and only a few people are affected.

Like everything in these parts, we really won't know how it works until more details come out and people start testing the limits.

It is close, they process visas quickly, it is a fairly inexpensive city, and you don't have to pay for a visa to get in to. A lot of people prefer Laos for those reasons... I prefer Kuala Lumpur or Bali, but for a SETV it really doesn't matter too much where you go in the region if you have the means to go and chill for a few of days. Just be sure to check the consulate website for any local holiday closures and specific paperwork requirements.

I was in Europe for 6 weeks to get out of the heat...

I applied Tuesday and collected Thursday (today). They had it posted they were closed Wed-Fri, but since I dropped it off on an "open" day, they let me pick it up on a closed day. I am not sure that is a standard protocol, but at least one other person that I saw dropped off and picked up the same days.

560,000 IDR (40 USD), The visa form, flight info in and out of Thailand, a recent bank statement, and proof of accommodation (a letter from my girlfriend stating she will host me).