Believe it or not, but that device sitting on the officer's desk is amazingly connected to a network. Your passport gets scanned and all your data is displayed.
Term deposits are fine, many use them to get a bit more interest. I am unaware of any term deposit in Thailand where the funds are not accessible until maturity.
Ubud had a large mix of Asians and Westerners. Sure, they like taking selfies, but I wasn't struck by an enormous number of Russians and Ukrainians. I got fed up with the narrow roads and constant traffic jams.