Ditto. That's the best way of doing it and much less stressful too.

Firstly why not just spend a couple of nights in Vientiane? It's a fantastic place and you'll find food and experiences you will either struggle to find in Thailand or simply can't be found here.

Secondly, if you did have to do a quick turnaround, then just cross the border and come straight back.

Vientiane is 20km from the border crossing (technically, it's on the border but you can't cross there, you have to travel to the friendship bridge).

This takes half an hour or perhaps 40 minutes during morning or afternoon rush hour.

There's no point in spending the night near the bridge on the Lao side. Aside from probably not having any lodging available (I don't remember seeing any) whatever might be available is for locals and unless you speak Lao or Thai and can read the language, you'll struggle to make yourself understood in such places.

99.99% of falang head into town, where hotel staff can usually speak decent English. There will also be transportation available, which won't be the case if you were to spend the night in some dingy dive 3km from the border (if it's even available as mentioned).

@Christopher *****

Actually, the opposite tends to be more true.

Yes and yes

@Tod ********

I heard immigration prefers 500K in a Thai account and might deny your application if it's in a foreign account or send you on a wild goose chase demanding authenticated bank statements and so forth.

@Will ***********

So far I've heard they want the money in a Thai bank account.

@John *********

Who is? This won't be enforced. You sound like a BBC viewing old grandpa who has been doing what he's been told since birth but this is Thailand, they can't even effectively collect income tax from their own population, that's why they tax anything considered a luxury or imported so heavily, otherwise the state would have little to no income as only 6% of Thais pay income taxes, yet probably 15-25% could in theory be eligible to pay, based on their incomes and earnings but they don't and since there's no enforcement mechanism nothing happens to them.

Same as not paying traffic tickets, which a court has now ruled do not need to be paid.

Mark Staples Agree with you fully. Besides there is no new tax law anyway. It all depends on your honesty and with a DTV visa the revenue department will shoo you away if you try to get a tax identification number anyway. They'll tell you that you can't get one as you're not on a work visa. Lots of people have tried to get one but failed. There's no need anyway, nothing will be enforced so there's no point in doing anything.

You can even get away with not doing your tax returns back home on time and nothing happens.

John Stanners No, you are as you fail to understand how the visa you're on worms. An extension of stay doesn't allow permanent residency. You can only spend one year in Thailand at a time before needing to renew your extension. If you aren't approved, you have to leave. Your retirement visa is in a sense also a tourist visa, even if classified as non-immigrant, you can't work on it and you have NO possibility of being allowed to convert to permanent residency.

At public hospitals, you pay the same rate as tourists do, whereas work permit holders pay less than you do.

@Alex ******

I try to pay with cash as much as possible but you can't completely avoid using debit and credit cards. Eventually, you'll run out of cash. Car rental agencies don't accept cash. Flights need to be booked and paid for using a credit card (unless you happen to go to one of the very few remaining old school travel agencies) and so forth. I personally prefer it if there's an option given. For car rentals, I know that cash can't be accepted but if it's a restaurant, I won't go if cash isn't accepted. On the other hand, sometimes I need to use a card and would thus appreciate it if the business accepts cards in addition to cash.