Hal65

Every ED visa school will tell you it needs to be done prior to exiting the country to come back on tourist or visa exempt status... if you want another ED visa. The letter formally states you no longer plan to study on that visa with the school past X date. It's a nuisance form like many of Thailand's forms. Intentional friction.

Yes I will mail it to them and they will mail it back

Okay, so here's what I'll do: Instead of 1. Flying from BKK to CNX to get my cancellation letter (26th) 2. Then CNX to DMK (26th into 27th, literally 11:30pm to 12:40am) 3. Then DMK to VTE (27th, 1 day overstay) I will pay the ED school to do the visa cancellation 1. This means I can skip flights 1 and 2 and pass DMK immigration at 11pm on the 26th (the final day). And sleep in the terminal for 5 hours at night Sucks paying for 2 flights I won't use but since I've been here so long I won't risk an overstay notice.

Don't get clever. I am obviously asking if they typically have an allowance for around midnight exits.

The flight is scheduled to arrive in DMK at 12:40 AM. So let's say it gets there at 1:00 AM and I get through Immigration for the Vientiane (international) flight around 1:30 to 2:00 AM. You think they would still consider it overstay?

I'm going to fly into Chiang Mai on the 26th to cancel my visa. It's my final day. Then I'll have a multi leg flight from Chiang Mai to DMK and DMK to VTE. The problem is DMK to VTE happens at 5:30 AM on the 27th, and this is not from the same airline. Kiwi emailed me saying this was a "travel hack ticket" and it'll effectively be like two separate flights. Do you think immigration will likely overlook my one day overstay? Chet GPT says it will likely not be overlooked and I'll get an overstay stamp.

thaivisavientiane.com This is the correct website to schedule an appointment, right? And I think you have to schedule it 30 days out at minimum. I'm trying to access it for a late August appointment but it seems not to be working. I tried for my Thailand IP as well as a VPN with a US IP.

Epic turn of events. As an American, I haven't lived in a country during wartime in at least a decade.

Finally get to see Thailand in fight mode! Been here 11 years and this is new. Back in '14 it was just internal small guns conflict.

I'm sure you guys have noticed this too. There will be two motorcycles riding in close proximity, with one of them stepping on the other one, Usually around the tailpipe area.. My best guess is. They do it to let each other know that the second guy is close by so they don't lose each other. Is that actually what's happening? If so, does anyone know why they prefer this to using rear view mirrors like Westerner would do?

I wanted to film it. But last year, when I did film a pushing/light punching match between ladyboys and Indians on Beach road, one of the lbs threw a half eaten ice cream cone at me (missing substantially) and yelled "<deleted> you ni kaw" or something similar. When I started the filming, others were also standing nearby and filming or taking photos. But by the time of the ice cream cone throw, I looked around and no one else was filming / everyone else had already scattered. I've seen thais loudly shout "no photo!" or even attack vloggers filming them. It's just a risk here. Pattaya Thais are a bit worse than Thais elsewhere. They act like street people at times, knowing the police will just let them off and possibly give the fine to the foreigner (only).

Those who called me a coward will be vindicated by this post. I thought what I would have done in the white guy's situation: 1. Don't drive. I've already "not driven" for 11 years here. But, I live in Pattaya and take a lot of girls, so that is another threat vector (girl gets mad, calls some aggressive guy over, or a bouncer at a club instigates etc). 2. Don't let them stand behind you. He just kept standing there talking to his thai lady, saying things like "why does he keep punching me?" "He needs to stop!" In that situation I think the best course of action is to give a shocked look and then move away to across to the other side of the crowd, facing his direction but not looking at him. Now he has to actively keep following you even after seeing your stunned look. In the "thai mob" videos I've seen online the Thais seem to see shock and desperation of the person they are group attacking as the sign that it's enough, "they've won." So maybe this does it. 3. If the aggressor does follow, now you have permission to run. No one including in Thailand has the right to keep pursuing you to punch you in the back of the head every 30 seconds. There is a legal issue of hit and run but if you call the police (which is what he was doing on his phone) and explain the situation, they should understand.

I've read that one can apply for the Lao E visa prior to flying into VTE. And now, apparently as of this month, the TM6 replaced by TDAC... which is done online, within 72 hours prior to re-entry? Let me know if chat GPT is lying to me. Or if it's true, is the experience relatively painless? Just exit and exemption stamps? That would be nice. Paperwork at the border has always been stressful to me. Never knowing if it was filled out correctly or not. The one concern I might have is having bad Internet in Vientiane, and fighting with the Thai TDAC website to get it filled completely.

Yeah, I didn't even list that as an option. After a 12 hour Savannakhet to Bangkok border run a decade ago I swore never again, That's interesting about trying to intercept the visa run service at the border, I'll ask 1st Class Visa Runs (in Pattaya) if they will allow that. It might be hard to coordinate the meetup though.

Weighing my border stamp options for getting back into Thailand 60 days exempt (starting in Pattaya): 1. Fly to VTE and take the train back 2. Fly to VTE and use a one way border run service back to Nong khai with connections (do these exist? Anyone know any?) 3. Fly to Udan thani and use a Border run service. 4. Fly to Mukdahan and either use a border run service or stay in Savannakhet 2 days and come back myself (or do they not enforce the 2 day stay at the moment)? Since I know of no one way agents in Vientiane I'm thinking to just use the train for minimal strictness. I have a long chain of ED visas hence the planning. PS: Cambodian borders are all closed