I'll be crossing at the border next to pakxe (it's just right of ubon rathathani). Do I need to go as far as getting a Laos visa? Can I just go through departure immigration and come straight back through arrival immigration 5 minutes later? I have a English passport too if you need to know.

You must enter Laos.

You will not be allowed back into Thailand unless you have Laos entry/exit stamps in your passport.

A Lao visa is obtainable at the border.

You seem to be writing about the Chong Mek crossing.

You have to enter Laos. Thai immigration will not allow you to re-enter the country if you don't have the stamps for Laos in your passport.

Great thank you for your 5 minute responses I'll go into Laos and get the stamps. So helpful I will report back with my experience

Just finished my visa run from chong mek, went very well with no complications. For future tourist visa runners I didn't have a my questions asked apart from in Laos on arrival the officer asked me where I was going in Laos to which I replied back - into Thailand visa run and then told him I'm using my double tourist visa and he said ok and let me carry on.

I suppose I should mention I obtained my double tourist visa back in October 2015 before they stopped giving them out but I guess this experience is the same for anybody doing a visa run

"Just finished my visa run from chong mek ..."

Not that it really matters, but a "visa run" implies you're going for the purpose of getting a new visa, whereas a "border run" would mean you just want to cross in and out to use another entry on your current valid visa or to get a new visa exempt entry, etc.

I'm sure this comment will cause cries of "pedantry" or "trifling semantics" from those who refer to everything in their passports as "visas."

"Just finished my visa run from chong mek ..."

Not that it really matters, but a "visa run" implies you're going for the purpose of getting a new visa, whereas a "border run" would mean you just want to cross in and out to use another entry on your current valid visa or to get a new visa exempt entry, etc.

I'm sure this comment will cause cries of "pedantry" or "trifling semantics" from those who refer to everything in their passports as "visas."

Yes, I'm sure there will be those cries from some. The point is that people post on here to gain answers to their questions. If they can't supply clear details then it obviously is impossible to give any sort of meaningful reply. The phrase "help us to help you" must be so relevant.

One of the pinned posts asks posters to supply as much information as possible.

I'd go as far as to suggest the subject line has one similar to this post - it's clear what's being asked before you even start to read. You see some posts with subject lines with vague text, like "Help!!!", or "Visa question"

Just my two cents worth...