Jake72

First I went to the local Immigration to get a letter proving my address and visa status, this was done at the huge government building on the ring road just outside Surin City, at the back, 3rd floor. No need to go all the way to the new Immigration complex in Kap Choeng for this. Note, they moved all immigration back to Surin City during the border disputes with Cambodia, it will probably move back to Kap Choeng again. Anyway, this letter costs THB 500, I got 2 of them since I'm renewing both licenses for car and motorcycle. I believe you can get away with just one and a copy, but I really didn't want to have to go back, so I got 2 originals, total THB 1,000, it took about 20 minutes at immigration. After returning back home I went to the dlt-elearning website, here you have to login/register to watch some videos for both car and motorcycle for the renewal. The motorcycle is 7 videos and about 1 hour total followed by a short quiz to ensure you paid attention. The car videos are 4 parts also about 1 hour followed by some questions. After answering the questions correctly you get a page with a barcode, I printed this page for both car and motorcycle. Note, you can watch this and take the test up to 6 months in advance. I recommend you take notes whenever they mention numbers as those are likely to be part of the test questions. Some of the questions are not really related to your ability to drive, like e.g. they might ask how many people are killed in traffic each day. While doing the videos and tests I sent my wife to get a couple of medical certificates at a local clinic, unfortunately this time they actually wanted to see me to issue the certificates, fair enough I guess. So I went there to sign the papers and get the certificates. They only need blood pressure, pulse, height and weight plus I guess they want to make sure you're alive and got 2 arms and 2 legs. Total cost was THB 160. The following day I went to the local DLT office to renew my licenses, I brought along: Passport + copies (ID page + latest visa page) Both driver's licenses + copies 2x Medical certificate 2x Letter from immigration 2x Printed barcode pages from dlt-elearning website After checking my papers and having me sign each page I was taken to a room for the tests. They perform 3 tests: Color test Reaction test Depth perception test They seem to have new equipment from what I remember from previous tests, actually it was much easier this time. The color tests were just a big light in 3 different colors: Green, Yellow, Red. You'd have to be blind to fail that one. The reaction test was the same, push the accelerator pedal and brake when the red light appears. And the depth perception was the same with aligning 2 pins inside a small box at a distance. Then I went to a desk to have my photo taken and a my new licences were issued, total cost was something like THB 750 at the DLT office. You can get an international license issued at the same time, I believe it's an extra THB 500. Feel free to ask any questions. Cheers

I understand the intentions, but the rules are not really being enforced, it's just annoying for those who're not alcoholics. In the small moo bahn where I live the locals start drinking around 6am then take a break at lunchtime and get going again in the afternoon to finishing around 8pm. It's not unusual to find a few old guys passed out on the road in the afternoon and at least once a month someone is picked up by an ambulance and taken to the local hospital. One of the heavy drinkers recently had a stroke and ended up partially paralyzed in a wheelchair.

My wife is good at making small talk she asked one of the immigration officers if it's going to be this difficult forever and and she replied yes, they had one foreigner who died the day after spending all day at the immigration office. That is such a sad story, imagine spending your last day at immigration.

ok, I'll request immigration to always keep an eye on your property 🤣

Sure, we had a visit the first time I used this address for the non-o extension, but never since, this was totally unannounced, they just showed up and demanded our presence. Usually for the extension they call first to make sure we are home as least a few hours in advance, but not this time.

I'm on a marriage extension for the past 6 years. Before that I was on a work permit extension for 20+ years.

I live in Rattanaburi, Surin, about 2 hours drive from the main immigration office in Kap Choeng.

I was just visited by Immigration this afternoon, 3 officers in the "high tech BMW" came to my house to check on me and my wife. I don't have anything to hide and my non-o visa is valid until the end of December, but it looks like they're keeping a close eye on all foreigners living in Thailand these days. I've been here for more than 25 years on various types of visas, this was the first time they've come unannounced to my home to check on me. They just wanted a few pictures of me and the wife together in front of the house with me holding up my passport and a couple of officers on each side. Not sure if any of the locals decided to report me to immigration or something to trigger this visit, but anyway just a heads up, you will be next. Cheers, Jake

I've lived in Thailand for more than 25 years and my only advice is that you need to have enough money to satisfy all the requirements, then you will be ok and have nothing to worry about.

Lived in Bangkok for 20 years, now enjoying life upcountry.

These alcohol bans seem pointless, only the little family run shops seem to benefit.

Amex Platinum for work expenses, but as it's in my name I can use it for anything. However for private spending I almost always use my Bangkok Bank Mastercard debit card. I used to have a Bangkok Bank Visa card but for some reason Bangkok Bank stopped working with Visa some years back.

Did they build a couple of small power plants at each end of the route? Charging a 40MWh battery in a reasonably short time is no joke. Will they install 200,000 m2 of solar panels? or maybe they plan to use large diesel generators 🤣

I think Thailand in general is better prepared for power outages simply because the grid is less reliable here. Most condos I've lived in over the years had a large diesel generator in the basement for emergencies and all the office buildings I've worked in have had similar backup power, so at least the elevators and lights kept working, but not air conditioning. Now living in a house, we have 2 levels of backup power. First is a couple of fairly large 48V ebike batteries that will run basic lights and fans for days plus charge mobile phones, tablets etc. Second level is a cheap Chinese 5kW generator, it allows us to run the fridge/freezer and use air conditioning plus everything else, but it is quite noisy. I always keep a couple of 20 liter cans of gasoline for emergency, I just cycle them in the wife's car to make sure it doesn't get too old. I guess last resort would be to get in the car and find a hotel somewhere with power.

Strange, I bought some junk on Aliexpress yesterday using my Bangkok Bank Mastercard, around THB 1,500, no OTP, no problems. Maybe give the bank a call and see if they blocked your card for some reason, happened to me a few years ago.