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Let’s get the donkey out of the way first @brianthainess, if you read the requirements from the DLT to get your license it lists the reasons where you will have to take a physical test reason number 4 is if you don’t have your license verified by your embassy, or don’t have an international drivers permit then you are required to do the physical part of the driving test…now, off you go back to your barstool while I assign you to the wilderness… ok, now the donkey has been dealt with, I took a colour blindness test which consisted of the officer touching a pen on either red, green or yellow discs, the reaction test is just that, a test of your breaking reaction, nobody in my class of 23 people done any other test, there was no peripheral test, and no depth test for your vision, I had been told when I registered in the morning that I would definitely have to do the physical part of the driving test because I didn’t meet the requirements under section 4 as explained above in my answer to the donkey. It was only that the senior officer in the building took my license and had a quick discussion with two other DLT officers that they decided I didn’t have to do any further testing and they issued me with my license immediately, I didn’t even get as far as doing the multiple choice questions. anyway, many thanks to all above for your helpful replies ( with the exception of the donkey).

Hi all, I’ve been meaning to get around to taking the Thai driving test but kept putting it off, anyway last week I got the process rolling by booking an appointment with the department of land transport, I tried to get an appointment at my local one near me in Khon Kaen but they said they didn’t have dual language capabilities at their office, so I booked an appointment at the nam phong DLT, so got the 30th as my appointment date, last week got my medical done at the local clinic that cost me 100B this amounted to a blood pressure test and a doctor listened briefly to my chest on a stethoscope..all done in 10 minutes, then I had to get my certificate of residency from immigration, this took 10 minutes and was free, although I did ‘donate’ 200 Baht for tea money..anyway the DLT in nam phong insisted I take the theory test ( watch some video and do a multiple choice questions on traffic signs etc) and also do the driving part of the test, so I’m like ok no problem so started to watch the videos of the three things you had to pass on the driving part. So arrived this morning booked in and went to a room with a big TV and watched 3 hours of instructional videos, then we got a 45 minute talk ( in Thai only) from the head of the office then they announced lunch and after that we would be doing the multi choice questions, anyway, the boss called my mrs over who was waiting outside and basically wanted to see my Uk license again, he went into an office with two others and were obviously having a discussion about my license, next thing you know they are out of the office to inform me that I didn’t need to do any further testing and that they were going to issue me with my Thai license, I had to wait about 20 minutes then I was handed my Thai license, so I’m very happy boy today, the only money I paid was for the license fee..

@racyrick glad you got sorted,…it was a funny atmosphere in there when I went the IO’s are normally ok they have a chat etc but there was one of the IO’s walking around asking if people were being dealt with etc, looked like he might have been the boss, then there was a younger bloke walking around trying to talk to any of the foreigners in there and playing up a bit to try and impress the two pretty girls that were working on the counter on the left as you walk in the doors….they seemed to me to be overly helpful, but anyway I got my stuff sorted quickly and I was on my way….as an aside anyone else think those stairs in there are a killer on your knees..they are steep and narrow, it’s almost like you can’t put your foot on them properly ..

@racyrick thé mrs called the number listed, it rang a few times but they answered fairly quickly. went to Khon Kaen immigration yesterday ( Wednesday) and got my certificate of residency took all of 10 minutes to sort out, got the medical booked in at the local clinic for 4pm Friday, then all set for my test on the 30th

Spoke to immigration in Khon Kaen today, there’s no charge for the proof of residency letter, no doubt I will contribute a few hundred baht to keep everyone happy

@VocalNeal already done it, keep forgetting the people on here who’s brains are turned to mush drinking to much like to make stupid comments

DLT have given me a letter to give to immigration asking for a certificate of residency , no doubt it’s free but I will donate a few hundred baht to help things along

Hi all, I’m going for my drivers license in Khon Kaen next week, I need to get a certificate of residency from Khon Kaen immigration, is this free or is there a fee to pay?

@irish star why would any make a donkey reply like that…get back to your beer in the bar

@South thanks for the link, I’m not sure they will deliver to Khon Kaen but I will ask them

It shouldn’t matter about the nationality or the car, most foreigners I see here aspire to owning a Toyota fortuner and then proceed to drive it like an idiot! So she’s Chinese and owns a roller, so,what, the thing that should be of concern is that it’s a pickup ( involved in most accidents here) that’s almost certainly uninsured and / or driven by someone without a license,

Hi all, anyone know of somewhere in Khon Kaen that sells pool tables, can be new or used almost all the pool tab,es I see advertised are in Bangkok or Pattaya areas

Hi all, thank you all very much for your suggestions and advice especially @Sheryl for the contact and hospital suggestions which I’m going to follow up on.. many thanks also to @Moonlover for your advice regarding excercise etc, I do have an Apple Watch so now I’m going to set some targets on there for daily steps and stand prompts and excercise times. it’s all to easy living here to just do bugger all all day, I normally wake up 7am by 8am the missus is heading out to work, I then spend probably 3-4 hours sat down on the iPad emailing friends or just generally browsing, next thing you know it’s lunchtime so stuff my face, maybe spend 20 minutes playing with the dogs, then it’s sit down again untill the missus comes home about 4pm, only then do I do any activity by helping get dinner ready and tidying the yard up a bit…

I get mine from a guy called Greg Lange he runs a Facebook page called Bangkok beef he sells steaks and ground beef etc and beef hotdogs look him up on face book, he also owns sunrise tacos in Bangkok, he ships all over Thailand

@BangkokHank kinda the same treatment required but venous insufficiency generally requires veins to be ablated so blood can’t run back down them causing the swelling. @Moonlover good question, I’m doing about 45 minutes a day excercise that might be walking or yard work around the house, I’ve had the condition for about 12 years but as I’ve got older it’s got worse, I could do with losing about 15kg…but seems like this could be a hereditary condition

Hi all, I suffer with venous insufficiency where my calves and ankles swell and sometimes I get ulcers which are painful but I can deal with these in house, anybody else suffer here with it? I’m based in Khon Kaen and was looking to see if anyone suffering with this can recommend a hospital where the veins can be dealt with, they can remove the vains or cauterize them, this stops blood pooling in the legs as the blood won’t be able to travel down the broken veins, I need a hospital that can do an ultrasound scan of the legs to detect what veins are damaged. I will just paste a copy of a note on the symptoms Chronic venous insufficiency occurs when your leg veins don't allow blood to flow back up to your heart. Normally, the valves in your veins make sure that blood flows toward your heart. But when these valves don't work well, blood can also flow backwards. This can cause blood to collect (pool) in your legs. many thanks in advance for all and any help

The other two policemen just standing there, draw your batons couple of hits on the legs and down goes skateboard man they should be ashamed just standing there letting a colleague get assaulted

Gentlemen many thanks for your replies and advice, especially the layover idea that sounds like something worth doing

Hi all, I’m going to be flying to Manchester next year in may using emirates, I have never flown emirates before and I see I have to change in Dubai for the connecting flight to Manchester, they offer various lay over times and I’m not sure how long I will need to check in for the connecting flight without chasing around, I would rather relax, grab a coffee and something to eat before catching the connecting flight any advise on the best time scale to allow, and are the bags checked through to Manchester or do I have to get them of the luggage carousel…are the connecting flights in the same terminal or is it a different terminal. I look forward to any help and advice

Probably overloaded with his cargo, ‘ modified ‘ read lowered so no suspension travel, combine that with not wearing seat belts, hence the ejection from the vehicle, and no doubt poorly maintained as are the bulk of vehicles on thailands roads..tragic and almost certainly avoidable accident

Western food shops online sell them, I use korat chef Lawson’s F&B, both do 6 packs of burger buns for 50baht they will send anywhere in Thailand, both these shops have Facebook pages where you can order, I think Korat chef has an online shopping website as well…they both also sell very good burgers ????

Motor bikes just don’t bother looking, looks like the pick up driver never even braked and why swerve into oncoming traffic? Road awareness here is dismal, I like the people driving around the accident, nobody stops to try and help….

In any other country in the world this would be just looked upon as a water filled abandoned quarry, here in Thailand it’s called enchanting and given a status of tourist attraction…no doubt foreigners will be charged a sizeable fee should they want to visit this ‘enchanted’ place…

The Costco here are called makro the one in Khon Kaen isn’t far from the bus terminal and immigration office in Khon Kaen I don’t have the exact address but if you went on Google maps to find the bus station or immigration you can search around and find makro I think there’s a cockpit tyre depot nearby as well. well, thanks for all the answers and suggestions guys, certainly got food (pun intended) for thought

Hi all, we have three dogs two were soi dogs and pretty much became ‘tenants’ on the land when we were building the house and finally moved in with us when the house was finished in July last year, the third dog is a pup the result of the two soi dogs having a bit of ‘fun’. anyway we messed around with different types of food for them, the first being Thai food left overs mixed with leftover rice, they would eat it but they didn’t enjoy it, so we tried buying old chicken bones and scrap meat from the local market, the dogs loved this but we didn’t enjoy chopping up the bones and cooking them and the meat so the dogs could eat it, so now we buy 1KG packs of frozen dog food from Costco they come in various flavours like chicken, beef, lamb and pork these packs are 33 baht each and the dogs like them mixed with a bit of rice so one 1KG bag does the three dogs their breakfast at 7.30am and then dinner at 6pm, I have recently started adding beef or chicken stock to the food and mix it up, the dogs enjoy that, but is there anything else you feed your dogs? That’s relatively cheap