JamesPhuket10

I have been waiting to be stopped by a cop in Phuket since I had a Thai driving licence, I will slowly take out my credit card sized Thai licence and let him think he is onto a winner by the fact I am using a foreign licence and not the IDP, he will be disappointed when he sees the Thai licence. There are tens of millions more tourists on the roads in Phuket each year than foreigners living here, so of course the chances of the person he stops having a Thai licence is small, I will open the car window and smile as I hand it over. No pocket money today will be the case.

True, in order to get an IDP you need to have a valid driving licence from your own country, you have to use that IDP until it expires in Thailand, When I arrived in Thailand I was able to use the IDP for a year (in the case of a UK produced IDP) you are not allowed to use your own countries driving licence, then the British licence was used to get a Thai driving licence, the IDP is not exchanged for a Thai licence, the British licence was used as you stated above. There was a German national with a German driving licence and the problem was it had not been translated into English, so that is an extra step for a non-English translated licence.

What are zebra crossing used for in Thailand (well in Phuket at least), for parking cars on it seems by my own observations. 😀

You have not taken into account that cars can also hit motorcycles or cause them to crash. Thailand: 18 000–22 000 deaths/year, about 75–80% are motorcyclists, 41% of those motorcycle crashes are caused by car drivers. USA: about 42 000 deaths/year overall. UK: about 1 700 deaths/year overall. Summary: Thailand (including motorbikes): about 30.3 deaths per 100k Thailand (excluding motorbikes on motorbike deaths but incudes deaths to motorcyclists cased by cars): about 17.0 deaths per 100k USA: about 12.6 deaths per 100k UK: about 2.8 deaths per 100k

Wow, they must have been really bad drivers if they failed such a test, I bet when they saw you do it they thought it was easy until they tried. 😃 My partner had some driving lessons and passed the driving test first time maybe ten years ago. Once or twice she picked me up in her car after I have been out for a beer with the lads, I have to keep on reminding her not to keep on changing lanes, I have to give her a running commentary on how to drive. It is quite fun as there is no traffic at that time of night in Phuket in my area Kathu.

You said, "Can anyone turn up in the UK with an IDP and be given a UK driving license without a test? Of course not." Yes people can, it does depend on which country they have a licence from, Germany for example plus many others can change their driving licences for a British licence. Of course countries such as Thailand can not do that due to their crap low standard driving test. 😃

About 18 months ago I converted my British driving licence via an international licence into a Thai car licence, it is valid for two years and then renews again for five years I think. I had to watch a one hour 'safety' video on my mobile and answer three questions before the application process, part of the video was in English but it was Australian English and I could barely understand what was bing said, part of it was in Thai, and the three questions I had to answer had nothing to do with what had been showed on the video, so a good guess helped me get the correct answers. I saw where Thais take their driving test, it is an area off the main road, there is a parking test where applicants have to reverse a car into an area big enough for a bus, if they do not get it right first time they can have a few goes. You then have to drive around a mini roundabout and then drive over a mini bridge, ten minutes test and only one car being driven at any one time, a ten year old kid could pass the test. I had a good laugh, it helps explain why there are so many crap Thai drivers on the roads.

I don't see any guys fighting off women, only in their mind does it happen. 😃

Whhaaaaa, yet another uninformed person who thinks AI actually exists or will any time soon, some of us know by using ChatGPT for example it is 99% hype, I use it on a daily basis, it is a very good tool, I have to keep on correcting its mediocre results though. I tell you what, download it to your computer and tell it to design in detail, right down to the code, tell it to design you a banking app, let me know how you get on. 🤣 To give you an insight why I can say such things with some confidence, 35 years plus as a freelance software engineer and a masters degree from Oxford in software engineering. But as far as livelihood goes, I have already made my money, designing apps and such things are just to keep my brain in gear. In fact ask ChatGPT if it has or it is AI and it will tell you it does not.

Before reading the replies I thought to myself I bet there will be lots of negative comments about smart phones just as there seems to be mostly negative and moaning comments about all the other topics replied to on this forum, it is full of miseries it seems. Smart phone. Let me see .... No, I don't think I will bother with the extensive positive list of things as that would be a waste of time. Right that is my fifteen minutes break over, I will go back to the design/programming/testing of my latest iPhone app. Oh, one good thing I will mention, I can work in Thailand and any other place in the word, all I need is a computer and an iPhone, I can work as many or as few hours I like while making lots of money from the sale of the apps, that is good enough for me as a single positive.

You said, "I have had a relationship with a girl who had her own income and career. Guess what? I still had to pay the mortage, food bills and all other bills." I laughed when I read that, now that is sad. You said, "......neither man nor woman, enters into a relationship unless they want something from the other." That is very true, as far as I am concerned, the serious women in my life wanted to be in a relationship because they want a life to share with someone, companionship, happiness, understanding and all the other things which you seem to know nothing about. I am not saying in the distant past I did not pay for a girl for a weeks holiday as it was just about sex, but I knew what it was all about, but to think that no other type of relationship exists outside of paying for a woman is sad. By your statement which more or less says all women only want money from men is also saying that applies to our sisters, mothers and other women in our family, friends and lives. I know that is not true.

You said, "So stop lying. Nobody believes your bs." I have no reason to lie, I do not know you nor will I ever know you or anyone else on this site, I am merely balancing the comments by stating not all men need/wish to pay for sex or a relationship. Have you never had a relationship where you are both have an income, a career and are independent financially, both with your own assets where the woman is not some scammer, if not then that is sad, of course there are many women out there who guys might want to hire now and then long term for some fun as it is just a sex thing but that does not replace normal relationships. I remember sitting in a restaurant with four farangs a few years ago, I knew one slightly and the others were his friends, they were telling each other how they had bought their 'girfriend' a house, a car, regularly send money to her family up in some backwater village in Isaan, one said, "you know, the standard way of doing it", I didn't bother to argue as it would have been a waste of time but I never met them again. If you do not know the difference or have never experienced it then that is sad, good luck with your one sided polarised limited view of Thai women, there are many like you is seems, the rest of us avoid you. Ps, we are all very handsome to the type of girl you seem to mix with if we have a few thousand baht in our pocket, maybe that is why you think you are so handsome.

I see, so in your world good looking women and the ability to work and earn a very good living are mutually exclusive. Just because that is your own experience does not mean it is universal, it is in fact your perception of the 'universe'. It could be you are the ugly one and so you have to pay for it. You said, "Women grant sexual access in exchange for resources. This is how the world works and has always worked since time immemorial." Keep on paying for it as that is what you seem to think is the norm, you live in a different circle to mine it seems.

Can I make a slight addition to your comment, "3 pretty Thai ladies will come sit next to him and his wallet". 😄

"......he's talking about paying money for a girlfriend.....", a very strange attitude, paying money for a girlfriend? that means buying/hiring one, is that what some guys think a girlfriend is, a woman you buy? I wonder what century we are living in, are we in a situation where women work, have their own businesses, are professionals, can take care of their own expenses? I think it is funny how you seem to have different tiers for gold diggers, a gold digger is a gold digger, often known by other words. That has been my experience so far in this old life of mine, I don't remember having to pay a subscription in order to get a girlfriend or partner. No doubt someone will say I paid for dinner etc for women and that is a sort of way to hire a woman, but what about when they pay for dinner, does that mean they are then hiring us? My experience so far of having girlfriends or partners is we both work, pool the money and pay from that on an equal basis, I think that is how the world works, even in Thailand it seems to me as the vast majority of Thais I know do that. Maybe I am not into the farang/Thai old-bloke/young girl scene and know nothing of it, but I have heard and seen it from a distance, I prefer to keep it that way.