Driving Licence

[grtaylor]

A Thai Driving Licence is good to have for other reasons. In the absence of any official ID for foreigners working here on a work permit, it will suffice for practically all of those occasions when they want to see your passport, for example, at the bank.

I too have been waved on by traffic police when they saw I had a Thai licence.

In my opinion, a good idea to have, even for people who don't drive a car here!

[PeaceBlondie]

In fact, Thai DL's for farang have your passport number at the bottom.

[nokia]

In fact, Thai DL's for farang have your passport number at the bottom.

Is that a pro or a con?

[PeaceBlondie]

Take your pick whether it's a pro or a con. If anybody wants to know your number, there it is.

[ray08]

My experience in obtaining a thai dl was a deeply unpleasant one. I had my non immigrant "o" and being a respected member of the community married to a well respected thai lady, I envisaged it would be the simplest of processes.

In short it was the most unpleasant experience of my long tenure in Thailand as I had never personally encountered the oft mentioned corruption in Thailand before. I eventually had to pay 1000 bht "tea" money to an obnoxious fat man who I will take great pleasure in encountering again one day when he doesn't have the counter and his office to hide behind. This was the week before Songkran and apparently its considered quite normal at that time of year to expect to be fleeced with a dual pricing system in operation, 500 bht for thais and upto 1500 bht for farangs

If you have a valid and "real" international drivers licence you should have no problems but a Thai dl ensures you will pass through any police checkpoint and also covers you in case of accident and insurance claims

JAF

Just received my thai license on thursday at Chatuchak main branch in Bangkok , all i brought with me was stamped and signed copies of work permit ( as proof of address ) , passport showing 1 year visa , International license , signed a few papers , done colour test ,quick braking test and one other eye test , paid thb 205 , all up arrived at 9.45 am and out at about 10.15 am , very simple and even faster than getting license renewed in Sydney , defintely no tea money or anything at all , infact she even asked if i need motor bike license at same time , a very polite No thanks , sorry to hear about your bad experience ,

[egg]

My experience in obtaining a thai dl was a deeply unpleasant one. I had my non immigrant "o" and being a respected member of the community married to a well respected thai lady, I envisaged it would be the simplest of processes.

In short it was the most unpleasant experience of my long tenure in Thailand as I had never personally encountered the oft mentioned corruption in Thailand before. I eventually had to pay 1000 bht "tea" money to an obnoxious fat man who I will take great pleasure in encountering again one day when he doesn't have the counter and his office to hide behind. This was the week before Songkran and apparently its considered quite normal at that time of year to expect to be fleeced with a dual pricing system in operation, 500 bht for thais and upto 1500 bht for farangs

If you have a valid and "real" international drivers licence you should have no problems but a Thai dl ensures you will pass through any police checkpoint and also covers you in case of accident and insurance claims

JAF

Just received my thai license on thursday at Chatuchak main branch in Bangkok , all i brought with me was stamped and signed copies of work permit ( as proof of address ) , passport showing 1 year visa , International license , signed a few papers , done colour test ,quick braking test and one other eye test , paid thb 205 , all up arrived at 9.45 am and out at about 10.15 am , very simple and even faster than getting license renewed in Sydney , defintely no tea money or anything at all , infact she even asked if i need motor bike license at same time , a very polite No thanks , sorry to hear about your bad experience ,

How stringent are they with the colour blind test ??? l am blessed with that condition ,,,have never had any trouble getting a licence in Aus ,,,, and have no trouble with colours ,, until l do 1 of those tests ,,, l just want to know how much importance do they put on it ??

cheers

[ray08]

My experience in obtaining a thai dl was a deeply unpleasant one. I had my non immigrant "o" and being a respected member of the community married to a well respected thai lady, I envisaged it would be the simplest of processes.

In short it was the most unpleasant experience of my long tenure in Thailand as I had never personally encountered the oft mentioned corruption in Thailand before. I eventually had to pay 1000 bht "tea" money to an obnoxious fat man who I will take great pleasure in encountering again one day when he doesn't have the counter and his office to hide behind. This was the week before Songkran and apparently its considered quite normal at that time of year to expect to be fleeced with a dual pricing system in operation, 500 bht for thais and upto 1500 bht for farangs

If you have a valid and "real" international drivers licence you should have no problems but a Thai dl ensures you will pass through any police checkpoint and also covers you in case of accident and insurance claims

JAF

Just received my thai license on thursday at Chatuchak main branch in Bangkok , all i brought with me was stamped and signed copies of work permit ( as proof of address ) , passport showing 1 year visa , International license , signed a few papers , done colour test ,quick braking test and one other eye test , paid thb 205 , all up arrived at 9.45 am and out at about 10.15 am , very simple and even faster than getting license renewed in Sydney , defintely no tea money or anything at all , infact she even asked if i need motor bike license at same time , a very polite No thanks , sorry to hear about your bad experience ,

How stringent are they with the colour blind test ??? l am blessed with that condition ,,,have never had any trouble getting a licence in Aus ,,,, and have no trouble with colours ,, until l do 1 of those tests ,,, l just want to know how much importance do they put on it ??

cheers

i think pretty important , first test was from about 3-4 meters to read colours, red , green , yellow and brown on a board with the person in charge pointing to colour and you reading which one , that was easy ,other test a bit harder you put your head in this box like machine and whilst looking straight ahead , on both left and right side a quick light with a either , green , yellow or red will light and you must call it out without looking to the side with your eyes , examiner in front of you to check you dont cheat , also in the brake test , soon as light changes from green to red you must hit brakes in a very short time frame otherwise a fail , in Australia all the eye test was to read letters from distance , funnily no such test here just more towards colours ,