Car Passports

[samran]

Was down at the department of land transport to renew my Car passport which I've used for laos before, and to get a translation for my plates to travel to Malaysia.

Anyhoo, when I went to get my car PP last year, Laos, Singapore and malaysia were the only places you could go with a Thai registered vehile. I've been told by the lady there that I can now get a PP valid for China and Vietnam.

This opens up alot of possibilites now for Thai registered cars. Sorry, no news on Cambo though!

[LivinLOS]

Erm.. Really ???

Vietnam was still a closed border even to under 200cc bikes which the law states you can take in.. Plus I think I read that they insisted on LHD only ??

Has anyone actually got a vehicle into Vietnam ??

[samran]

Erm.. Really ???

Vietnam was still a closed border even to under 200cc bikes which the law states you can take in.. Plus I think I read that they insisted on LHD only ??

Has anyone actually got a vehicle into Vietnam ??

Thanks for the heads up. Has anyone else got any more info on this.

The department of land transport did not tell me this, but it wouldn't suprise me if what you said is true.

Having said that, I have seen a few pieces in the nation and BKK post of trips made to VN. The latest I heard was it was fine to travel around the countryside, just not in HCMC and Hanoi.

[siam2007]

as far as I know, you still need a Vietnamese / Chinese driver-licence to ride a car in these countries. No matter if you have a Thai car PP or not......

thats the reason for example, why self-drive-cars are not for rent in those two countries..... and I have not heard any news that those rules have changed recently....

[madyakka]

Was down at the department of land transport to renew my Car passport which I've used for laos before, and to get a translation for my plates to travel to Malaysia.

Anyhoo, when I went to get my car PP last year, Laos, Singapore and malaysia were the only places you could go with a Thai registered vehile. I've been told by the lady there that I can now get a PP valid for China and Vietnam.

This opens up alot of possibilites now for Thai registered cars. Sorry, no news on Cambo though!

Are?the vehicle passports for motorcycles also?

[asiaworld]

Well i finally took the trip, which was supposed to take me to VietNam & upto Chinese border. But which has ended with fiasco in the Viet border ! Arriving on the Lao checkpoint, i was told, that Viets would not let the thai car throu, but equipped with the "ICP" (car passp. mentioned by Samran) , i've decided to try.. Actually Lao borderguards were extremely helpful & friendly & let me throu without stamping to enquire, whether i would be allowed into VN ! On the other side of the border there was a florishing commie checkpoint, with customs & immigration not knowing a word of any foreign language (& i've tried Lao/english &russian!) beconing me to get stamped ! so off i went back to Lao side & told'em to stamp me out, so i could take my chances.. Now as soon as i drove inside the Viet customs yard, thats, when the hel_l broke loose & those same waving arms & legs, were gesting me to get my car out & back ! ! Apparently it is not a problem for Lao & Viet vehicles to cross, but it's the RHD, that they refuse to let in !! 'ICP' is as useless there, as it is in the monkeyfarm !! Still wanting to visit Vietnam after almost 4 hours i've managed to negotiate to leave my car in their compound for a couple of days (seeing another thai pickup in their yard) , negotiations were hard, they wanted 100$ to park, in the end we settled on 20$ ! This happened in the Nam Phao/ Cau Treo crossing.

i do wonder if anybody tried the same, or willing to try ( i know caravans do go throu, but i'm thinking of individuals) ?!

Unfortunately hassles on the Viet side were too exhausting & with Songkran approaching i had to postpone my research trip to china border .

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Was down at the department of land transport to renew my Car passport which I've used for laos before, and to get a translation for my plates to travel to Malaysia.

Anyhoo, when I went to get my car PP last year, Laos, Singapore and malaysia were the only places you could go with a Thai registered vehile. I've been told by the lady there that I can now get a PP valid for China and Vietnam.

This opens up alot of possibilites now for Thai registered cars. Sorry, no news on Cambo though!

Samran

Can you scan and post your "car passport?" Like to see what it looks like, perhaps print it out when I go down to my local DMV to get one.

Thanks.

Mac

[fiberman]

Is all this necessary, I have driven to Penang twice now, at the border(Sadao) you can buy insurance and a disc to place in the windscreen which shows the English translation of the Thai numberplate (all a bit academic as you can't accurately translate Thai characters into English anyway!)?

Edited April 21, 2009 by fiberman

[yumidesign]

Is all this necessary, I have driven to Penang twice now, at the border(Sadao) you can buy insurance and a disc to place in the windscreen which shows the English translation of the Thai numberplate (all a bit academic as you can't accurately translate Thai characters into English anyway!)?

Thanks for all the info. i plan a trip down the east coast of maleasia soon. I am told that the Thai police have a translation to english........ so you are saying you do not need a numberplate in english......and can you tell me how much the insurance was and what it covered?????

The Sadao border crossing is on the west coast right??

Edited April 21, 2009 by yumidesign

[fiberman]

The disc is actually called an International Circulation Permit and has a Malaysian stamp on it although it was bought in Thailand. The insurance company will provide the translation. An english number plate is not required. The insurance is third party, again Malaysian, as far as I know it is not possible to get fully comprehensive insurance. The cost was 1150 Baht for 2 weeks which includes the ICP.

The Malaysian police at the checkpoint the other side of the border have always looked at the ICP and have never asked for any other documentation so I assume that everything is legal. For those of you getting car passports etc. if I am missing something please let me know!!

For your info the company I obtained the insurance from is Tasna Tour, phone 074 55 7061/08 1541 2087, they do speak a little english. Their office ( small glass kiosk) is about 100m back from the Thai border crossing on the right hand side of the road looking towards the border. It took about an hour to sort the paperwork the first time we were there but the second time we called beforehand and everything was printed out and ready to go, they obviously keep your data on file.

The Sadao border crossing is about an hours drive south of Hat Yai, on the west side of Thailand.

Edited April 21, 2009 by fiberman

[yumidesign]

Thanks a lot. Do you have to go through Hat Yai? Don't they shoot on sight!!!!

do not know about the passport for car issue in malaysia, which i have and used for a trip through Laos a last year. I was in Vientiane for a few hours and drove from a one way street on to the main drag on the wrong side of the road and got immediately pinched by the piggies for 500 tbt with the help of some monks who translated and helped bargin the fine down from 2,000 tbt.... and a threat that they were going to confiscate the car...... ho ho ho

in the end the fine was paid in cash at the police box and recorded in the school exercise book ' fine for not stopping on police signal'. which if course was not true..

[samran]

Is all this necessary, I have driven to Penang twice now, at the border(Sadao) you can buy insurance and a disc to place in the windscreen which shows the English translation of the Thai numberplate (all a bit academic as you can't accurately translate Thai characters into English anyway!)?

Thanks for all the info. i plan a trip down the east coast of maleasia soon. I am told that the Thai police have a translation to english........ so you are saying you do not need a numberplate in english......and can you tell me how much the insurance was and what it covered?????

The Sadao border crossing is on the west coast right??

An account of a trip we did to Malaysia last Songkran.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Driving-Mala...37#entry1938337

Bad news that Asia world got turned back. Would have been a fascinating trip. Have seen quite a few Laos number plates around Hanoi which I go there for work fairly often.

Just to dig a bit deeper: yumidesign, did you have a car passport which was designed to enter Vietnam? The reason I ask is that the people at the land transport department said that if I wanted to go to Vietnam I'd need another car passport (ie not the purple one you use for laos) to get in.

Having said that, from your experience it sounds like even if you had one, it wouldn't have made one iota of difference!!

[samran]

Is all this necessary, I have driven to Penang twice now, at the border(Sadao) you can buy insurance and a disc to place in the windscreen which shows the English translation of the Thai numberplate (all a bit academic as you can't accurately translate Thai characters into English anyway!)?

Thanks for all the info. i plan a trip down the east coast of maleasia soon. I am told that the Thai police have a translation to english........ so you are saying you do not need a numberplate in english......and can you tell me how much the insurance was and what it covered?????

The Sadao border crossing is on the west coast right??

An account of a trip we did to Malaysia last Songkran.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Driving-Mala...37#entry1938337

Bad news that Asia world got turned back. Would have been a fascinating trip. Have seen quite a few Laos number plates around Hanoi which I go there for work fairly often.

Just to dig a bit deeper: asiaworld, just for general knowledge purposes, did you have a car passport which was designed to enter Vietnam? The reason I ask is that the people at the land transport department said that if I wanted to go to Vietnam I'd need another car passport for Vietnam (ie not the purple one you use for laos) to get in.

Having said that, from your experience it sounds like even if you had one, it wouldn't have made one iota of difference!!

Edited April 22, 2009 by samran

[fiberman]

Thanks a lot. Do you have to go through Hat Yai? Don't they shoot on sight!!!!

do not know about the passport for car issue in malaysia, which i have and used for a trip through Laos a last year. I was in Vientiane for a few hours and drove from a one way street on to the main drag on the wrong side of the road and got immediately pinched by the piggies for 500 tbt with the help of some monks who translated and helped bargin the fine down from 2,000 tbt.... and a threat that they were going to confiscate the car...... ho ho ho

in the end the fine was paid in cash at the police box and recorded in the school exercise book ' fine for not stopping on police signal'. which if course was not true..

I don't think they have shot a foreigner for at least a week now .

Don't worry, the road bypasses Hat Yai, the stretch of road from Hat Yai to Sadao is perfectly safe and well away from the areas where all the problems are!

[yumidesign]

.Just to dig a bit deeper: yumidesign, did you have a car passport which was designed to enter Vietnam? The reason I ask is that the people at the land transport department said that if I wanted to go to Vietnam I'd need another car passport (ie not the purple one you use for laos) to get in.

Having said that, from your experience it sounds like even if you had one, it wouldn't have made one iota of difference!!

the car passport is supposed to be valid for all asean countries, but in fact it is not...... only Laos and Malaysia as far as i can work out and yes its the purple one

Edited April 22, 2009 by yumidesign