i recently renewed my 5 year dl at pranburi transport department and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the procedure and the fun i had.

the office is up a narrow lane behind the police station , which is opposite the new tesco lotus in pranburi.

the driving licence department is on the first floor of the building.

when i arrived i went to one of the windows and my paperwork was quickly checked and i was given a colour blindness test immediately. the paperwork necessary consisted of copies of passport relevent pages , letter confirming my address from immigration ( 4 months old) and my old thai 5 year license.

i was told to come back in an hour for some tests and to watch an hour of instructional video after which i would be tested on it. the video would be in thai , but i could have a translator with me if i wanted to bring one.

an hour later i returned and along with 6 or 7 others , all thai , had to do various tests on machines set up in the general waiting area. the test consisted of a reaction time test (a small accelerator and brake pedal set up connected to green and red lights , when the ligh changed to red i had to brake within a certain time , as shown by flashing lights. as each person took the test , the many onlookers cheered and clapped as we all passed or failed , those who couldnt get it right within 3 goes were just told to keep trying until they passed , one woman took about 10 minutes before she finally managed to hit the brake pedal correctly.

next up was an alignment test , with a hand held control unit you had to move an object back and forth until it was aligned next to a stationary object , again people were helped along until they got it right along with much cheering and cajoling from the onlookers.

the third test was for peripheral vision , coloured lights were lit up randomly and had to be identified correctly.

nobody was allowed to fail , even the lady who just could not brake came away with her licence

when we had all passed these tests , we were herded into a small room and had to watch a training video in thai.

it was a bit like a thai soap , boring , badly acted and over the top.

a thai family , consisting of mr and mrs horribly perfect and their perfect daughter lived next door to mr nasty and his unhappy son.

mr perfect drove a shiny new fortuner , mr angry drove a beat up old nissan with racing add ons and a noisy smoky exhaust.

mr angry knocked down cyclists , used his mobile whilst driving , threw cigarettes out of the window , spat a lot , and got pulled over by the police.

mr perfect drove well , always wore his seat belt and checked his tyre pressures before each journey.

eventually mr nasty crashed his car , leaving his poor son brain damaged and ended up being consoled by mr. and mrs. horribly nice before undergoing a total personality change and becoming another mr. horribly perfect , to the extent of stopping to let pedestrians cross the road.

i couldnt really see the point of having to sit through this bilge , but judging by all the sniggering and comments coming from the thais , they must have thought the same.

at the end of the film , thinking we would be asked questions about the film , we were just photographed and presented with new style smart card driving licences. no test.

the staff there could not have been more friendly , polite and easy going , laughing along with us during the tests and the film , and there was a pleasing sense of cameraderie between all of us applicants.

a great day out.

to be recommended.

i recently renewed my 5 year dl at pranburi transport department and was pleasantly surprised at the ease of the procedure and the fun i had.

the office is up a narrow lane behind the police station , which is opposite the new tesco lotus in pranburi.

the driving licence department is on the first floor of the building.

when i arrived i went to one of the windows and my paperwork was quickly checked and i was given a colour blindness test immediately. the paperwork necessary consisted of copies of passport relevent pages , letter confirming my address from immigration ( 4 months old) and my old thai 5 year license.

i was told to come back in an hour for some tests and to watch an hour of instructional video after which i would be tested on it. the video would be in thai , but i could have a translator with me if i wanted to bring one.

an hour later i returned and along with 6 or 7 others , all thai , had to do various tests on machines set up in the general waiting area. the test consisted of a reaction time test (a small accelerator and brake pedal set up connected to green and red lights , when the ligh changed to red i had to brake within a certain time , as shown by flashing lights. as each person took the test , the many onlookers cheered and clapped as we all passed or failed , those who couldnt get it right within 3 goes were just told to keep trying until they passed , one woman took about 10 minutes before she finally managed to hit the brake pedal correctly.

next up was an alignment test , with a hand held control unit you had to move an object back and forth until it was aligned next to a stationary object , again people were helped along until they got it right along with much cheering and cajoling from the onlookers.

the third test was for peripheral vision , coloured lights were lit up randomly and had to be identified correctly.

nobody was allowed to fail , even the lady who just could not brake came away with her licence

when we had all passed these tests , we were herded into a small room and had to watch a training video in thai.

it was a bit like a thai soap , boring , badly acted and over the top.

a thai family , consisting of mr and mrs horribly perfect and their perfect daughter lived next door to mr nasty and his unhappy son.

mr perfect drove a shiny new fortuner , mr angry drove a beat up old nissan with racing add ons and a noisy smoky exhaust.

mr angry knocked down cyclists , used his mobile whilst driving , threw cigarettes out of the window , spat a lot , and got pulled over by the police.

mr perfect drove well , always wore his seat belt and checked his tyre pressures before each journey.

eventually mr nasty crashed his car , leaving his poor son brain damaged and ended up being consoled by mr. and mrs. horribly nice before undergoing a total personality change and becoming another mr. horribly perfect , to the extent of stopping to let pedestrians cross the road.

i couldnt really see the point of having to sit through this bilge , but judging by all the sniggering and comments coming from the thais , they must have thought the same.

at the end of the film , thinking we would be asked questions about the film , we were just photographed and presented with new style smart card driving licences. no test.

the staff there could not have been more friendly , polite and easy going , laughing along with us during the tests and the film , and there was a pleasing sense of cameraderie between all of us applicants.

a great day out.

to be recommended.

Yeah they are good there and you are correct "no one fails the test"

I did mine in 2002 and only did the reaction/colour tests etc as I had my full Uk license with me, 200Bht

Trouble is I'm colour blind and got all the colours wrong but still passed.!!

Did not have the film show then though.