taxexile Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khundon Posted February 4, 2009 Share Posted February 4, 2009 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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