Driving Licence nightmare.

[sandyf]

I went down to Pattaya yesterday to see a bout a driving licence as my IDP expires next week. Got there about 7.50 and there was a fair number already outside and by the time the doors opened it was a real crowd. There was an announcement to form 2 queues and fortunately a Thai lady next to me said go to the left and I ended up fairly near the front. The lady came out and said that those that had a yellow ticket could go to the second floor, some behind me came forward and it seemed to initiate a bit of a stampede. She had a bit of a job keeping them back and some were really reluctant to get back in the queue.

I got my yellow ticket and made it up to the second floor and in due course ended up at the desk. The guy looked at the docs and everything appeared to be ok. I had a copy of the med certificate and when he put the docs together he took the original so the copy was still lying on the desk. He looked at it and then looked at the original again and said it was no good, something about an address. I assumed he meant my address which could have been the case, but as the certificate is all in Thai I did not know any different. Said I had to get a new one and come back before 2 or next week. After all that hassle I was really cheesed off.

We made our way home and when we got there my wife's niece was a bit concerned as she had to convert her one year to five and had come to the clinic with me and had the same certificate. It was gone 12 by this time so she had to wait till 1pm before she could phone Land Transport. They said it only needed the hospital address and the doctors number and that all clinics were aware of the requirements, so we decided to have another go at Chonburi.

It was about 1.15 by now and it takes about the same time to get to Chonburi office, about 12Km, as it does to Pattaya, about 60 Km, and we just made the 2pm deadline.

Lady at the desk looked at the docs and said my IDP would have to translated and legalised, talk about a kick in the parts. My wife said to her that we had been to Pattaya and that was never mentioned. The lady disappeared for 5 minutes then came back and said it would be ok. She put everything together and I had to sign all docs, she attached a form, gave me a number and sent me to room 7. There was nobody there so within 5 minutes I had done the four tests and was sent to the cashier, job done, or so I thought. It took about half an hour to pay and off to room 6, licence issue. After about 45 minutes there was a power cut, it was about 3.20 by now and as the cashier closes at 3.30, everyone that had not paid was sent away. The power came back on about 3.40 and shortly after they started doing the licences again and I thought I may be in with a chance, but it was not to be, after about ten minutes they started calling names to get money back, I was third to collect and told to come back on Tuesday.

Hopefully it should not take too long as they said to go straight to the cashier with my passport. Looks like they could be closed on Monday, probably due to the holiday on Saturday.

[Gonsalviz]

Fairly sure only an International Driving License is going to do you any good.

Sorry, got confused with another thread.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Gonsalviz