International driver's license
By Joseph Boy
I'm really not having a good time this week. It seems as if the Thai police are specifically targeting me. Within a period of a few days I was stopped three times to be reported.
At the first arrest I was accused of grossly exceeding the speed limit. I certainly do not want to claim that, as a recent survey showed, I belong to the sixty percent of the Dutch who call themselves an above-average driver.
Mop
Even my very own children claim that I drive like a mop, or at least that's how they call my riding skills. Can't say Michael Schumacher is my idol either, and sometimes on the highway I even get a middle finger or a horn and a sign to speed up. My driving behavior on the Thai road network will not deviate much from that pattern. In fact, I should consider it an honor to receive a speeding ticket. However, my sense of honour, perhaps I should say sense of honesty, comes to the surface and I do not intend to pay the requested two hundred baht.
Enthusiastic and in my best Thai I try to convince the officer that I have certainly not driven faster than the permitted eighty kilometers. When it turns out that the man has no ear for my argument, I pull out heavy guns and with a white lie I claim with a straight face that I am a police officer in the Kingdom of Holland. The man salutes and I can drive on.
Two days later a pack of the same sheet. Once again I have the honor of exceeding the speed and again I am honestly not aware of any wrongdoing. Now you get the impression that as a farang you are a willing victim for the not so strict Thai police force. Don't want to play the same role this time and feign anger at me. In a mix of ภาษาไทย and English I make my anger abundantly clear. How the man, whom I saw from afar, could see that I was driving too fast, escapes me completely and I also make that known loudly. Apparently shocked by my aggressiveness, I am allowed to continue on my way without paying the again requested two hundred baht.
International driver's license
Three times is right
At Chanthaburi, the police have set up a trap this time that everyone has to go through. This farang has to go to the side to show his international driver's license. In my experience, such an additional driver's license is great nonsense and only a nice addition to the finances for our ANWB. Something completely out of date, but I must be wrong. Show the officer in question my old-fashioned fold-out Dutch driver's license, which I unfold completely to make an impression.
The man takes it to his colleague and returns a little later to say that it is not an international driving licence. Of course I am also aware of this and good advice in this case is expensive. I have almost reconciled myself to the fact that I am now going for the ax and will have to pay the 400 baht requested this time. All my lamentation that it really concerns an international driving license does not seem to work.
Redding
While I am still discussing, another farang comes out of the 'payment booth' with proof of payment of the fine he has paid. The agent who is speaking to me calls the man, takes his Swedish driving license in credit card format, and shows it to me with the addition: “Not international”. At that moment I get an extremely clear idea and add to the agent that he is absolutely right and that such a small format driver's license is indeed only valid for Europe. Then take my wallet and pull out my credit card model rail subscription, which fortunately also has my photo on it and show it. “Officer this small ticket is the same one that Swedish gentleman has and is indeed only valid for Europe, but this large one is my international driver's license”.
Apparently the doubts are really starting to set in and after a short consultation with his colleague, both gentlemen decide that I can continue. Let me go and orientate myself what the possible consequences could be in the event of a collision, for example, if you do not have such an international driver's license. For now, my thanks go to the NS and I will not grumble at the next train delay.
fantastic how those driver's license ads pop up... class
boy, boy had to grin when reading your story .... just buy a Thai driver's license, all the fun about it.
I will also do that in my hometown Trang , in BKK that is no longer possible….reason ; I move myself via a French driving license, and bah bah bah, that's a 12 point piece of paper, so every offense 1 or 2 or, sigh, more points gone.
I am now in the babysitting phase .... a few extra points and nothing driver's license and nix international driver's license which is free with the French and valid for 3 years.
Holland is frugal, isn't it?
I am now also going to buy my motorcycle license, because sometimes I also want to make a purchase with those 125 cc cool things.
I inform you about the costs.
guyido
Good story. How simple those Thai are sometimes. Education could definitely be better. The police are your best friend, hahaha
Please note that if you only make 1 scratch you go along as a suspect.
Also the other party, you will have to prove that you have at least 1.00.000 Thb behind to pay the damage.
You have that proof through 1 insurance policy, if your driver's license is not valid here then you really have 1 problem.
I myself have 1 Thai driver's license, but also always 100 Thb in the ashtray, which is better than handing over your driver's license to that agent.
It also helped 1 time when I drove 190 km to say that my lawyer is coming to visit him because it was already the 3rd time he had stopped me.
I was allowed to continue and never saw him again.
Driving on the right for too long is also 1 good one of them, make sure you just have 1 ticket from 1 lawyer with you, keep smiling and say you're going to call them now.
These are 1 few tips to score against.
Never have any problems.
My Thai driver's license is always in a plastic dark folder with 100 bath.
If I am arrested for whatever reason, I will speak Dutch, and indicate that I speak little Thai and no English.
In most cases they get into some kind of panic and quickly muffle the 100 bath in their standard gloves.
And let you go quickly.
Find it a “Joke” every time
Peter bk.
So that's the fun we're having here.
It is usually on Fridays that they want to catch you (drink money).
I have certainly experienced other things, such as the royal procession passing by.
2 hours before that the boys are already waiting give 1 bottle of Whiskey on the table of 99 Thb .-
They do when the procession passes their weapon, I then take it and sell it to the owner.
That's really laughing at least I have my drink for nothing.
We were once stopped by the police. I was sitting on the back of a scooter with a helmet. The Thai driver did not have a helmet. Cost: 200 Baht.
The driver said “I really don't! That's way too much. I'll give you 100 Baht”.
The police officer had a smile (or embarrassment) and looked out of the corner of his eye at his colleagues.
“Quickly give me 100 Baht” the driver whispered to me, gave the money, started the engine and quickly drove us away from that police officer.
My heart pounded in my throat but I also laughed hard.
TIT
The police in Thailand are not that bad, and with a normal arrest you usually get off with a Dutch driver's license without a fine. Until you get into a car accident or worse, you injure someone without an international driver's license, then you're hanging, and you're right, and you'll regret not spending $15 on an international driver's license that you can get in 5 minutes. So please be wise and arrange this piece of paper, especially if I read your story that you drive like a wet newspaper 🙂 And make sure you have maximum insurance.
ps drove more than 2000 km in Thailand last week (or rather sailed by car) I was so happy that I had a 4 × 4 at my disposal, in some places the water was more than a meter high on the road, and the accidents that I have seen are truly beyond counting. I'm glad I'm back in Pattaya damage free and the sun is shining again (finaly)
Then you're in luck, Danny. The times I was stopped (obviously because, according to the police, I was driving in the wrong, right-hand lane, while I was overtaking and therefore driving in the right lane) neither my Dutch, nor my international, nor my Thai driver's license helped. In the Isan, after accepting 300 THB, the policeman politely tapped his cap and said, “Bye bye, my love….”.
An international driving license from the Netherlands is only valid for 1 year. In Germany you get 3 years validity for the same price. I know a Dutchman here who has been driving for more than 10 years with his mother's international driving license who visits him every year. He only changes the picture….
Looking at the road could make good programs in Thailand. The Thai themselves cannot drive a car at all, they are kamikaze pilots for me. But okay, law is law, I'm glad that an international driving license is good enough in Thailand.
it's been some time since that reaction of mine, so that's not true anymore.... buying a driver's license what I was told is really over...
I must neatly do the test for the Thai driver's license.
that is recommended if you drive here in your own car, it seems that you are covered / insured up to 75% with an international driving license.
so a thai paper is indispensable if you are on the road every day.
in terms of controls; stopped 6 times in a week.
because my car has dark film on the windows, you cannot see from the outside that a foreigner is behind the wheel.
recommended .
the police sees a westerner unprepared and does not feel like complicated hassle so please drive on.
By the way, I show my French international driver's license with the name card of the State Secretary of Education, and you don't get any questions... I keep my Thai certificate at hand and only show it in case of a collision, so that paper cannot be confiscated...
I also noticed that on the way from Bangkok to Mae Rim, where I'm moving to, almost no speed limit is indicated, so yes you drive but what don't you?
and as Hans Bos wrote about driving on the right, I do that too and without overtaking because the slow lane is often broken with huge potholes in the road.
what is a pothole in Dutch by the way?
you also have to forget European driving behavior completely,
and drive just like the Thai, overtaking on the right and left and tearing through.
only then you relax, European driving you do again in Europe.
and eh don't buy a motorbike, dangerous to life...
you also need a motorcycle license ... international or thai ...
Driving licenses,
To get rid of the nagging I have my driving licenses for motorcycle and car in Thailand
fetched. Piece of cake.
My wife is coming to the Netherlands and has an international Thai driver's license
unsubscribe.
Who sketch my no small surprise if that is exactly the same as ours.
The well-known gray copy ... With this she tours quietly through NL and no one can tell us whether or not that is valid here ... ..
You also fall from one surprise to another here….
Frank
I also wanted to do my driving license here, but was told that I had to have at least an annual visa, what about that
Correct. You do not get a driver's license on a tourist visa. At least a non-imm-O or a retirement visa.
Go to http://www.khaosanroad.com show your Dutch driving license // and the same afternoon you still have a Thai driving license!
There are several license shops on Khaosan Road.
Say hello, but then you have a fake Thai driver's license. If you get caught with that, the turnips are done. It's bad advice.
March 22, 2010 I saw a reaction from my beginners hand to this article….
there are really no driving licenses for sale anymore........
everything just through the rules, and I just converted my one year permit to a 5 year driver's license.
so yes fables do the big round here.
NB ; driving with an international driver's license; Many insurance companies here do not provide 100 percent coverage if you do not have a Thai driver's license...
For short-term stays in Thailand (holidays, business trip) an international is NOT necessary in Thailand, whatever the police say. However, a valid Dutch driving license or a valid Thai driving license is required. If you are in Thailand for more than 6 months, it is wise to get a Thai driver's license. Simple procedure, low costs. The first time it is valid for 1 year, with renewal 5 years.
@ Thanks Martin, for this explanation and sending the article!
I'd like to read that article too to find out what Martin's claims are based on.