3/14/2021 0 Comments Thailand Driving Test
Turn left here. Parallel park here. Merge here and then pass the car in front.
Thailand Driving Test Drivers Ed TrainingIts not so much that its bad traffic in India or Vietnam makes Bangkok traffic look like a drivers ed training course but rather that my skill sets arent useful here.Im Canadian, so if you want me drive at 80kmh on an icy road with well-defined traffic rules that are strictly enforced and adhered to no problem.But driving through go-kart-style traffic dodging tuk-tuks, bug vendors, stray dogs, motorcycles and pedestrians and with the wheel on the wrong (right) side well, maybe I better take a taxi.Bangkok has several million of them anyway if I think of them as my own personal limo service, its not so bad at all. But despite this, I recently had to get a Thai drivers license. ![]() But due to an unfortunate case of stupidity, I let my Canadian license lapse, which means its even less useful than the fake ones you can buy on Khao San Road. ![]() The first step was to hand my work permit and health certificate (without these, you wont even get past the door) to a woman behind a desk, who gave me a queue card and told me to go the fourth floor, where I was ushered into a room with about 15 others all Thai. This was the group I was stuck with for most of the day basically, they bring the whole group in to a room and test each person one at a time, at which point you all shuffle off to the next test together. A stern sounding woman pointed to colored dots on a wall chart, and we had to yell out which colour the dot was. Red Green Yellow I did it in Thai just to be safe past experiences with Thai government officers have left me with little confidence in the depth of their English comprehension. I also had to stifle a laugh when I remembered what happened to Monty Pythons Sir Galahad at the Bridge of Death. When a light in front of us turned red, we were required to quickly slam on the brakes in less than of a second; fail two out of three tries and you fail this portion of the test. My first attempt went badly, due to the fact that my huge size 14 feet could have depressed both pedals at the same time. Luckily, my second attempt was successful, and I didnt slam into the schoolchildren I imagined were crossing in front of me. This is actually harder than it sounds, so I guessed, and passed much like I did with every test I took in High School (except for the part where I passed). Right after this came the peripheral vision test, in which I had to rest my chin on a table and identify the color of a light that was set up 75 degrees away from straight. As I was seemingly the only farang in the entire complex, I was led to a small, empty room with a TV and a VCD player, where I had to watch an instructional video (in English) on the rules and regulations of Thai traffic law, which took about 1 hour. I was lucky that I paid attention, because many of the points the narrator covered were necessary to know for the next portion of the test the dreaded written exam. Some of the questions were easy for instance, one said something similar to. There were several examples like this, as well as hard-to-understand diagrams and animations. A score of 2330 is needed to pass I scored 22 Fail I was told to come back in an hour and try again, so I boned up on the practice computer terminals outside the testing room and on my second attempt, I scored 2530. Pass. I remember my driving test in Canada way back when I was a wee lad, with the instructor sitting beside me telling me what to do. ![]() Merge here and then pass the car in front.
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