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Legal Considerations For My Girlfriend To Learn To Drive A Car


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Make her drive around town. In Thailand there is no "Learners" permit to drive, you just drive, crazy huh!

 

The test to drive is around what is basically a go kart track.

 

Reality is many people get their license before the really learn to drive,

 

This is why Australia and many other places won't swap a Thai license for an Australian one. you have to sit a new driving test, (Note Thai tourists can drive in Australia, but up to 3 months only)

 

(the practical isn't hard on a go-kart track) the written they should know.

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I took both my kids, while they were learning to drive, out early on weekend mornings to the local mall (this was in the states). We practiced parking, tight turning, etc. That, and on the street learning, made them good drivers. Maybe no malls near you, but any big shopping centers?

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As PTBM said, there is no learners permit. You just drive. And the test itself is a joke. In Bangkok it's sort of a miniature golf circuit. The "examiners" watch to see if you stop at stop signs, stop at the "railway tracks" etc. When I went back to the States, I had to test all over again, the same as a teenager. My Thai licence wasn't recognised. The examiner had me drive out onto the road (showing I knew how to signal and watch out for traffic), then we went onto a hill. I had to demonstrate I knew how to park on an incline, start the engine on a hill, and make a 3-point turn. After that it was off the to expressway and drive in traffic for a while. She gave me 100%, which caused some attention back in the office. I replied that I'd been driving around 50 years and hoped I knew what I was doing. There is none of that in Thailand. You are alone in the car with someone outside watching as you drive around a little track.

 

Also, in LOS if you're someone "special" you don't even have to test. My wife was issued her license before she even knew how to drive! (She's a civil servant, and that meant more years ago than it does now.) The usual order with my Thai colleagues seemed to be: 1) buy a car, 2) learn how to drive, 3) get a license.

 

Have your gal drive around a mall, as Migrant suggests. I did my first driving in Thailand on country roads with little traffic, just so I could get a feel for driving on the left. (At first it feels a bit like looking at a mirror image, and it really threw my spacial judgment off.)

 

As to driving safely in the big city, I still worry about that. Too many Thai drivers simply act as if they are the only ones on the road. You have to pay 100% attention all the time, and especially watch for the many motorcycles. Last month I'd signaled and was making a right turn in the intersection, when out of nowhere came an idiot on a mo'cy - honking his horn as he raced past me on the right! Why didn't the $#@% pass me on the left as he should, the stupid piece of buffalo dung?

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I still hate that, since it just doesn't feel right doing it "left handed". I've never hand any trouble with it on the right, since I learned it when I was 16. But it just seems strange doing it "backwards". (I'd only driven on the right before I came here - in the US and Vietnam.)

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I remember many years ago when my friends Thai wife did the practical test, she must have flattened every cone (including the ones not laid out)

 

At the end of the "TEST" she handed over a few notes to the examiner and got a pass certificate.

 

Me and my mate were in stitches of laughter but she looked at us stone faced and said "No,No! I not pay tea money, I just pay for damaged cones"

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I still hate that, since it just doesn't feel right doing it "left handed". I've never hand any trouble with it on the right, since I learned it when I was 16. But it just seems strange doing it "backwards". (I'd only driven on the right before I came here - in the US and Vietnam.)

 

I'm just the reverse, easy looking over my left shoulder but always feels strange the other way. I've had little trouble adjusting to driving on either the right side or the correct side of the road, I get to practice both on a regular basis, at the moment anyway.

 

I notice with my teenage kids that very often their friends come calling, in their own cars. These are 15 and 16 year old. Car provided by the parents, no paperwork, no worries. If anything happens, just pay up. It's only a couple of k for them, so what?

 

So when should I start to teach my kids to drive?

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