While most tourists arrive in Thailand on a holiday package, thus get picked up at the airport and have transfers to their hotels, renting a car at the airport is also an affordable and good way to explore the country on your own. Or rent a car or motorcycle at your final destination to be mobile, not having to depend on motorcycle taxis, tuk-tuks and baht buses to get around. That is, if you are comfortable with the way others drive here. And I don’t mean driving on the left - hand side of the road, which is just the way it is in other countries.

Good drivers are a vanishing breed here. And that’s no surprise: All it takes to get a driving  

license here is a medical certificate from any of the numerous clinics around, a residence

certificate from the Immigration Office (obtainable by showing your rental contract or house book, or actually anything that shows an address of where you’re staying), copies of the relevant pages in your passport (personal details, visa page, stamp on arrival, and departure card), two photographs and a copy of your current driving license. If you have a license from an English-speaking country, that’s all you need. However, if you have a license from a country in a language other than English, you will either have to get an international driving license first or get your current license authenticated at your embassy.

The place to go for a driver’s license is the Land Transport Ministry’s office in the area where you live. And be prepared to wait. If you don’t speak Thai yourself, make sure to have someone who does or at least learn the numbers, otherwise you’re likely to miss your turn at the queue!

Once called, hand in all the documents (making sure all the pages are signed) and wait till they call you for some simple tests. These include a color blindness test, a reaction speed test, a peripheral view test and one where you have to prove you can see depth well. If you have provided documents showing that you have a valid license already, you won’t have to do any written or practical test as well.

Then you pay the corresponding fee -- a stunning Bt105 for a one-year car-driving license, and Bt55 for a one-year motorcycle license), and wait again while the paperwork is processed and the license printed. Then just a few more signatures, a visit to the shop opposite the complex for having your new license laminated, and that’s it!

Officially, you should be able to choose between a one-year license and one that’s valid for
five years. Frankly, it depends on who handles your case which one you can get. Especially make sure that they understand which type of license you want. I recently went to get mine on the bases of an international license with classes A (motorcycle) and B (car) marked as being valid and current, and after going through the whole procedure found out that they had issued a motorcycle license only! My protests were answered by “Make new copies of your documents, take a number and apply for a car license…”

Ever wondered why some people here drive awkwardly? Well, because they rarely take driving lessons! Forget the 20 or 30 hours of practical lessons with an instructor you would get in Europe, accompanied by high fees and the necessary stress with the exam. Here, it isn’t obligatory. A new driver simply gets in the car with a relative or a friend who already knows how to drive, and starts to practice. Here and there you’ll see circuits with cars driving around slowly or maneuvering between pylons. Those are student drivers. That’s fine, isn’t it, driving around a tree for a few hours? The scary thing is, there is nothing that prevents them from going on the road either… and there is nothing that tells you that you have a beginning driver in front of you.

With driving come traffic rules. Of course there are traffic rules here. They have all the signs
they should have, but whether anyone ever notices them is something else. The main rule here seems to be: to survive. Always be very, very alert when driving, especially for the thousands of motorcycles that swirl around you, and remember: bigger goes first. It doesn’t matter if you should have the right of way over that big truck or bus. If you have the slightest indication that the bus will pull out onto the road no matter what, don’t challenge it!

One of the positive things about driving in Thailand is that, once you’ve mastered driving like a local, you’ll probably be able to drive anywhere in the world.

While most tourists arrive in Thailand on a holiday package, thus get picked up at the airportand have transfers to their hotels, renting a car at the airport is also an affordable and goodway to explore the country on your own.