Motorbike license in Pattaya
If you do not have a license for motorbike in your home country or then you need to get one in Thailand. You also need one if you planning to stay more than 60 days. After 60 days you are not considered tourists anymore and tourists cannot take a motorbike license anyway.
For a details report on what documents to get and how to get to the place please my other post on taking a motorbike license in Thailand.
You can get there early or later in the afternoon but do not get there at 09.00- 11.00 that’s when the big mob comes there. If you do not think you will pass the theory exam come early since you can do it two per day. Also if you come to late you have to come back and do the driver license the next day.
Be on time in the morning
I was there at 08.00 and I was number 8 in line so the wait was not that long. They have different numbers for foreigners and Thai people. The Thais just go in to a big room and listen to a video for two hours but foreigners will go downstairs and look a DVD for one hour. So you have to wait until they group you with some other people and then you can do the color and reaction test.
Warning for H1N1
For the eye test bring a tissue because you are required to put your nose on the metal and 200 people put their nose before you the same hour. I passed and I was lucky I did not get sick it was really bad policy when they know H1N1 is spreading.
Play with the test computer
After the Video you will go back up and do the test on a computer in English, the people who said you have to do it in Thai need to update their blogs. They have single test machine on the second floor and I if you pass that one you will probably pass the real test. The answers are really logic and if you can think a little bit you will manage it. I passed with 24 of 30 with just one our training the day before and took the test computer two times. You will pass with 23 but who cares what percentage you get I passed and that’s it.
The motorbike driving test
If you pass the test you can go and rest until 13.30 and meet the rest of the people that passed the test on the back of the house. If you did not pass you can do the test one more time in the afternoon.
The driving test is not that difficult if you have driven a motorbike for a few years (I have not). But the problem is the guy with the megaphone talks only in Thai; you REALLY need someone to translate for you. The driving track is really not that difficult and if you do not speak Thai you can look where the others stop and just do as they do.
The man with the megaphone actually do not care where you stop and blink and whatever, he stands next to the slalom cones and he will shout “fail†if you missed the cone and the ramp. Those two things are the only difficult once on the whole track. If you know how to drive slalom and up on a ramp then you will pass no questions about it.
I feel pretty silly just to fail a test just because you put down your foot, something you do all the time in real life. I failed because I had to slow speed on the ramp and one foreigner did not know he could not put down his foot because nobody told him.
When you fail you get a note and have to come back within 90 days or but not less than three days and do the driving test all over.
Practice driving
I set up some empty water bottle and found myself a long plank to drive on and now I think I can handle the test. I done that now for three days and tomorrow I will go back and try again. If you have not tried the course yet and are unfamilliar with driving a motorbike i suggest you do the same.
I got a Motorbike license in Pattaya
I want there real early since i wanted to drive around some times around the area to practice. But i started showing other foreigners on how to do instead. When it was time for the test there was only one person and he did not speak English as well. He told everybody in Thai what to do and one girl did a test run. When she was finished he want back to sit at the table and approved everybody that drove around. He did not even look at the people driving around. I saw many people that would not pass but he just laughed when i come back and said in Thai “everybody pass today”.
The driver license
When you got your stamp on the document you head upstairs to wait for a photo taken and pay the 155 THB. They take the Photo and print out the licens in one time it normally not take more then one hour to wait.
