Yep, that's right, yours truly has got her very own, supergreen, bonafide Thai driver's license! The process wasn't quite as bad as I was thinking, the way some people make it out to be online. Although I'm sure some places are better or worse than others. Most of my morning consisted of waiting for my wonderful Thai colleagues to fill out my application and everything for me, which was in Thai. I came prepared with my passport, work permit, license from my home state, and a doctor's note that I am healthy, as well signed copies of all of them. The Thai teachers knew a really adorable lady who worked at the "DMV" and whose cheeks I badly wanted to squeeze, and she was so smiley, and she just pushed me right on through.
Next I had to go upstairs where I had to wait in a line until it was my turn to press a fake gas pedal and then hit the brake as soon as I saw the red light. Piece of cake. Next was the depth perception test, also cake. And third the color test, double layer cake. All the Thais were watching me because of course I was the only white person in there, and I think I heard some chuckles when I was trying to say the colors in Thai.
They gave me a book to study before the written exam, so I sat for a while at least with some reading material. Turns out, road signs are pretty damn easy to memorize. The test, however, was loaded mostly with questions nobody had ever given me any information on. What vehicles are not allowed on public roads? I have no idea. You have to be parked 15 meters away from a) fire hydrant b) stoplight c) pedestrian crosswalk or d) railroad tracks? Ummmm, fire hydrant? NOPE, wrong, it's the railroad tracks. It was seriously the stupidest test I have ever taken, I guessed on probably half of them, and thank my lucky stars I only missed 5 out of 30! Had I missed two more I would have failed.
So then I waited some more. Went outside, in the back of the building where they have this cute little driving track all set up. Just sat there with one of the teacher's friends who spoke pretty much no English, so it was just us two outside, completely silent for about 20 minutes, watching the butterflies, listening to the birdies. It was actually quite nice. Then I strapped on the helmet that was too big for my tiny head, and drove around the course, stopping at every stop sign, turning when they told me to, and I got to slalom through some orange cones. It was great. Paid about 5 dollars, got my picture taken and BOOM! License, all shiny and laminated and new. My boss had me drive the motorbike all the way back to the school. It was my first time on the main roads, and I nailed it! Not so scary after all... if anything, this is just gonna be way too much fun. Now the search is on for the perfect helmet and a not so perfect bike for cheap. Yay for me :)
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