Travel with my thai-car to vietnam

I'm not sure how reliable the information that I have is.  Your Thai Drivers License should be good if it is recent. My new VN License is suppose to be good ASEAN wide and all new licenses issued in ASEAN are supposed to be good ASEAN wide.

I've driven a Left handed car in right handed Japan. But, VN traffic is pretty bad and driving a right handed car in Viet Nam may be difficult and dangerous. From what I remember from the early 1970's Thai traffic was rather bad.

In any case the law changes are new and local authorities may not be up to date .

Sam

Driving a LHD car in Vietnam may be problematic since rules of the road are largely ignored here. Also if you want to travel from town to town you will need a sheaf of 100,000 dong notes and a few 500,000 dong notes with you to pay fines levied by traffic police.

eodmatt wrote:

Driving a LHD car in Vietnam may be problematic since rules of the road are largely ignored here. Also if you want to travel from town to town you will need a sheaf of 100,000 dong notes and a few 500,000 dong notes with you to pay fines levied by traffic police.

Good general advice from eodmatt.

But, a VN Police friend told me, "People who look European driving a car, mostly get ignored by the police. As the police mostly don't speak English and it is almost impossible to collect "fines" from people who don't speak Vietnamese, it is just too much trouble. They also don't want foreigners talking about corrupt Vietnamese police."

I've found this to be good advice over the years.

If you are Native Thai, you may still be able to make this work or you may decide to just pay the "fine." Unless Thailand has changed a lot in the last 40 years, I expect that you understand and can handle this "inconvenience."

More good advice there I must admit that when we have been stopped it has been when we have a local driver behind the wheel.

thanks all to the good infos - BUT - the main-info i do need is - if someone have brandnew updated informations, that we can drive in to vietnam with our righthanded driven car with thai-plates (also international plates!) - got a contact to an agency in saigon - they say YES - but will cost "only" 1500 us dollars for handling at the border - for 30 days = 50 dollars a day...a bit high i guess - for any good infos thanks - someone knows a good travel-agency or similar in HANOI - because we wants to enter from laos in the north - and exit in the south towards cambodia - here is our pre-planning route:
https://goo.gl/maps/JoZxGD53JEP2

All I can tell you is that when we sent 3 vehicles from Laos to Vietnam to visit our humanitarian demining program there we had no problems although the vehicles all had NGO plates.

DONT pay some agency big bucks to solve your problem as I  sure a simpler and cheaper solution exists. Unfortunately I can't give it to you, but hopefully someone on this website will be able to.

sure - but laos - cambodia and vietnam cars are ALL lefthanded cars!!! thai-cars are righthanded cars!

I too, doubt that you will have any real difficulty.   There is simply too much traffic crossing (all) borders for them to be concerned about L/H or R/H drives.   Sadly(?)  Thailand have a much higher number of English speakers, so apart from the Viet/Thai  (first crossing) you will gain all the correct info you need during the Thai trip.  After all, the locals have to do it daily.  So cross-reference.  Thailand (too) is full of expat cafes and restaurants, all willing to help.   And yes, you'll pay...        ..by having to listen to their stories...

Read again Sam's 70 yr old advice (smile)   And think logically.   The tourist traffic flow has increased exponentially and the last thing (all) immigration authorities need or want is bad press.   True, there may be the odd isolated few who think they can winkle some spare cash out of you, but I haven't heard of any lately.   The heirarchy have impressed on the lower ranks that there are bigger fish to fry than a tourist who just may start talking to a journalist.   Like moi.

Enjoy your tour.  Looks good on the map, and I'm sure your fears will prove unfounded.                      S.E. Asia is adapting quickly to attract more foreigners.  Who often stay.  And invest.

..some are even wise...                       

Bazza139 wrote:

I too, doubt that you will have any real difficulty.   There is simply too much traffic crossing (all) borders for them to be concerned about L/H or R/H drives.   Sadly(?)  Thailand have a much higher number of English speakers, so apart from the Viet/Thai  (first crossing) you will gain all the correct info you need during the Thai trip.  After all, the locals have to do it daily.  So cross-reference.  Thailand (too) is full of expat cafes and restaurants, all willing to help.   And yes, you'll pay...        ..by having to listen to their stories...

Read again Sam's 70 yr old advice (smile)   And think logically.   The tourist traffic flow has increased exponentially and the last thing (all) immigration authorities need or want is bad press.   True, there may be the odd isolated few who think they can winkle some spare cash out of you, but I haven't heard of any lately.   The heirarchy have impressed on the lower ranks that there are bigger fish to fry than a tourist who just may start talking to a journalist.   Like moi.

Enjoy your tour.  Looks good on the map, and I'm sure your fears will prove unfounded.                      S.E. Asia is adapting quickly to attract more foreigners.  Who often stay.  And invest.

..some are even wise...                       

Sagacity incarnate!

..Duh..!!   ..wassatmeen..?    ..I was just trying to invoke your envy...   (Yay!  - suxx ess...!!!)

Bazza139 wrote:

..Duh..!!   ..wassatmeen..?    ..I was just trying to invoke your envy...   (Yay!  - suxx ess...!!!)

I'm all envied up. 

thanks to all for your infos - but my question is still not answered...!

..."who have serious informations, where to apply for entry-permit"...

read my first posting - thanks!