After living here for so long, I started to feel like I know all there is to know about the place and I can see already that I was terribly wrong about that arrogant notion. I have found out a major part of this in regards to the rule of law and how it various from place to place.
So far the major difference is turning out to be in regards to motorbike law.
Where I have lived in the south in Krabi and Phuket, the road rules are all but non-existent. You kind of do whatever you want and as long as you don't crash or cause anyone else to crash, there is no issue.
I have previously posted and even offered advice to people about how if they come from a G-8 western country, they wouldn't even need a proper motorbike license in order to rent a bike here. While this is true in Chiang Mai as well it is not true about how the police feel about it. There are daily checkpoints here and if you don't have the proper credentials (international driving permit for motorbikes or a Thai motorbike license) you are going to get a ticket.
Now I am not going to say that I agree with this process because it does seem to be a method of stealing money from the public rather than to enforce any sort of laws, but I am just stating that it is a fact: In the south if you have a license of any sort (I had an expired car driving license) you will be just fine.
I actually feel kind of bad about this because one guy actually traveled here using my above advice and got a ticket, it wasn't a lot of money but I am genuinely sorry about that. If we ever meet i will buy you whiskey or a pizza.... or both
Now I don't want to become a huge judgy-pants about corruption because even in USA there are certain counties that are known for pulling people over for anything, not to enforce laws but to hand out tickets to people that are just passing through because they know they will just pay it by mail and not go to court because it would be more expensive for them to take a day off work and drive to the courthouse etc.
source
you do not want to give these guys a reason to doubt your credentials
In Thailand it is just a bit more obvious that this is a cash grab because you could rock up there on a rented bike with no helmet and no license and 500 Baht later you get a ticket that gives you a "3 day pass" on all other tickets even if they are unrelated to whatever this ticket ends up being for (I promise you, I am not making this up, it is well known by everyone in the community.)
So I guess the point of this article is for everyone to scrap the information I had given you in the past about not needing an international permit. It used to be that if you were from USA, Australia, U.K., Germany, Canada, New Zealand, or France (there might be others) that your home license was treated as being "better" than an international permit or a Thai license... It might be better, but the Thai police don't care and will getcha if you don't have what they want.