Ok so tomorrow I go to France to visit my friend Pierre, seen here enjoying some fishing in Bordeaux.
The cover picture is also from Bordeaux. And Pierre sells wine, of course.
Looking forward to it to be honest.
It’s only going to be 2 days, but anything is better than nothing.
Oh and recently I’ve been doing some research because it turns out I need to get my Dutch driving license if I plan to stay more than 6 months…or really 185 days.
And…. Just like China… I basically have to start from scratch, which means passing a theory test and a practical test.
Wait no, in China you have to do a pretty difficult theory test (available in English) and then you can just swap your foreign driver’s license over.
Only certain countries can exchange their license directly without having to do any tests at all.
In this list of countries the Chinese driving license, nor the Australian driver’s license is included.
I mean sure, the Chinese driver’s license, because they drive like shit, and having a document for which a corrupt government says ‘you have the skill to drive in a messed up traffic environment’ doesn’t exactly shout competent when you transfer that ‘skill’ to a more civilised driving environment, especially one in which traffic laws are enforced.
But for the Australian driving license, what? That’s a bit unfair.
So I’ve been driving here for about 2 months now…and 1 thing I found was that bicycles have right of way. I found that out by nearly running over 2 cyclists.
Sure, in china I got used to just driving through zebra crossings…just because that’s what you do. They don’t really mean anything there.
But here in the Netherlands they apparently do care about that, and what’s more, cyclists know they have right of way, and so have got used to not even taking into account for their own safety and just cross the road without looking.
I mean that’s just dumb right? Your parents teach you that at a young age, ‘look both ways before you cross the road, when it’s safe to go, then you can go’
But not these fools.
This is how I nearly clipped 2 cyclists- because they just assumed they were safe, and therefore crossed without looking.
So, one of my housemates is studying for her theoretical test, even though she has her US license as well as her Malaysian license….but oh no, they don’t count…. But also because she will have to do the practical assessment as well, she decided to take an ‘assessor lesson’
And the assessor came to the conclusion she needed 15 lessons to pass her driving test. (of which would cost her around 1,000 euros including the test)
I call bullshit.
The reason for this, is the Dutch system seems to work like the French one a bit, where individuals can’t just learn on the farm or in a car park with a parent or family friend that has their full license, like Australia; but instead has to be ‘recommended’ or ‘approved’ by a driving school who deems they are ready to take their practical test.
Of course the school is also the one charging you money to ‘learn’; and from a cynical but also rational point of view, if they feel they haven’t got enough money from you, they might just hold off saying that you’re not ready to take the test, which means you can’t take it.
That’s pretty bullshit right?
So, yep, it’s not just China that has dodgy practices and in fact, I think the Chinese system is actually more fair than this.
Oh and motorbike test can only be done in Dutch, much like the Chinese motorbike test can only be done in Chinese, with the exception that in the Netherlands you CAN have a translator with you.
[in China they banned this, because you’d get ‘translator’ services who would translate the questions, but also tell you the answers for an additional fee.]
So basically I’ve got 4 months left to drive on my Australian / Chinese license so I need to start preparing, that’s until today I made a little revelation…
It seems that if you are a ‘highly skilled’ foreigner, again many similarities with China here , like their ‘foreign professional’ or whatever thingy they’ve got going on visa; so if you’re a ‘highly skilled foreigner’ then you may have a special 30% tax ruling….which I’ve applied for.
And… if you have this, then regardless of where you license is from, you can change it for the Dutch license. Without going through their whole little corrupt system.
Sounds pretty awesome.
So now I’m just waiting for confirmation that I’ve definitely got my 30% tax ruling and then I’ll go about it this way.
It seems as if I’m just going around the world collecting driver’s licenses. Not fun to be honest.
People tend to forget that when you move to a new country, it’s not all hunky dory, there’s lots of registration for things that in your home country are already way behind you…..and it’s annoying as hell.
Anyway, Bordeaux here I come…being a little bit more relaxed than I was at the beginning of the week.
I met Pierre when I was in Beijing, and I thought I’d share a few more photos choice photos.
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