I was curious how important the international driver license is when traveling throughout asia. Has anyone done it without a the international driver license. I first hand done the journey form LA to Argentina without even a any sort of driver license and never once did I have a issue.

Issues come when you have an accident that is your fault and causes injury to others

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

It is a translation of your home licence. And it is not a licence in itself but an "International Drivers Permit". If you use it you are also required to have your home licence with you too, and it must be current.
Whether it is legally required will depend on the country/ies you are in. But they are cheap .. why not get one? The more bits of paper you have the happier the bureaucracy is.

I've carried one and never needed it once, but I think if I were going on a ride through a country where the cop who stops me may not speak English, I'd get one.

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Bruce Clarke - 2020 Yamaha XV250

The decision to carry an IDP with you really boils down to how well you want to insulate yourself from potential problems if you encounter an overly-enthusiastic police officer or customs official.

Like others have mentioned above, the IDP is relatively cheap, and if you plan to travel in countries where the first language of police or customs officials is not the language your home drivers licence is written in, I think it is worthwhile to carry one.

Your call, really.

Michel

In the past couple of years I have been stopped twice at roadside checkpoints (in Indonesia and in Thailand) and asked to present my licence. Each time I presented my Australian licence and was told it was not acceptable, and they wanted to see my IDP instead. As soon as I showed it to them they smiled and waved me on my way.

In Japan last year I also had to show my IDP in order to rent a vehicle :- no IDP = no rental.

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Garry from Oz - powered by Burgman

That about sums it up: You never, ever need an IDP....until you need it.

I get one before any trip where I think I might want to drive, because I've needed one a bunch of different times. They're infuriatingly tacky--cheap paper, rudimentary production values--and expensive (mine cost about $30, including the two required photos). You need a new one every year, which is really annoying considering my license lasts for 5. Hell, they don't even have any good stamps, stickers, or embossed imprints, watermarks, or anti-theft features. Plus the people who work in my local auto club, which is the only place I can buy them, are slow, easily confused, and sometimes almost criminally inept.

I carry them anyway, because once every four or five years it turns out I really do need one. YMMV.

the easiest way to answer this is to put yourself in the position of a local officer who might also happen to be a little less educated.

You perform a check on a foreigner, he presents you a document that "could" be a driver's license, but it is not in your national format, nor in a language you understand.

What would you do?

An IDP solves this.

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John
MotoGreece.gr | personal blog | my G+ profile

I appreciate the response, the main reason for asking such a question is that I unfortunately drive on a restricted license here in the states and I am not able to apply for a IDP. As seeing they really do not have any watermark or attempts to make them fraud proof I may just have to resort to looking into my own to avoid any issues on my trip from vietnam to turkey. As friends and family doubted having a photoshop CA driver license would not work I was able to make it from from california to argentina just fine.

Sir:

You are truly playing with fire if you travel to foreign countries with fraudulent documents.

You would expose yourself to a lower threshold of punishment if you were found to have no documents at all, vs. being found to have fraudulent documents and attempting to fool the local authorities with them.

Can you imagine what the reaction of a foreign police force might be - in a country where you don't speak the language, and the jails are not very nice at all - if you were found to have fraudulent documents? Jeepers, they might just toss you in a jail and leave you there until your trial comes up (in a few years).

From the bottom of my heart, please, don't take the risk of travelling with falsified documents. The downside potential is just too great. Maybe go rent the DVD movie "Midnight Express" and watch it, that might give you a reason to think twice.

Remember - we're not in the 1960s anymore. With all the increases in security procedures and international government and police co-operation that have taken place in the last 15 years due to terrorism, it is very easy for a police force in a backwater town in some third-world country to very quickly verify the authenticity of your driver licence with the authority that issued it. It is also just as easy for them to put a note on file that alerts immigration authorities at all other countries to take a very close look at you the next time you cross a national border.

Michael

PS: I note you plan to visit Myanmar. I lived and worked there for a year way back in 1991. The authorities there didn't miss a thing when it came to checking documents, and that was 25 years ago!

Quiet simple - make sure all your paperwork is in order and correct for the laws of the countries you want to enter.

g6snl -Tim

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Regards Tim

Learning my craft for the big stuff, it won't be long now and it's not that far anyway

In Australia the ripoff price is $55 plus say $20 for photos so hardly cheap for a document that is only valid for 12 months.

I used to always have a current one but after 8 years of paying for two IDPs each time and never having been asked for it (but have presented a laminated copy of normal license - or more commonly an expired genuine license many times), I now carry just an expired IDP

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Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Well, my home insurance has cost me $400/year for the last 10 years and I've never really needed it either

But that won't stop me from buying it anyway

In Indonesia it is the law to have either a local licence issued through the police station or an IDP. Nope, I was never asked for it, but then I was also never pulled over. When you consider the cost of a trip in general, paying $25 - $55 for an "insurance policy" is nothing.

I'm not sure what the OP means by "restricted licence". But if you don't have a proper licence to begin with maybe you need to wait to get the proper one before setting out ...or be prepared to deal with potential consequences without expecting much sympathy from others when things go wrong.