Thais and Maps

General chat about life in the Land Of Smiles. Discuss expat life, relationship issues and all things generally Thailand and Asia related.
Pleng
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Pleng »

Big Boy wrote: Seriously, one of the drawbacks/advantages of my SatNav in Thailand is that unlike the UK, where it would take you direct to somebody's front door, the system in Thailand takes you somewhere near an address.
To be fair, in the UK the door numbering system works in a manner that's easy for SatNav software to work with. If you're x miles down this road then you're around door number y. Trying to apply any algorithm to building numbers along a road in Thailand is impossible.

As you say, if you have the coordinates for an address from Google Maps (and assuming they're correct) it will get you there.
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Terry »

Google Earth will even give you directions to the last metre.

Check out my website folks and see how it's done....................... 8)

http://www.huahinfishing.com
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Nereus »

Big Boy wrote:
Nereus wrote:It is worthwhile down loading Google Earth, and then you can have a look at the alternative routes, and read off the co-ordinates. :cheers:
:oops: :oops: :oops: There it is. :oops: :oops: :oops:

:cheers: Big Boy. :thumb: Just be careful not too get distracted with the Sat Nav, as the idiots driving on the wrong side of the road, not indicating, etc., etc., are still there and still have right of way! :)
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margaretcarnes
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by margaretcarnes »

Pleng wrote:
Big Boy wrote: Seriously, one of the drawbacks/advantages of my SatNav in Thailand is that unlike the UK, where it would take you direct to somebody's front door, the system in Thailand takes you somewhere near an address.
To be fair, in the UK the door numbering system works in a manner that's easy for SatNav software to work with. If you're x miles down this road then you're around door number y. Trying to apply any algorithm to building numbers along a road in Thailand is impossible.

As you say, if you have the coordinates for an address from Google Maps (and assuming they're correct) it will get you there.
I thought it worked on the post code system - which is much more defined in the UK?
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Big Boy
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Big Boy »

When you're in the UK, most SatNavs default to the Post Code system because it works very well. However, if the SatNav is anything like mine, it will have other options (I think mine, which is quite old now, has 8 different ways of entering your destination).
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Pleng
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Pleng »

margaretcarnes wrote:
Pleng wrote:
Big Boy wrote: Seriously, one of the drawbacks/advantages of my SatNav in Thailand is that unlike the UK, where it would take you direct to somebody's front door, the system in Thailand takes you somewhere near an address.
To be fair, in the UK the door numbering system works in a manner that's easy for SatNav software to work with. If you're x miles down this road then you're around door number y. Trying to apply any algorithm to building numbers along a road in Thailand is impossible.

As you say, if you have the coordinates for an address from Google Maps (and assuming they're correct) it will get you there.
I thought it worked on the post code system - which is much more defined in the UK?
Well yes, it works on post code and door number in the UK.

Clearly it can't work on postcodes in Thailand otherwise it'd get you just about into any major city and then you'd be on your own.

So presumably while in the UK lat and lon polygons are generated for the post code you're travelling into, here they are generated for the road you're travelling into. Once you get into said polygon the principle is the same: in the UK you have a much better idea of at what position building x is within that polygon, due the the incremental house numbering system.

Of course it also helps that most roads are divided up into several postcodes, making the plot even smaller.
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by STEVE G »

...... in the UK you have a much better idea of at what position building x is within that polygon, due the the incremental house numbering system.
I've recently had a house built to the west of Hua Hin and I can see the problem; our house number is nearly 20 more than our neighbour who built a year or two earlier and it seems that they just allocate the next number to any new house wherever it is on the road.
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by chaspul »

Fifteen or so years ago had a touring holiday by car in Thailand. BK to Chang Mai taking in the bridge and everything in between.
It was always a joke that we always found the right route on the way back after realising we had gone wrong.

After one particular sojourn off the beaten track, stopped in a very small village to ask directions at the bar/Pub, it did have a hair dressers over the road, so maybe more than ten houses.

Half a dozen Thai guys drinking beer around one table, showed them the map and no one could say where they were at that time, where they lived!

Now with the advent of Sat Nav everything is easy, mine is Thai/English and works on telephone numbers, and many other ways to find destinations.

Only critique is it telling me to turn sharp left when on elevated sections of motorway in Bangkok!!!
I have heard recently that even "smart phones" have the same fault.

It always gets us home. Eventually.

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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Bernard »

Big Boy wrote:
I was truly amazed when my SatNav took me off the tarmac road, and between a couple of paddy fields on a dirt track. Basically, you have to put your faith in the SatNav. Use common sense when you think it's wrong, and it will immediately calculate another route'
BB, I always remember the old computing use of GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out), in other words, GPS navigators are great as long as you double check the destination you have entered BEFORE you set off. Also, for you to take a route through a paddy field track is great in a 4/4 but I would be in trouble in my car. So, I set the options on my Garmin GPS Unit to avoid such areas.
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Big Boy »

:laugh: Thats the thing with a SatNav. You put all of your faith in it, and do as it tells you (would you do that if your wife or husband was directing you?). It always gets you there in the end. However, you never know if it's taken you by the best route.

I bought mine originally to help me find air bases on the East Coast of England (it was work - I'm not a spy :wink: ). It often took me through some very remote places, and it rarely took me the same way on the way home. A good example of this was going to and from RAF Wyton. Going it always took me up the M6. Coming home, it always took me down the M1 and along the M4 :?
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Big Boy »

Bernard wrote:BB, I always remember the old computing use of GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out), in other words, GPS navigators are great as long as you double check the destination you have entered BEFORE you set off. Also, for you to take a route through a paddy field track is great in a 4/4 but I would be in trouble in my car. So, I set the options on my Garmin GPS Unit to avoid such areas.
I think it comes down to common sense. At least you know with a SatNav that if you opt to ignore an instruction (to travel a dirt track), then it will recalculate your route within seconds and offer you an alternative.
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by STEVE G »

Bernard wrote:
Big Boy wrote:
I was truly amazed when my SatNav took me off the tarmac road, and between a couple of paddy fields on a dirt track. Basically, you have to put your faith in the SatNav. Use common sense when you think it's wrong, and it will immediately calculate another route'
BB, I always remember the old computing use of GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage Out), in other words, GPS navigators are great as long as you double check the destination you have entered BEFORE you set off. Also, for you to take a route through a paddy field track is great in a 4/4 but I would be in trouble in my car. So, I set the options on my Garmin GPS Unit to avoid such areas.
I've used a Nokia phone with satnav to find my way around where we have a house in Issan on a mountain bike and I've been shocked at how virtually all the small dirt roads in the area are actually on the map at all. I agree that you might struggle with a car in the monsoon season but it's a good thing that they're included as there are large areas of Thailand where they are still the only roads available. Going east from our village, you can go about 20 km through a maze of small villages and paddy fiels before you get to another surfaced road and you can get very lost indeed!
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Re: Thais and Maps

Post by Terry »

Resurrecting this thread.........

Normally, when Mrs. T heads back to the home village for a special occasion, she hires a minibus with driver - that way, she can take half of her family / mates up there and load up with specian rice and Samut Somkran Pla Too on the way back..............I avoid these trips. 8)

This time last week, Mrs. T departed for a 5 day sojourn for a relative who was becoming a monk. This time she used her Captiva (Which has Sat-Nav in Thai) and she's now safely back home - but not without getting lost on the way up there and in Bangkok on her way back.

She took her nephew (Who can also drive) with her - to share the driving and the navigating. They are both very good drivers and I have no problem with them driving me around - but they have absolutely zero sense of direction when outside of Hua Hin / Cha Am

Having departed at around 05.00 in the morning, I got a phone call at about 11.00. They were lost - somewhere in Khao Yai National Park................ :?

To be fair - the nephew was brought up in Suphanburi - which might as well be the moon if you are travelling up to Korat.

'How do I get out of here?' I was asked - bearing in mind that Khao Yai is a bloody big place I had no idea other than to tell her to find a sign to Pak Chong, hang a right and head up the friendship highway.....(See my previous posting on this thread). They arrived 'home' at 23.00 - 18 hours on the road - no doubt aided and abetted by 6 stops for som tam.

They came back on Sunday - left 'home' at 09.00. I got a call at 17.30 - they were in BKK somewhere - having dropped somebody off. 'How do we get on to the express-way and what sign to follow? Where are you? says I....
Bangkok says she ........What part of Bangkok says I..........

Anyway - back home 00.30 Sunday morning with the specian rice and the Pla Too :roll:

This weekend - there will be another demand on my part for the Sat-Nav to get used.............I live in hope :banghead: :banghead:
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