Sawasdee Khrup, TV CM Friends,

We're always on the look-out for on-line maps of Chiang Mai, and yesterday Google-stumbled (forget exactly what it was we started searching on ... some Chiang Mai building we had seen on a recent bicycle trip, perhaps) ...

Which led us to an index page listing many places in Chiang Mai with cross-references to a map of Chiang Mai.

Well, we were surprised to discover several maps, in large size, with an amazing amount of annotation (English) available on-line here :

Maps of Chiang Mai

And various index pages here:

Various index pages

Note that the first link, to the maps, is to a page with no advertisement on it whatsoever.

We have never heard of Hobo Maps before, have no idea who they are, but we congratulate them on providing a fine resource by having such well-annotated maps on-line.

best, ~o:37;

Thanks orang37. This one of the better maps not perfect but getting there. FYI if there is any doubt Hwy 11 is called Super Highway, 3029 is the Ring Road 1 and the 121 is Ring Road 2.

I can't imagine living in CM and getting around without these Hobo / Finder maps. There are two hard copy versions for sale at many bookstores around town.

The smaller one covers the old city and just beyond the moat in detail. The larger one covers everything out to ring road 2 or so.

I keep copies of each in the bike and also by my computer. I often recommend them to people who are struggling with other maps.

Try this site for some fun: http://www.mapjack.com/ . There are street scapes of Chiang Mai.

Thanks orange 37 those maps are really great

This is an online version of the Chiang Mai Big Map, subtitled Finder Map, which has been out for years in hard copy. I have the map dated Oct 2006.

Great resource, and glad to see this web iteration.

Now, if there was a Yellow Pages type of service info, by business type, that would be fantastic.

Eg. Glaziers, for double-glazed windows. Or Tilers, or plumbers, or electricians etc.

Oh, I forgot to mention that an English would be more helpful to us TV users. I can hope...

Thanks o:37, great find.

There is one, but I find it rather limited. Flashy, however! http://www.chiangmaibranches.com/

Some very useful resources here - have saved them in My Favourites. Thanks all.

Here's another to add to your list, if you are interested in maps of Chiang Mai and Siam generally. It is in the stores: Winichakul, Thongchai, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation, Silkworm Books, 2004. It is a very thoughtful and beautifully illustrated essay about how maps have shaped the nation and how peoples' sense of nation affects mapping. Silkworm, by the way, if you are not familiar with it is a local publisher of many fascinating books on SE Asia.

Try this site for some fun: http://www.mapjack.com/ . There are street scapes of Chiang Mai.

I use this and it is great.

I used before i had my 1st visit to CM

I had my bearing from day 1 also helped in the old city too.

Great info, thanks.

many thanks people:jap:

Here's another to add to your list, if you are interested in maps of Chiang Mai and Siam generally. It is in the stores: Winichakul, Thongchai, Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation, Silkworm Books, 2004. It is a very thoughtful and beautifully illustrated essay about how maps have shaped the nation and how peoples' sense of nation affects mapping. Silkworm, by the way, if you are not familiar with it is a local publisher of many fascinating books on SE Asia.

Sawasdee Khrup, Khun MapGuy,

We'd like to second-and-third your recommendation of Khun Dr. Winichakul's book. Khun Thongchai is now both a Professor of S.E. Asian History at the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, and, Director of Graduate Studies. He's been honored by being made a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

We think the book is particularly relevant considering the current dispute between Thailand and Cambodia over Phra Viharn (as the Thais call it), or Preah Vihar (as the Cambodians call it), an ancient Khmer temple to Siva that the French, in a 1904 map which is now a point of disputation, included within "colonial" Cambodian territories.

And you will find, in the book, coverage of that mapping enterprise, and "competing" map enterprises, and many valuable facts and ideas concerning northern Thailand and the coming together of Lanna and central Thailand post-destruction-of-Ayudhya by the Burmese, that forged the modern Siamese (later Thai) nation.

However, we'd like to note that the book can be difficult reading because of an acdemic style influenced by the "structuralist" and "deconstructivist" post-colonial existential philosophical modes of inquiry and analysis associated with "theoreticians of knowledge" like Lacan, and Derrida, and specifically by the writings of Edward Said (who is deeply influenced by Lacan).

To our eyes, the whole book contains multiple iterations of a thesis finally clearly spelled out in chapter eight : that "Thai history" as Thais "know it" today was re-fabricated following the "Paknam crisis" of 1893 when the French sent their gunboats up the Chao Phraya to extort vast territories in what are now Laos and western Cambodia.

In fact, if tiny minds, like ours, can dare make a suggestion to would-be readers of this book: we'd say: go read chapter eight first, and then "back-track" through the book.

We've read the book three times now, and found it "worth it" every single time. But, honestly, we do have a bias against this academic style which we find un-necessarily recursive and self-referential. On the other hand, you could argue that this mode of analysis, which cuts across "traditional" academic boundaries of geography, history, and psychology, perhaps does require an "assault" on our pre-conceptions with a different mode of language, analysis, and discourse ?

What we miss in reading Khun Dr. Thongchai's book are some of the "historical and economic trends" that "ground" the changing psychology of national awareness (which was limited to a very small elite for most of Siam/Thailand's history : ioho up until as late as the early 1900's) such as the change from 1850, when Siam exported about 10% of its rice, to the 1880's where Siam exported 40% of its rice. (source : Dr. Hong Lysa, University of Singapore, out-of-print book, 1984).

But, take all these words with a "grain of salt:" since they come from a dilettante in Thai/Siamese history with no systematic training or mentoring, and do enjoy finding your own path through Dr. Winichakul's excellent book.

best, ~o:37;

To put it another way, the author does beat his thesis to death! Not a bad idea to cut to the chase, as suggested.

Now, if there was a Yellow Pages type of service info, by business type, that would be fantastic.

Eg. Glaziers, for double-glazed windows. Or Tilers, or plumbers, or electricians etc.

Oh, I forgot to mention that an English would be more helpful to us TV users. I can hope...

Thanks o:37, great find.

"The Book of What Where and How in Chiang Mai" by Henry Coulter is exactly what you're looking for. Avaiable in D.K. Bookstore and Gecko Book Shops. Even with a perfect Chiang Mai Map (inside Superhighway).