I just wonder if GPS are worthless with the english map and street database. Mine is bad in finding locations. Ok once i saved it it will find it and it does translate the roads into english and so on but finding streets or villages or whatever is seriously lacking.

However my gf is telling me how great the GPS is of her friend and how it finds everything but its 100% in Thai. It kinda makes sense with the bad translations of Thai to english (no rules for that) and who knows they might not have translated all streets.

I am using the newest maps so that is not the problem. Got a garmin nuvi 203(bought in thailand)

I use a Garmin loaded with the standard map in English and Thai. No problems using either.

learn to read Thai script!

I use a Garmin loaded with the standard map in English and Thai. No problems using either.

Is it easy for you to find streets and so on. My gf has problems with it and she can read thai she says the original thai map has more data. Could have been a mistake with my gps but there are not many thai streets in there.

learn to read Thai script!

Planning to do so i can already speak enough thai to get by but the next mission is to be able to read it.

there is nothing wrong, its the way Thais spell it, just take a sign when you are out driving, they spell it in so many different ways, the garmin only know 1 way of spelling it

It's not translation that's going on here, it's transliteration

there is nothing wrong, its the way Thais spell it, just take a sign when you are out driving, they spell it in so many different ways, the garmin only know 1 way of spelling it

Correct. Several dialects and several ways of spelling one simple word. Garmin usually has only one version of a word in its memory.

Funny, I can find any gas station within a certain radius but can't find a major landmark if not spelt as per the memory.

I always found paper maps printed in English next to useless and I guess the same is true for GPS devices, too. Transliterations are next to useless when trying to communicate with Thais as you have no idea how to pronounce the words.

I always found paper maps printed in English next to useless and I guess the same is true for GPS devices, too. Transliterations are next to useless when trying to communicate with Thais as you have no idea how to pronounce the words.

you are very wrong, GPS is great, just find a bank, service station, McDonald, hotel, whatever close to the place you wanna go and it will guide you there, after i got mine i have not been lost in BKK or other places going from a to b, believe me it really works

forgot, and when you wanna go home you just press "home" and it will for sure bring you home, right now mine show i am 9546KM from home

When I fisrt moved up to CM I bought a Sat Nav. It was a good one that you could have the maps in Thai, with the menus and directions in English. The POI etc programmed in were in both Thai and English. I foubnd it very difficult to use the English script to find places - Thaiu script helped some, but usually meant scrolling through the list as addresses in magazines and business cards etc never seemed to be spelled the same as they were in the GPS.

Anyway I used it for about 6 months - with a few niggles like it kept wanting me to turn right off the super highway where there was no turning (and then making me u-turn and go around for another shot!) which was very annoying, but all in all it was fine. Though when I trod on it (whoops) and cracked the screen it became useless - I realised just how much I had relied on it. I never use it now (or a replacement) as I have learnt the roads and just google the address before I set off.

Asking a Thai for the way is a crap shoot at best!

//Edit - only thing I really miss is the take-me-home function for when I do get a little lost //