Who makes the best maps of/in Thailand?

[infinity11]

I noticed the accuracy of most maps here pale in comparison to the west, so who makes the best maps for the country and provinces and where can they be found and/or purchased?

I know the country is changing fast so who updates and prints accurate updates?

[bkkjames]

CIA makes a pretty good map.

[Crazy chef 1]

the army...

[h90]

CIA makes a pretty good map.

of every country

[JingerBen]

US military cartographers made the most accurate maps of Thailand during the Vietnam war.

Before that, James McCarthy a British surveyor working as the Director-General of the Siamese Government Surveys mapped the country between 1881 and 1883.

[Digitalbanana]

Royal Thai Survey Dept, (http://www.rtsd.mi.th).

[CNXBKKMAN]

Google maps and you have the satellite view. There must be a good way to get the bits you want on paper if needed. The last time I tried to save a map offline it wouldn't work though. It was a dirt track route through the hills for a bike ride.

[apetley]

US military cartographers made the most accurate maps of Thailand during the Vietnam war.

Before that, James McCarthy a British surveyor working as the Director-General of the Siamese Government Surveys mapped the country between 1881 and 1883.

He missed off the Kanchanaburi bypass though.

[manarak]

Google maps and you have the satellite view. There must be a good way to get the bits you want on paper if needed. The last time I tried to save a map offline it wouldn't work though. It was a dirt track route through the hills for a bike ride.

just do a screenshot and save it as a picture

[manarak]

@OP:

maps are terrible in Thailand, especially the little maps that small and large businesses draw themselves to show their location.

Why they have to draw 90 degree corners and distort everything instead of making an accurate map is beyond me.

I wished businesses would add their GPS coordinates on handouts and a GPS link on their homepage.

Regarding other maps, the best map depends on what you intend to use it for.

For most of my uses, google maps has been the best so far, either used as:

- printouts

- saved screenshots on a tablet

- live navigation using GPS

[infinity11]

bookstore maps?

real old school maps?

[manarak]

bookstore maps?

real old school maps?

can you share what do you need them for? and what scale?

[infinity11]

travel, any scale/ best scales i can get

[infinity11]

Royal Thai Survey Dept, (http://www.rtsd.mi.th).

Thanks, it's all in thai, i tried and failed with google translate.

If you have any suggestions how to navigate it great, i might need a thai person though.

[manarak]

for travel, I recommend the bilingual Thainet travel deluxe atlas, the second on this page:

http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/int/thailand.htm

there are other maps on the page as well, many can be found in bookstores

Edited March 31, 2015 by manarak

[CMHomeboy78]

US military cartographers made the most accurate maps of Thailand during the Vietnam war.

Before that, James McCarthy a British surveyor working as the Director-General of the Siamese Government Surveys mapped the country between 1881 and 1883.

The US Army maps were leaked to the market in the early '80s and were obtainable if you had the right connections. Regrettably, I didn't, but I saw one quadrant of the northwest on display at a secondhand bookstore in Bangkok at the time. The owner refused to sell it.

Since then I haven't seen any or heard of any place where they might be available.

James McCarthy's book, Surveying and Exploring in Siam [reprint White Lotus 1994] describes his work with the Siamese Government Surveys in the 1880s.

Thongchai Winichakul's Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation [university of Hawaii Press] is also of considerable interest and relevant to the subject.

[action]

www.PNMAP.com

[yellowboat]

Groovy maps

[Thanyaburi Mac]

Friend in the U.S., Jim Henthorn, has the 1:250,000 scale maps for SEA online. He did a massive scanning job, really good. And a plus for Laos, he put most of the Lima Site #s on the maps, the airfields. Note, these maps are from the 1960s & '70s.

http://911gfx.nexus.net/sea-ao.html

Mac

[NickJ]

Nancy Chandler.....and her hot older daughter Nema........

[malathione]

University of Texas, Perry Castenada Library, has the old Army Topo sheets on line. 1:50,000 scale from the late 50's.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/

Probably has other Thailand maps, as well.

[Digitalbanana]

Google maps and you have the satellite view. There must be a good way to get the bits you want on paper if needed. The last time I tried to save a map offline it wouldn't work though. It was a dirt track route through the hills for a bike ride.

just do a screenshot and save it as a picture

I use Easy Google Map Downloader to save any size image of tiles which are geo-referenced in the jpg world file also.

[Digitalbanana]

Royal Thai Survey Dept, (http://www.rtsd.mi.th).

Thanks, it's all in thai, i tried and failed with google translate.

If you have any suggestions how to navigate it great, i might need a thai person though.

You might need to go with a Thai (and maybe a valid reason to buy? - I've not tried alone) but the maps are the best I've seen in both English and Thai annotation. Attached a screen grab of a much larger raster screen scan example.

[Estrada]

US military cartographers made the most accurate maps of Thailand during the Vietnam war.

Before that, James McCarthy a British surveyor working as the Director-General of the Siamese Government Surveys mapped the country between 1881 and 1883.

The US Army maps were leaked to the market in the early '80s and were obtainable if you had the right connections. Regrettably, I didn't, but I saw one quadrant of the northwest on display at a secondhand bookstore in Bangkok at the time. The owner refused to sell it.

Since then I haven't seen any or heard of any place where they might be available.

James McCarthy's book, Surveying and Exploring in Siam [reprint White Lotus 1994] describes his work with the Siamese Government Surveys in the 1880s.

Thongchai Winichakul's Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation [university of Hawaii Press] is also of considerable interest and relevant to the subject.

DK Books used to sell these maps made for the Thai Army by the US Army. I have a couple of the maps which were published in 1984 for civilian use by The Royal Thai Survey Department of the Supreme Command Headquarters. Scale 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 for Changwat Phuket. I used it when I was working on the Phuket Water Supply Scheme. However some MPs and the Military did not like detailed maps in the hands of civilians so they ceased to be published. I always had to get a written request with reasons to get a section of the maps issued for various projects after that, I could no longer buy them in a book shop. I believe that the military still control all the maps and even Google maps are censored so you will not find certain buildings and army roads which are deemed against National Security to show. They certainly do not want large scale zoom maps on google that would show their car with number plate, parked outside their Mia Noi's house. Quite why some of the Elites buildings are fogged out I can't say, but I think it has more to do with illegal construction, land encroachment and the like. You can no longer get an Royal Thai Survey Map which the military have, so you cannot navigate as well as with a map in the UK. maps from "Thinknet" are about the best you can get unless you work for a Company or firm of Consultants and can apply for them with a good reason for having them.

Edited March 31, 2015 by Estrada

[jobsworth]

try Stanfords in London. they do air navigation maps of most of south east asia from the vietnam war and after.

if you are looking for a bartholomews type map forget it. they are even older than that and really inaccurate.

you bikers. can't you just use satellite navigation.

[ToddinChonburi]

I got a ROADWAY from the PTT station with the JIFFY store Thailand Atlas in Thai and English It has the location of the NGV stations

it has a yellow cover and in the upper right corner it says BEST SELLER

I have used this many times for Highway travel. works very good.

[BuaBS]

Your printer does !

[recycler]

For point information, I think the digital maps of NOSTRA maps are the best in Thailand.

In some cases I use Google and Apple maps and for Bangkok there is TSquare that has real time traffic information based on taxi's.

I haven't had the need for paper maps in about 8 years.

[NickJ]

Have you seen the Nancy Maps? Have you seen Nema????

[Billy Bloggs]

Royal Thai Survey Dept, (http://www.rtsd.mi.th).

Thanks, it's all in thai, i tried and failed with google translate.

If you have any suggestions how to navigate it great, i might need a thai person though.

Chrome handles it just beautifully, its as clear as a bell, can understand the whole page