Streetview coverage of the Northeast started

While the systematic Google Streetview coverage is still limited to the provinces around Bangkok and Chiang Mai, and Phuket province as the only province in the South, already with the first batch of Streetview imagery two main roads were included - Phetkasem from Bangkok to Phuket and Phahon Yothin from Bangkok to the North. A similar single roundtrip by a Streetview car now started the coverage in the Northeast.

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Roundabout in Buriram in front of the Province Hall

The Isan roundtrip went through the provincial capitals of Sisaket, Surin, Buriram, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chaiyaphum, Khon Kaen, Maha Sarakham, Roi Et, Yasothon, Amnat Charoen and Ubon Ratchathani, and another two roads along the Thai-Cambodian border including up to the parking lot of Phreah Vihear. Also the main road along the border in Sa Kaeo and Trat province was added, including the border crossing in Aranyaprathet and Hat Lek.

So quite a lot of new opportunities for armchair traveling in areas less frequented by tourists, however for my task to collect the locations of the administrative offices the full coverage is much more useful, as not all the offices are located directly at the main road.

Streetview Thailand update

Pattaya city hall on Streetview

Yesterday, Google enlarged the coverage by StreetView in Thailand for the second time, apparently they seem to do around every six month as the previous one was in October last year. While sadly they still haven't added anything for the South since the initial version, the central area around Bangkok is now covered even better. Chonburi province is now completely added, including Pattaya of course, Ayutthaya and Suphanburi, which were partially done in the previous update, are now more-or-less complete as well, more parts of Ratchaburi and Kanchanaburi were added. In the North, now a good part of both Lampang and Lamphun province were added.

And Google hasn't stopped to collect data, right now the cars are underway in several provinces - too bad still no Ko Samui or other parts of Surat Thani.

• Chachoengsao - Khlong Khiao, Bang Khla, Bang Nam Priao, Ban Pho, Mueang districts (the whole western part of the province, as Bang Pa Kong is already online)
• Prachinburi - Ban Sang district
• Singburi - Inburi and Mueang districts
• Chiang Mai - Mae Chaen district
• Mae Hong Son - Pang Mapha, Pai district

If I weren't busy with other things, it'd be fun to "drive" through the newly added areas of Thailand from my desk, collecting or verifying the coordinates of the local administration offices.

Changwat Krung Thep

Driving the Nonthaburi-Bangkok road, I spotted a very strange sign at the boundary between Nonthaburi and Bangkok. Sadly there was no chance to stop as the road is currently very narrow due to the construction of the Pink Line Skytrain which once finished will connect Nonthaburi with Bangkok very conveniently, so I could not take a photo at that time, and haven't yet returned to Bangkok yet. But luckily now Google Streetview comes to my rescue to proof I wasn't imagining things, and having something to show with this post.

The sign reads "Khet Changwat Krung Thep", and had a second similar sign below it I could not read fast enough. The strange thing - Bangkok is not a Changwat, like I have written about that Bueng Kan is the 76th province, and not the 77th like so many believe not knowing the administrative details of Bangkok Metropolis. Yet while I can understand that many laypeople don't know these details, I was clearly surprised that an official sign does show this wrong information.

Well, actually there was a Changwat Krug Thep, but only for the short period between December 1971 when the provinces Phra Nakhon and Thonburi were merged, and December 1972 when the law on the special administrative area of Krung Thep became effective [Gazette]. But even during that time it wasn't named Changwat, but "Nakhon Luang Krung Thep Thon Buri" (นครหลวงกรุงเทพธนบุรี). While the sign I spotted was a bit weathered, it was certainly not 35 years old, so it must have been made at a time when it was really wrong already. Amazing Thailand as usual...

But in fact even more amazing is to try the term "จังหวัดกรุงเทพ" on the Royal Gazette search page, as this returns more than 100 results. For example in 2006 the Election Commission announced the Senator election in Bangkok calling it Changwat [Gazette] - though in the actual PDF it is correct without Changwat, only in the search index it is wrong. Though I haven't checked them all, this seems to be only an issue with the database, where the clerk entering the topic fell into the misconception that Bangkok is a province.

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More Streetview coverage in Thailand

Yesterday, Google added lot of areas all over the world with more Streetview imagery, including Thailand. Whereas in the original launch in March this year only Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket province got good coverage, now some more provinces got covered.

• Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Prakan and Samut Sakhon already had some imagery, especially the parts close to Bangkok, but now these provinces are covered almost completely.
• Nakhon Nayok is also covered well, just the road through Khao Yai is missing
• The more remote parts of Chiang Mai got added, as well as a good deal of Chiang Rai province
• The road from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai is also covered now, like the road from Bangkok to Phuket in the first batch
• Also, the road to Si Sawat in Kanchanaburi can now be driven online
• Small parts of Suphanburi and Ayutthaya province are added as well as the northern tip of Chonburi province.

Richard Barrow has posted a comparison of the coverage around Bangkok on his blog. According to Google, right now the Streetview cars take imagery in Chonburi around Pattaya as well as in Suphanburi. I hope the South as well as the Isan will see those cars soon as well.

Thaiyawat TAO

While browsing through this imagery is fun by itself, it is also a nice tool for my data collection on the local administrations. I still haven't found any comprehensive map with the locations of the local administration offices, and just looking from above often doesn't give any clear indication which building is the correct office.

With the first Streetview data I was able to complete my map with the local administrations in Phuket, so with a bit of luck I may be able to do the same with the provinces around Bangkok now. For example, when I wrote about the incident in Thaiyawat TAO two weeks ago, I tried to find the location of the office which seemed to be close to temple Wat Thaiyawat. But only with Streetview I was now able to identify the actual building - not a representative large new building easily spotted in satellite imagery, like the one in many local administrations.

Google Streetview started in Thailand

It is just a half year since it was announced that Google will capture imagery with their special cars to make Thailand available in Streetview as well, and now Richard Barrow alerted his readers that Google has already made it available to the public yesterday. In cooperation with the Tourism Authority (TAT), this now allows tourists to visit their destination from their armchair before. Thus the areas covered are (obviously) Bangkok and the two touristic provinces Phuket and Chiang Mai. And not just the cities, but a significant part of these two provinces, even in quite large Chiang Mai a good deal of the main roads to the outlying districts is available. Within Bangkok, even many small Soi have imagery, so one can see a lot of the daily life in the city, including the ugly things like wild garbage pits.

Rommani TAO, Phang Nga

But for me the most interesting part is that the road from Bangkok to Phuket was also photographed, so one can drive on one of the major roads by mouse clicks. And as a lot of the smaller towns are clustered along the road, also several of the administrative offices could now be seen much easier than in the satellite imagery. I have already added the locations of three TAO offices between Surat Thani and Takua Pa into my XML, an area where the no high resolution satellite imagery is available yet. Guess I will be the only one browsing through Streetview for such office buildings, and not odd or funny shots like this discovered in Phuket.

Google Streetview coming to Thailand

When I first read about Google opening an office in Bangkok, one of my wishes was StreetView coverage for Thailand. Just little bit more than 2 months later, it was now announced that they indeed will start taking imagery with their StreetView cars in Bangkok, in cooperation with the Tourism Authority (TAT). For those able to read Thai can read at the Google Blog itself, but Richard Barrow has already reported it on his blog as well.

I just hope it will not only the main touristic areas which get imagery, as also the many suburbs (including Nonthaburi or Samut Prakan) which would over lots of interesting places worth discovery in this way. And of course there are many interesting places in the provinces as well, so the StreetView cars could be kept busy for years for sure. At least there won't be such a PR disaster with paranoid home owners like here in Germany, where Google already stopped to take any new imagery - TAT has noticed the potential of being able to see where to go on vacation before.

MapJack

It will still take years until Google's Streetview will come to Thailand, but already now it has a similar website showing views from the road for a few selected towns named MapJack. From what they write on their website, they take a much simpler and therefore cheaper approach than Google, but still their views are very worth exploring.

To make it fit with the topic of this blog, I have selected all the views of administrative offices within the towns available, I can share my own photograph only for the town hall of Hua Hin - I missed the district office even though it was just on the other side of the crossing, and most of the offices in Ayutthaya.

• Hua Hin: Municipality office, District office
• Pai: District office
• Pattaya: Municipality office
• Mae Hong Son: Municipality office, District office (hardly visible), Province hall, Provincial court
• Ayutthaya: Province hall, Provincial court, District office, Municipality office, City pillar
• Phuket: Province hall, Phuket municipality office, Thep Krasattri municipality office, Karon municipality office, Patong municipality office, District office Mueang Phuket, District office Thalang
• Chiang Mai: Municipality office, District office
• Krabi: Province hall, Provincial court, District office, Municipality office, PAO office, City pillar