Magellan Mapsend Worldwide

Before we left for this trip, I decided to purchase a copy of Magellan's Worldwide Basemap Software to use with my Meridian Platinum handheld GPS receiver. I was excited to find out that the software contained topographic data (albeit not that detailed) for all of Thailand! Since we planned to do some hiking and mountain driving, I thought this would be fun, and it was. Uwe can probably still hear me say "well, it looks like we are going to top out on this mountain and start heading down the other side" from the passenger seat of the Hilux. The map data only includes major highways (some are 2-lane), towns along those highways, railroads, and waterways. Otherwise, the maps are pretty bare. No street-level data. Below you will find some screen shots of maps from the trip, using the Mapsend software. (If you would like to see what the Mapsend maps look like for different parts of the world, click on the link above and then click on "Preview Maps" in the upper right-hand corner of the page.)

Where in the heck is Thailand anyway? (87 kb)

This shows a track that indicates most of where we traveled (67 kb)

Zoomed in a bit, the topo lines begin to show. (114 kb)

Zoomed in even more, the elevation data begins to show. (161 kb)

OK, now for the fun stuff. Below you will find some colorful artwork that our friend and traveling companion, Uwe, created. He made some nice maps using satellite imagery with Ozi Explorer software, along with Magellan GPS data, and some digital data for country borders.

An overview of the entire country with our routes shown in yellow. Borders are white. For reference, the country is about 1,007 miles long, from north to south. And it is about 482 miles wide (at it's widest point from east to west). (77 kb)

A closer look with the south excluded. Our routes shown in yellow. Borders are white. (236 kb)

An overview of the northern region with our routes shown in yellow. Borders are white. (215 kb)

Detail of some of our travel around the northern city of Chiang Mai. There is a wall with a moat surrounding the old part of the city, and the tracks at the center of the map (at a 90 degree angle) are following the wall. (220 kb)

Detail of some of our travel around the huge city of Bangkok. (242 kb)