Tracks from 4X4 trip to Thailand/Laos/Vietnam 2010

[cflai9353]

Hi

Tried to post here last night 3 times, was not successful. Will try again tonight to just give the URL to download my tracks. If can do, then I shall make further comments on the tracks and the trip.

Just go and download my complete tracks for the time being, it is 17.48MB in size that being the reason I have to use and external storage site at mediafire.

Only the registered members can see the link tracks NUVI265W_1460_Sapa.gdb (Only the registered members can see the link)

Regards

cflai

[lurkin]

Hi

Tried to post here last night 3 times, was not successful. Will try again tonight to just give the URL to download my tracks. If can do, then I shall make further comments on the tracks and the trip.

Just go and download my complete tracks for the time being, it is 17.48MB in size that being the reason I have to use and external storage site at mediafire.

Only the registered members can see the link tracks NUVI265W_1460_Sapa.gdb (Only the registered members can see the link)

Regards

cflai

Hello Lai,

Wow, a great trip. You guys got fun?
Thanks for the track log, much appreciated and very helpful.

Thank you

[Ryo]

Another great jurney,

Hi cflai,

That is a huge tracklog with right setting of the GPS. I can improve many of the routes that I only had only on 1/1,000,000 scale to 1/25,000 scale level. I wish I can travel like your tracklog someday! If you need my help to "geotag" the pictures you took, I am more than happy to help you again.

Ryo

[sudaphan]

Hi

Tried to post here last night 3 times, was not successful. Will try again tonight to just give the URL to download my tracks. If can do, then I shall make further comments on the tracks and the trip.

Just go and download my complete tracks for the time being, it is 17.48MB in size that being the reason I have to use and external storage site at mediafire.

Only the registered members can see the link tracks NUVI265W_1460_Sapa.gdb (Only the registered members can see the link)

Regards

cflai

Which parts of that long track are really 4 x 4 ?

[cflai9353]

Hi

I hope you have been able to download the consolidated set of tracks taken during our recent 4X4 overland trip from Malaysia/Thailand/Laos/Northern Vietnam from Mediafire site with no problems.

So sorry I have combined all the tracks for these countries into one file, I assume each mapper concerned with their specific tiles can divide the tracks according to their needs.

The tracks are the result of a combination of 2 GPS units in one car - a NUVI265WT and a NUVI1460, they are 1 sec tracks and Nutracks software has been used to convert the raw data to .gpx format. Waypoints are also included. (You don't get elevation data with these tracks). The red color tracks are from the NUVI1460 and the green color tracks are from NUVI265WT.

Thailand: In view of the red-shirt trouble in Bangkok central, we had to re-schedule our journey to Nakhon Phanom border via the southern outer ring road of Bangkok on to Saraburi passing the "Swampy" airport and the on to Nakhon Ratchasima enroute to KhonKaen, Udon Thani to cross into Laos at Nakhon Phanom. On the way we visited Phimai which is reflected in the tracks.

My sincere thanks to Lurkin (he was then AsiaGPS) of this Forum for all the daily SMS and e-mails advising the daily monitor of what was happening in Bangkok (talk about networking!), also advice by Khun Sudaphan without which we had almost decided to cancel the trip! Would have loved to buy him a meal with beers at Kanchanaburi but we could not contact him as I lost my hand phone somewhere around Halong Bay (also had a load of hot air from the wife for the loss as it was her phone!)!

On the way back, we came into Thailand from Vientiane crossing the Friendship Bridge on to Nangkhai, Udon Thani, Pakchong and visited the National Park at Khao Yai, stayed at Khao Yai Garedn Lodge to visit an Italian village with plenty of shopping - (again, recommended by Lurkin).

To avoid Bangkok again, we drove through the northern outer ring road to Kanchanaburi. Tracks include a tour to the Safari Park at Kanchanaburi and then we bypassed Bangkok back to Chaam, Nakhon Si Thamarat to Malaysia. Many POIs have been noted.

Laos & Vietnam: For Laos and Vietnam, I had loaded all the convoy's GPS units with R6 maps and Rotweilers' V1.1 Laos and V2.6 Vietnam maps. My congrads to RCMaps and Ryo, their maps are much more detailed in terms of street maps for the entire trip, the main problems encountered were the crossing of borders. Laos and Vietnam roads on borders of Nakhon Phanom to Thakhet, Dien Bien Phu and road to Oudomxai were not joined thus giving very funny routes which were not useable. Close to Vinh, bridges were not drawn thus routing were long distances again. There were also too many roads at the border regions (Not deleted when new ones were added). Some roads drawn could not be locked on by the GPS [confused].

(Please note this is not a complaint but a comment on the usability of the maps. It must be noted that the number of man hours put into drawing the maps by the mappers from other sources must be tremendous and it is highly appreciated. And it is hoped that my tracks and POIs will help to get the roads aligned for future use...

I have taken a lot of pictures with my GPS camera and when I am back in Malaysia next week, I shall put them together and upload them too. I am sure the pictures of the road conditions will help the mappers greatly.

Thanks

cflai

[cflai9353]

Which parts of that long track are really 4 x 4 ?

Khun Sudaphan

If I read you correctly, I assume you mean which part of the roads really needed 4X4 vehicles... The answer is the complete section from Sapa to Dien Bien Phu to Oudomxai were under repairs and very bad especially when the journey was done in rainny conditions.

I will upload my photos later and you can then appreciate the conditions then....

Regards

cflai9353

[cflai9353]

Another great jurney,

Hi cflai,

That is a huge tracklog with right setting of the GPS. I can improve many of the routes that I only had only on 1/1,000,000 scale to 1/25,000 scale level. I wish I can travel like your tracklog someday! If you need my help to "geotag" the pictures you took, I am more than happy to help you again.

Ryo

Ryo-san

Thanks, that will be great!

[cflai9353]

Hello Lai,

Wow, a great trip. You guys got fun?
Thanks for the track log, much appreciated and very helpful.

Thank you

Hi Lurkin

Thanks and thanks again! So sorry could not contact you for a 'drink' when I got into Kanchanaburi as I had lost my wife's handphone somehere in Halong Bay much to her chargrin! (Your contact number was inside there!) Now have to buy her a new one ......Another time perhaps?

The trip was great with all 3-5 star hotels - even had a night on board the Victory Cruise boat at Halong. The worst hotel stayed in was the Him Lam Hotel in Diem Bien Phu (Although it is the best you can get in the town!)

The Khao Yai Garden Lodge at the front at a glance was not too appetizing but further check when we deposited everybody at the Italian village revealed a very nice joint with very big rooms and of pretty reasonable standard. The owner is Miss Siraphat, she is very nice, spoke English and still single!

A couple of people in the convoy had the runs from food taken from Hanoi to Sapa and Diem Bien Phu - this is mostly resulting from home cooked style food we were fed with half way in the middle of nowhere during the drive! (Imagine french fries being one of the dishes and many many fried eggs being another!). I must say food throughout the northern Vietnam minority regions were not so palatable to most of us city folks unlike the last trip through central and southern Vietnam which were good! (Handled by the same travel agents)

Maybe the next trip will be to HCMC and further south and back through Koh Kong back into Thailand......

Regards

cflai

[Ryo]

Hi cflai,

Thanks for the feedback. Most of the area especially DBP to the north or intercity roads are drawn based on the paper map which is 1/1,000,000 scale. Your feedback is based on the real experience. As you mentioned many roads are not routable because those map was identified as "walking trail" on the paper map. (If you select your preference as pedestrian, it may become routrable) In south asia, there are so many roads which is only available to motor bikes and bicycles. I usually travel there with motor cycle and I often use tiny wire bridges those has only about 1.5m width or use small boat which can carry motor bike to cross the river. Garmin unit road preference can not separate Car and Motorcycle. I can't specify the roads which is not available for car but for the motorbike.

I was wondering how many times you drove the same roads because you had so many tracks on the same path but now I understood that you combined each vehecles GPS unit at the same time. That is ok. I can avarage those tracks to come up with better track.

I already started to fix the issue you reported. I am looking at both of paper map and your tracklog and found out my paper map is not up to date. (I got it 4 years ago) Route 4D, Route 12 is going to replace current roads on the map and many more is expecting to be replaced. I am not sure about the Laos-Vietnam border issue. It may came from integration of the map but, I will ask you several questions when you return from your jurney. I still have a lot of work to do to reflect your tracklog.

thank you,

Ryo

[lurkin]

The tracks are the result of a combination of 2 GPS units in one car - a NUVI265WT and a NUVI1460, they are 1 sec tracks and Nutracks software has been used to convert the raw data to .gpx format. Waypoints are also included. (You don't get elevation data with these tracks). The red color tracks are from the NUVI1460 and the green color tracks are from NUVI265WT.

And I was already wondering about the colorful tracks :)


On the way we visited Phimai which is reflected in the tracks.Pimai is certainly one of the places to visit, the historical park there is under continuous maintenance by the Thai government; very interesting to see.


My sincere thanks to Lurkin (he was then AsiaGPS) of this Forum for all the daily SMS and e-mails advising the daily monitor of what was happening in Bangkok (talk about networking!), also advice by Khun Sudaphan without which we had almost decided to cancel the trip! Would have loved to buy him a meal with beers at Kanchanaburi but we could not contact him as I lost my hand phone somewhere around Halong Bay (also had a load of hot air from the wife for the loss as it was her phone!)!I bet you are in deep s..t in terms of your wife's handphone. Guess you will have to buy her new one :)


On the way back, we came into Thailand from Vientiane crossing the Friendship Bridge on to Nangkhai, Udon Thani, Pakchong and visited the National Park at Khao Yai, stayed at Khao Yai Garedn Lodge to visit an Italian village with plenty of shopping - (again, recommended by Lurkin). Just wonder why you guys didn't do the 5 minutes extra drive to see the other Italian style village "Primo Posto".

[cflai9353]

Hi Lurkin

We actually visited the Palio village, missed the other one - had a German beer there for Baht 180.....

[lurkin]

Hi Lurkin

We actually visited the Palio village, missed the other one - had a German beer there for Baht 180.....


Hmmmm, now you make me confused, really....
Since you were writing about lots of shopping done in the Italian village, I assume it was Primo Posto and not Palio, coz Palio has a coffee shop and ice cream only ????
DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS!!!
My apologies, yes its Palio, I mixed it up. SOLLY

And hey, German beer (if it was a real German one) for 180 THB in Thailands country side is very cheap :)

[cflai9353]

Hi

Here is the URL to my public Gallery in Picasa website.

Only the registered members can see the link

The pictures are by days sequences and unedited - some are with GPS coordinates and some without. It is terrible trying to take pictures with the GPS working because it takes ages to lock onto the satellites with the Samsung ST1000.

Most of the time, by the time GPS is locked, the scene would have passed...!

Kind regards

Lai

[lurkin]

Hi Lurkin

Thanks and thanks again! So sorry could not contact you for a 'drink' when I got into Kanchanaburi as I had lost my wife's handphone somehere in Halong Bay much to her chargrin! (Your contact number was inside there!) Now have to buy her a new one ......Another time perhaps?

Next life, don't worry :tongue:


The trip was great with all 3-5 star hotels - even had a night on board the Victory Cruise boat at Halong. The worst hotel stayed in was the Him Lam Hotel in Diem Bien Phu (Although it is the best you can get in the town!)

Halong Bay must be great, would love to see it...


The Khao Yai Garden Lodge at the front at a glance was not too appetizing but further check when we deposited everybody at the Italian village revealed a very nice joint with very big rooms and of pretty reasonable standard. The owner is Miss Siraphat, she is very nice, spoke English and still single!

SINGLE? Can have 2 meanings.....


A couple of people in the convoy had the runs from food taken from Hanoi to Sapa and Diem Bien Phu - this is mostly resulting from home cooked style food we were fed with half way in the middle of nowhere during the drive! (Imagine french fries being one of the dishes and many many fried eggs being another!). I must say food throughout the northern Vietnam minority regions were not so palatable to most of us city folks unlike the last trip through central and southern Vietnam which were good! (Handled by the same travel agents)

I got a new nickname for your next trip - professional spray painters trip..... ha ha ha ha

[sudaphan]

Thanks a lot - It's very clear

Sudaphan

[Ryo]

Ｉ’m processing Cflai’s tracklog of Vietnam．It is very impressive．I meant there are very few U-Turns on the tracklog. Did you hire some local guide to find a right road? I finished about 80% of your tracklog to replace the roads on the R6 map. No significant change to the route 1A except the new bypass route around the local cities but anything other than route 1A, I replaced existing route to your tracklog.

I haven't imported your waypoints yet. It seems to be also very important information to be implemented on the map especially at the rural area.

best regards,

Ryo

[cflai9353]

Ｉ’m processing Cflai’s tracklog of Vietnam．It is very impressive．I meant there are very few U-Turns on the tracklog. Did you hire some local guide to find a right road? I finished about 80% of your tracklog to replace the roads on the R6 map. No significant change to the route 1A except the new bypass route around the local cities but anything other than route 1A, I replaced existing route to your tracklog.

I haven't imported your waypoints yet. It seems to be also very important information to be implemented on the map especially at the rural area.

best regards,

Ryo

Hi Ryo

If you have finished 80% that is pretty fast considering the amount of tracks, anyway most to them only required re-aligning.

In Vietnam, we did not do many U-turns to find our way around because we used travel agents who did almost everything for us - including application of convoy permits, booked hotels, arranged meals (not terribly impressed with this service though), tours where included, also including having a vehicle to lead us with a guide who spoke halting English and a service vehicle following us serving us coffee and cold wet towels during stops. (Irritating part was they slowed everyone down to the exact legal speed limits (town 40kph and fastest 80kph outside towns) - as opposed to Thailand and Laos where the escorts speeded up as being a bit of a privilege driving as a convoy:mad:)

Also the same in Laos, our old friend and travel agent who has been with us for years accompanied us to go through Laos whenever we go to Cambodia, Vietnam or China (He is currently also the President of the Laos Travel Association). He personally led us throughout the whole trip in his Toyota Fortuner with a police officer and his son across Laos. A very experienced and reliable old faithful to our group.

Thailand, we do travel around Thailand a lot and with our GPS. We are able to get around quite easily without guides (Also Thailand is the only right-hand drive country during our trip). Previous use of TAT police escorts (Travel Authority of Thailand) had proven to be a bit of a pain in the back as time went on. The services were supposed to be free with a TAT Police car with police personnel leading us, but as time went on, we discovered that we had to pay for meals, accommodations, tips, and they did 'selective' hearing whenever there were requests to do a stop etc etc, so we thought we could dispense with this although it was useful having police escorts leading us in the early days. (This became quite an inconvenience when they started to change new cars and new personnel at every new province we enter!)

As you would have noticed in all these - we are terribly spoilt and pampered!

Kind regards

[Ryo]

Hi cflai,

Thanks for telling me your trick. Now I understood why your track logs were so clean. I also noticed the bypasses you took was quite efficient for traveling. I can never find those route without your log. Those roads may not on the map yet and some of them can not be observed on the satellite view nether.

I spent more than 48 hours just for replacing roads and connects intersections to existing roads. If the read is a major roads, it will take a month or more to replace it. That is one of the reason that I didn't replace QL1A with your tracklog.
I told you that 80% is done but I haven't done city indexing yet. It will take while to finish a lll of them. I figured out it will take about 8 to 20 times longer than actual driving time to make a map. I think my productivity is so poor but forgive me. I'm also looking at your driving speed, road condition from your picture to set the road attribute and speed limit on the road.

When I making a map while looking at the picture, I feel like that I went to the tour with you. It is fantastic.

Best regards,

Ryo

[cflai9353]

Hi cflai,

Thanks for telling me your trick. Now I understood why your track logs were so clean. I also noticed the bypasses you took was quite efficient for traveling. I can never find those route without your log. Those roads may not on the map yet and some of them can not be observed on the satellite view nether.

I spent more than 48 hours just for replacing roads and connects intersections to existing roads. If the read is a major roads, it will take a month or more to replace it. That is one of the reason that I didn't replace QL1A with your tracklog.
I told you that 80% is done but I haven't done city indexing yet. It will take while to finish a lll of them. I figured out it will take about 8 to 20 times longer than actual driving time to make a map. I think my productivity is so poor but forgive me. I'm also looking at your driving speed, road condition from your picture to set the road attribute and speed limit on the road.

When I making a map while looking at the picture, I feel like that I went to the tour with you. It is fantastic.

Best regards,

Ryo

Hi Ryo

Of course you realize it is dedicated people like yourself and the gang in here who make it possible for us to get maps without being charged heaps....

Keep going - you guys are good! :congrats:

[cflai9353]

Hi

Here is for a bit of fun viewing the complete track in Google Earth.

Go to this Only the registered members can see the link 7b9714b8 and download the track converted to a kmz file for loading into Google Earth. The file is called "Thai_Laos_Vietnam2010.kmz"

It assumes that you already have Google Earth installed into your computer. Download the file and click on it and it will automatically open up Google Earth........

Of course, it will be a lot more fun if the photographs are geotagged into the tracks, and I am rather hopeful that Bro Ryo will help me with it as I am not so familiar with geotagging.......

So Bro Ryo..... :adore:?? how about helping me :smile:

[Ryo]

Hi Cflai,

Sure I can help you to geotag your pictures. What I can do with what I have right now is

1. Download all your pictures from Picasa
2. Use the GDB mapsource tracklog to find out the location.
3. Post those pictures to the other Picasa website

Then you can retrieve your pictures with GEOTAG. I thinks something makes me a little difficult is that you have different track log for each car and will contains severals seconds of errors. I hope you don't mind it.

regards,

Ryo

[cflai9353]

Hi Cflai,

Sure I can help you to geotag your pictures. What I can do with what I have right now is

1. Download all your pictures from Picasa
2. Use the GDB mapsource tracklog to find out the location.
3. Post those pictures to the other Picasa website

Then you can retrieve your pictures with GEOTAG. I thinks something makes me a little difficult is that you have different track log for each car and will contains severals seconds of errors. I hope you don't mind it.

regards,

Ryo

Dear Ryo

Wow, thank you very much, Mate! That will be fantastic! Slight errors in the geotag will not even be noticed as long as we have the tracks and the pictures in one place! Anyway the 2 tracks were from 2 machines in the same car, however as you mentioned, the slight error that will occur will be through the satellite locking accuracy of different machines.

I shall be in Italy from 10th - 19th July, so if you have any further requirements, please wait for me to get back to Malaysia as I am not sure if I can get to the internet while there as I shall be quite busy traveling around visiting different areas... From my experience, Internet charges from hotels in Italy are expensive!:smile:

Cheers and thank you!

cflai