Maps - allaboutpai.com
allaboutpai.com Maps

Maps

Here are some maps of Pai.

Last update: September 2017

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Support This Site

This free site is supported by reader contributions. You can contribute in the following ways:
donate now   Donate Now
Use your credit card or PayPal to donate in support of the site.
get anything from amazon.com
Use this link to Amazon—you pay the same, I get 4%.
get my thai dictionary app
Learn Thai with my Talking Thai-English-Thai Dictionary app: iOS, Android, Windows.
get my thai phrasebook app
Experience Thailand richly with my Talking Thai-English-Thai Phrasebook app.
get my chinese phrasebook app
Visit China easily with my Talking Chinese-English-Chinese Phrasebook app.
get thailand fever
I co-authored this bilingual cultural guide to Thai-Western romantic relationships.

Table of Contents

Google Maps

As of September 2017, Google has the best online map of Pai for seeing satellite imagery, roads, and street view (but not business search). It took them forever, but in 2011 Google finally put Pai on the map with proper imagery.

A handful of businesses have started adding themselves to the Pai Google Map but this is an ongoing process, hampered by the fact that businesses wanting to add themselves have to receive a little postcard from Google that almost always gets lost at the post office because Google puts the wrong Thai address!

Satellite (click the "Sat" button if you don't see the satellite image):

Street:

Pai's GPS coordinates are (19.358889, 98.436667). You can access satellite and street maps from all the online services at the Wikipedia GeoHack site for Pai.

Maps of Businesses

For the purposes of finding attractions and businesses, the best maps of Pai are the ad-laden printed maps you can get in town for free or almost free. Someone might just shove one in your face when you get off the bus, or you can find them in boxes at minimart counters and many guesthouses.

Travelfish has an interactive map of Pai which shows destinations that have travelfish listings.

Here is a similar interactive map from TripAdvisor.

For an out-of-date, and definitely not-to-scale, but good general overview of the shape of Pai, check out these suprisingly good maps that were displayed outside the District Office in 2007:

Pai District Office Valley Map (circa 2007, click for detailed 313k JPEG file)

Pai Valley

Pai District Office Downtown Map (circa 2007, click for detailed 350k JPEG file)

Downtown Pai

Topo Maps

The Royal Thai Survey department publishes excellent 1:50,000 topographical contour maps of the whole country (except a few sensitive border areas with Burma; Pai is close but fortunately not censored). The maps are based on satellite imagery from 1992 (and, we hear, original US military survey data from many decades earlier) but they are by far the best resource available for trekking and getting any sense of the terrain of the region.

Amphoe Pai (Pai District) is covered by Sheet 4647 I of series L7017S edition 1-RTSD. There are also sheets available for nearly all adjoining quadrants.

Here is a roughly scanned sample from the sheet:

Topo Map Sample

As you can see, the map is detailed but out of date (for example, the major road that turns north off the highway, passes Belle Villa, and goes to Ban Wiang Nua was not yet built when the map was made and is just a dotted line.

You can purchase these maps at Suriwong Book Center in Chiang Mai (and sometimes also DK Books Chiang Mai or the large art suppy store on Ratwithi road).

You can also purchase these maps online at several different websites.

MapJack Street View

MapJack was a spunky startup that jumped on the scene in 2009 to challenge Google Street View with superior imagery and feaures, beginning with several demonstration cities in Thailand including Pai.

Well, as you might expect, Goliath won, but what we ended up with is a fascinating snapshot-in-time of the Pai of 2009. I hope they keep the images for posterity but I expect the site will disappear at some point.

Click here to see Pai of 2009:

downtown Pai
hills of Pai
hot spring entrance (guess they avoided the exorbitant fee!)
Sample screen shot:

MapJack in Pai

Historical Maps

Of purely historical interest is this totally cool 1950s US Army Map Service map (6.7MB JPEG) of "Indochina and Thailand" quadrant NE 47-2, "Chiang Dao," which is part of a larger series on this website. Here's a scaled-down excerpt:

1950s US Army Map of Pai Region

Looks like Pai had an airport then, and a military one at that! No highway either; just a dim dotted grey line where the crappy "road" leads to Chiang Mai.

Support This SiteThis free site is supported by reader contributions. You can contribute in the following ways:
donate now   Donate Now
Use your credit card or PayPal to donate in support of the site.
get anything from amazon.com
Use this link to Amazon—you pay the same, I get 4%.
get my thai dictionary app
Learn Thai with my Talking Thai-English-Thai Dictionary app: iOS, Android, Windows.
get my thai phrasebook app
Experience Thailand richly with my Talking Thai-English-Thai Phrasebook app.
get my chinese phrasebook app
Visit China easily with my Talking Chinese-English-Chinese Phrasebook app.
get thailand fever
I co-authored this bilingual cultural guide to Thai-Western romantic relationships.
See AlsoYou'll probably also like these sites...
slice-of-thai.com
Tasty morsels of information on Thai food, language, culture, and general silliness.
lurkertech: video tech and diversions
Buzzword bingo, bill the borg, MEZ, lurker's guide to video, and Thai, oh my!
mapfling.com: free custom maps with your own labels
Party? Meeting? Request a map, label it yourself, and easily fling it to your friends!
thailand your way
Travel with my friend Nang, who is a great nature, birding, and cultural guide.
jeed illustration
My English-fluent Thai friend Jeed is a freelance illustrator who is available for hire.
art in thai
See, sponsor and purchase the amazing paintings of Sa-ard Nilkong.
CopyrightAll text and images copyright 1999-2023 Chris Pirazzi unless otherwise indicated.
Support This Site

This free site is supported by reader contributions. You can contribute in the following ways:
donate now   Donate Now
Use your credit card or PayPal to donate in support of the site.
get anything from amazon.com
Use this link to Amazon—you pay the same, I get 4%.
get my thai dictionary app
Learn Thai with my Talking Thai-English-Thai Dictionary app: iOS, Android, Windows.
get my thai phrasebook app
Experience Thailand richly with my Talking Thai-English-Thai Phrasebook app.
get my chinese phrasebook app
Visit China easily with my Talking Chinese-English-Chinese Phrasebook app.
get thailand fever
I co-authored this bilingual cultural guide to Thai-Western romantic relationships.
See Also

You'll probably also like these sites...
slice-of-thai.com
Tasty morsels of information on Thai food, language, culture, and general silliness.
lurkertech: video tech and diversions
Buzzword bingo, bill the borg, MEZ, lurker's guide to video, and Thai, oh my!
mapfling.com: free custom maps with your own labels
Party? Meeting? Request a map, label it yourself, and easily fling it to your friends!
thailand your way
Travel with my friend Nang, who is a great nature, birding, and cultural guide.
jeed illustration
My English-fluent Thai friend Jeed is a freelance illustrator who is available for hire.
art in thai
See, sponsor and purchase the amazing paintings of Sa-ard Nilkong.
Copyright

All text and images copyright 1999-2023 Chris Pirazzi unless otherwise indicated.