Thai

White bollards with a route number written on them can help narrow down the location. If the symbol at the top is filled in black, it's a provincial road, so look for a road marked in navy blue on the map.

Ordinary passenger cars usually have white license plates, while taxis usually have yellow ones.

As in the Philippines, concrete roads are common.

Streetlight poles have white-and-orange reflectors attached.

In Asia, several countries use an orange centerline, Thailand chief among them, along with Cambodia, the Philippines, and Taiwan. This can help when the region is otherwise unclear.

Hachiban Ramen, a chain well known in the Hokuriku region of Japan, is becoming a popular chain in Thailand too.

If tall evergreen fruit trees are densely planted, with spiky fruit hanging from the trunk and thick branches, that's a durian orchard. Chanthaburi province in the east and Chumphon province in the south together account for more than half of domestic production.

A field packed tightly with rows of narrow-leaved grass taller than a person is sugarcane. It's common in the northeast, and in the plains from the northwestern part of the central plain (Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan) west to Kanchanaburi.

A field of low, knee-high plants with palm-shaped, deeply lobed leaves is cassava. The leaf shape makes it easy to recognise. Placing it in Nakhon Ratchasima in the northeast is the safe bet.

If you see palm-tree-like oil palms, think of the southern lowlands. They can be seen here and there on the southern peninsula and coast.

Rubber trees are generally most common on the southern peninsula.

Corn and soybean production areas are basically in the same locations, and Thailand's soybeans are found only in the north.

Rice paddies are common in the east, toward Cambodia and Laos. The Chao Phraya River plain in the center is also blanketed in rice paddies.

If tall coconut palms line up in a plantation stretching as far as you can see, think of Prachuap Khiri Khan province at the base of the Malay Peninsula, or Chumphon province in the south.

If a palm with a straight trunk topped by round, fan-shaped leaves (the palmyra palm, "tan" in Thai) dots the rice-paddy banks and roadsides, think of Phetchaburi province in the central region, or the Sathing Phra peninsula in Songkhla province in the south.

If low, spiky rosettes sit packed together in rows on red-earth mounds right at ground level, that's a pineapple field. They are especially common in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, and also in the east, such as Rayong.

Stands of pale, slender-trunked eucalyptus planted at even spacing, packed close together, are common in the Northeast and the East (such as Sa Kaeo province).

If a slender, straight trunk topped with small feather-shaped leaves is planted densely, that's an areca-palm ("mak" in Thai) plantation. They're found in the upper south, such as Chumphon and Ranong provinces.

Soil color varies by location. In the southeast (near the Cambodian border), it looks slightly redder than in the northwest and north.

If vertical limestone towers rise abruptly out of the sea or flat ground, that's karst on the Andaman Sea side. Phang Nga Bay is the famous example, and this terrain is also found around Kanchanaburi in the west.

If a sandy, gently sloping plain continues on with rice paddies mixed among cassava and sugarcane fields, that's the Khorat Plateau of the northeast (Isan).

If north-south running mountain ranges enclose narrow river valleys holding rice paddies and settlements, that's the north (nine provinces, including Chiang Mai).

Koh Samui is an outlying island, and Route 4169 circles the entire island.

Koh Lipe has walking coverage, and while walking through the tourist area you'll see "Koh Lipe" written on signage.