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Maps, useful and a lot of fun

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Every cyclist knows, a good maps are of life importance. Even nowadays when a GPS has become standard equipment for some, I still prefer a map. When you're on the road for a long time it's not always possible to bring maps for all the countries you travel. Once on the road you learn quickly you can do without a map but it makes a few things a bit more difficult.

What kind of map?

There are all kinds of maps. When you visit a tourist information center you will receive the so called tourist maps. Those maps show with pictures the most interesting sites to visit. Are they useful for a cyclist? Yes and no.

The Pangkor map on the right side here shows maybe some of the nice sightseeing places of Pangkor but it is completely useless for a cyclist.

So, what are looking for then? A cyclist wants a map showing roads. If a map also shows sights to visit then it is a bonus.

It is handy if the map is in English although I used local made maps in Thailand, Iran and China. Maps in local language can be useful to get in contact with local people. When I cycled in China I always had a local Chinese (in mandarin characters) with me. The map below shows a small piece of one of my Yunnan maps.

Although I can not read Chinese, after a while you get used to the characters and you start recognizing some of them. Especially in countries where people speak little English, a map can be an excellent help to figure out where you and where you want to go to.

A funny anecdote, when I came down from Sichuan to Yunnan, I was about 60km from Kunming. I had passed the little town Sonming and arrived at a junction. It was not clear what my direction would be. The road sign gave me a road ahead and a road to the right, while in effect there was a road ahead and a road to the left.

So I asked. Probably my pronunciation was bad enough for people not to understand the word Kunming. When I showed them the map all doors went open. I got tea and a noodle soup while the locals where talking about my map in Chinese.

The scale

The most important question probably is what scale. Tha map above is clearly not detailed enough. But what scale is useful? Are there special brand names providing excellent maps?

In my experience the best maps have a scale of 1:400.000 t0 1: 650.000 maximum. However, that depends also where you travel. A map of 1:1.000.000 would be sufficient if you know you are crossing deserts, like south Iran or north west China, where there are few, if even more then one road. I had a heavy Near East map with a scale of 1:4.000.000 which would have worked well enough in Iran.

But what if you decide to cycle in north east France? You may want to choose for a map of 1:100.000. It sound maybe you can't have enough details but the map you choose should fit your purpose.

In France, for some of my short journeys I used maps with a scale of 1:200.000 and I found that in fact for the most already too detailed.

I had a full map of Italy with me in my 6 weeks in that country. It was a solid 1:650.000. The map was more then sufficient for my journey from the French border to Brindisi, where I took the boat to Greece. The main problem with this map was that it covered the whole of Italy, which meant it was a huge map.

While in Greece and Turkey, I used a more detailed 1:300.000 map. Both were solid Euro Maps, heavy in weight too.

In Asia I started using the Nelles maps. Nelles maps are like Ravenstein, Euromap, Kummerley+Frey or Michelin very popular. For Asia in general I would recommend them although I found also on them regular mistakes, even on the newest versions issued. Ongoing roads shown as B roads with the wrong distance happens quite often, especially the south Thailand and south China maps.

Local made maps can be a great asset. Apart of the local language, see above, I found some local maps better then the international maps. The Chinese provincial maps are a good example. These Chinese maps were usually more accurate and better to use then my Nelles maps. In China I used both maps next to each other. One for the English names and ideas for direction, the Chinese map to work with when on the road.

Buying maps on the way ...

In general I always buy maps for the countries where I am going to cycle. It's not always possible to bring all maps. When I started my journey in Holland which would bring me to Asia I had only maps with me for Europe. The plan was that I expected to be able to by maps of Iran and Pakistan in Istanbul.

I was unlucky, probably looked in the wrong places too but in Istanbul and in Ankara I didn't find any.

By the time I reached the Turkish-Iranian border I had no map of Iran. I hoped to find one in the first town in Iran but it was only until Khoy that I found a map in Farsi, the Iranian language. Later in Esfahan I got an English map.

In Pakistan it was the same story. I cycled through Baluchistan without a map but as the road directions were clear, in fact there's only one road, I could not get lost. The Pakistani map above I bought in Quetta.

Some cities are good places to pick up books and maps. In India you will find plenty of great bookshops in many cities, Delhi, Calcutta, Bombay. In Indian it has everything to do with the legacy of the British Empire. Even Penquin has it's own Indian publishing company.

Thailand has in the main tourist areas good bookshops. Koh San Road in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket are areas to find good books and maps.

If you travel to China from Hong Kong, then you will find great bookshops in Hong Kong. As said earlier, I recommend for cycling in China an English map (Nelles is probably a decent choice) and a local provincial map. Check the Xinhua bookstores, the maps are typically Y6-8.

GPS

More and more people are using a GPS. A GPS is a very useful system to determinate your exact location. There are many systems available but the real question (if you ask me) is if you need one. Here are some views:

GPS and why you would want (or not) to use them in your bicycle journey

Our bicycle bookstore has a large collection of maps available for almost every country imaginable:

• Best bicycle and road maps

and more books and audiovisual materials at:

• Click here to enter our bookstore

I have plenty anecdotes about what can happen if you don't bring a map, Here are a few of those stories

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