BANGKOK (AP) — Navigating the streets of Bangkok can challenge even the most seasoned of travelers. Roads wind into each other instead of running parallel. Narrow alleyways loop into dead-ends. The hodgepodge routinely stumps Google Maps and GPS devices, and even the main waterway, the Chao Phraya River, weaves through the city like a child's messy squiggle as opposed to a clean, sharp line.
Savvy visitors simply ditch those digital devices in favor of a much simpler navigational aid: The hand-held paper maps of American artist Nancy Chandler, whose colorful descriptions of Bangkok have gained a cult-like following since they launched nearly four decades ago.
Chandler produced the first map in 1974 as in inset in Sawaddi, a magazine produced by the local American Women's Club. "It was more like a group of women going to the market and taking notes," recalled Chandler, now 74, of the initial project. But when the organization commissioned a second printing of the now-defunct magazine for "people who kept calling for the magazine with the map," she said, members of the group insisted that she had a viable business on her hands.
Read More... More on AP 
No comments:
Post a Comment