WikiProject Laos
 Laos, Asia
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| Latitude : 18, Longitude : 104.9 |
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Laos is a Country in Asia at latitude 18, longitude 104.9.
Laos/ປະເທດລາວ
Contents |
Project page
There is http://www.openstreetmap.la, a website that provides the slippy map in Lao and English language as well as data downloads in different formats
People
These are some users in Laos, add your own username if you map in Laos by adding the following category to your user page (you can add your town or city at the same time).
[[Category:Users in Laos|name]]
Names
Summary of names
| Usage | Example |
|---|---|
| name=Local name, normally the Lao name but can also be a foreign name as for example the (French) restaurant La Terrasse | name=ຂອບໃຈເດີ |
| name:en=English or romanization of Lao language | name:en=khopchaideu (thank you very much) |
| name:lo=Lao | name:lo=ຂອບໃຈເດີ |
| name:lo_rm=romanization of Lao language | name:lo_rm=khopchaideu |
Notes about names
name should always represent the local name, most often this name will be the Lao name (with Lao characters). However, name could be a foreign name (name of a French restaurant or similar). Hmong and Khmu language are also common in Laos. The language can change from village village. Hmong sometimes use latin letters for their language. name:lo should always contain the Lao name with Lao characters, even if name already uses the Lao name with Lao characters.
name:lo_rm should contain the romanized name. There are several ways of romanize and there is no official standard, however traditionally the BGN/PCGN standard has been used for geographical names. See the Wikipedia page for Lao romanization and a Perl module for romanizing with BGN/PCGN at CPAN.
It is recommended to use name:en or name:fr if the name is translated into, for example, English or French. However, if translation does not exist it is recommended to use the romanization of the local name in name:en as with the case of Japan.
Examples of names
The Swedish Embassy in Vientiane
- name = ສະຖານທູດສະວີເດັນ
- name:lo = ສະຖານທູດສະວີເດັນ
- name:en = The Swedish Embassy
- name:lo_rm = sathanthout savidén
- name:sv = Sveriges Ambassad
Possible Data Sources
AsiaGPS
The AsiaGPS forum contains many GPS traces from Laos and Asia in general. Please contact them to encourage them to release their data into OSM.
GEOnet Names Server
GEOnet Names Server is a database for geographic features outside the United States and Antarctica. There are no licensing requirements or restrictions in place for the use of the GNS data, so it is suitable for OSM use.
It is strongly recommended to set a source tag with a hint to GNS.
For Laos the populated places from GNS (i.e. the villages) are not considered to be reliable enough to upload them as they are. Furthermore GNS provides only romanized names. Nevertheless the data can be used as a source for place names when entering villages or other geographic features manually. The peaks (in GNS code: PK) have been imported in Changeset 3075539, some of them have been translated to Lao. Nodes from this import have the source value gns_pk_import.
NGOs / Projects
In Laos there are many NGOs and projects working in the field and collecting data. Probably there are GPS tracks, waypoints around from field trips.
The TABI project provided village locations from Phonxai and Phoukout district, the import ist tagged with tabi_phoukout_import resp. tabi_phonxai_import.
Villages
Laos consists of more than 10'000 villages.
| Key | Value | Example |
|---|---|---|
| place | village | place=village |
| name | Local Lao name | name=ຈອມມະນີໃຕ້ |
| name:en | Romanized Lao village name | name:en=Chommanytai |
| is_in:continent | Asia | is_in:continent=Asia |
| is_in:country | Laos | is_in:country=Laos |
| is_in:country_code | la | is_in:country_code=la |
| is_in:province | Romanized province name | is_in:province=Vientiane Capital |
| is_in:district | Romanized district name | is_in:district=Xaysettha |
Since also larger settlements like Vientiane, Savannakhet or Luang Prabang are composed by many single villages, the existing definition in Map Features cannot applied directly in Laos.
It is proposed to apply the following tagging by considering the administrative relevance instead of number of inhabitants:
| Key | Value | Element | Administrative unit | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| place | city | 
|
province capitals | Phonhong |
| place | town |
|
district capitals | Thalat |
| place | village |
|
villages | Chommanytai |
[[1]]
Road status
Highway classification
| Key | Value | Element | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| highway | primary | 
|
Main connection between provinces and to neighboring countries, paved in most cases |
| highway | secondary |
|
Main connection between districts and/or district capitals, paved or unpaved |
| highway | tertiary |
|
Other important connections between districts, unpaved in most cases |
| highway | unclassified |
|
Intra-district connections between villages, unpaved in most cases |
Primary roads
Some roads belongs to the Asian Highway network, see the Asian Highway Handbook for further information.
| Road | From | Via | To | Comment | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not 100% paved | unknown | |||
| 3 | Boten | Vieng Phouka | Houay Xay | completed | |
| 3A | Bouamphieng (Rd 3) | Luang Namtha | Phonxaisavang (Rd 3) | completed | |
| 4 | unknown | ||||
| 7 | Phoukhoun | Phonsavan | Between Phoukhoun junction and Phonsavan the road is in good condition, it was finished in 2003. | to verfiy | |
| 8B | Lak Sao | Mahaxai | dirt road with heavy lorry traffic because "nam theun 2" hydropower plant construction (finished in 2009) | to verfiy | |
| 10 | Done Noune Junction | Phonhong | completed | ||
| 13N | Vientiane | Luang Prabang | Nateuy (-Boten) | Needs more details especially north of Luang Prabang. Between Kasi und Luang Prabang the Road is in the mountains and avg. speed will not be more than 30 km/h | completed |
| 13S | Vientiane | Thakek - Savannakhet | Pakse - Cambodian Border | From Cambodian Border to Luang Prabang the road is in good condition. | completed |
| 18 | Road Nr. 18 in the deep south is not passable if it's raining. If it is not raining you can go there by motorbike or maybe 4wd. There are several river crossings and the water can be 40cm in dry season. There are villages every 5 km and people are used to stupid falang stuck in the mud. (road 18 is not in the osm map) | unknown |
Secondary roads
| Road | From | Via | To | Comment | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Donnoun Junction | Phonhong | completed |
Other roads
Between Sepon and Salavan (Saravan) there should be some roads, but it seems the jungle came back and the roads are gone. Other roads in this area are not passable because of too much dust. Road 23 was destroyed by the USA Army and it seems nobody repaired it.
South of Mahaxai there is a road that maybe has no dead end.
From Paksan to Phonsavan there is a road that is easy to go in dry season (two small river crossings). There are many junctions and if you speak no Lao you maybe don't find your way. North of Tha Thom there is a road to Saisombun. This area was not accessable for many years it is a big adventure to go there.
Needed
GPS Tracks!!!
Mappers who read / write lao to translate placenames, road names etc.
Laos is a Country with very nice people. It's save to travel everywhere in this country. If you like it to travel on bad roads this is your country. If you go there bringt GPS Data. It would also be good to know where to find guesthouses.
