Southeast Asia

Lamp posts in Thailand often have their lower part painted in

• red/orange-and-black or
• black-and-white

bands

Quick check rule:

• If you see many little circles → likely Thai
• If the text looks very plain and open → likely Lao
• If it’s curvy, dense, and ornate → likely Khmer

How to Recognize Khmer Script

• Shape: Khmer letters are round and flowing, with many loops and curves.
• Height: Letters often look tall and “stacked” sometimes with extra marks above or below.
• Density: Text usually looks more packed together compared to Thai or Lao.
• Special detail Some letters have little “tails” or hooks at the top or bottom.

Name: Indonesian

Script: Latin

Origin: Dutch

Indonesian (Dutch Origin) vs Malay (English Origin)**:

Taxi: Teksi (Malay) vs Taksi (Indonesian)

Police: Polis (Malay) vs Polisi (Indonesian)

Office: Pejabat/Ofis (Malay) vs Kantor (Indonesian)

Pharmacy: Farmasi (Malay) vs Apotek (Indonesian)

Bicycle: Basikal(Malay) vs Sepeda (Indonesian)

and etc

Background: Yellow.

Vietnamese warning signs are easily recognized by their yellow background. This distinct color helps players identify the country. Look for black symbols and borders on this bright yellow base.

Name: Malay

Script: Latin

Origin: English

Indonesian (Dutch Origin) vs Malay (English Origin):

Taxi: Teksi (Malay) vs Taksi (Indonesian)

Police: Polis (Malay) vs Polisi (Indonesian)

Office: Pejabat/Ofis (Malay) vs Kantor (Indonesian)

Pharmacy: Farmasi (Malay) vs Apotek (Indonesian)

Bicycle: Basikal(Malay) vs Sepeda (Indonesian)

and etc

In many towns, three-wheeled motor tricycles are far more common than regular taxis and serve as the main form of local transport

Tricycles are unique to Philippines

Malaysian private license plates are typically long. They feature a Background: Black with Text: White.

On Street View, blurred plates show two white stripes. This is different from some other black plates that show three stripes.

In Indonesia, red-and-white banners matching the national flag are seen everywhere.

During festivals, they are often joined by extra multicolored decorations in

• yellow
• green

and other colors

Indonesian private license plates come in two main types.

Older plates: Black background with white text.

Newer plates: White background with black text.

On Street View, blurred Indonesian plates show three white stripes. This helps distinguish them from Malaysian plates, which show two white stripes.

Thai writing looks compact, and many letters have tiny circles.

• Khmer writing in Cambodia is longer and often has marks under the letters

Electricity pole stickers in Malaysia need to be interpreted together with camera generation and copyright year.

Black sticker + Gen 3 camera → Mainland Malaysia

Black sticker + Gen 4 camera → Anywhere in Malaysia

Copyright 2024 → Mainland Malaysia, Sarawak, or Sabah

Copyright 2025 → Only Sabah

Sabah is unlikely to have 2024 copyright imagery

A black sticker alone is not sufficient to determine the region.

Blue signs for the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) are found all over the country.

Many of them show side-by-side portraits of senior politicians

Cuboid stone with a flat or pointed top. Bollard painted with black-and-white stripes. White stripes are wider

White painted rectangle reflector on the front and two white circles on the back. Sometimes without reflectors at all

In Malaysia, rumble strips are often painted as bold yellow bars across the road

This style is almost unique to Malaysia, only rarely seen in Hong Kong or the UK

Using 2 Lao characters ຢຸດ.

Often bilingual, featuring "STOP" in English below the Lao text

In Thailand, some utility poles have orange-and-black diagonal markings.

The stripes don’t reach the ground, which makes them easy to tell apart from similar poles in Taiwan

A cuboid stone with a flat or pointed top, painted with two red and two white stripes

Stone cuboid with a flat or pointed top.

Black-and-white or yellow-and-white stripes. Stripes have the same size. In Thailand stripes have different sizes

White painted rectangle reflector on one side, 2 little white circles on another (sometimes). No reflectors are possible

Some concrete utility poles in Vietnam feature narrow through-holes (perforated poles).

These holes may be located only on the lower half of the pole or run the entire length of the structure

In Malaysian the word "street" is usually shortened as "Jln.",

while in Indonesia it's "Jl."

Stop signs say ‘BERHENTI’

These wordings are unique to the country

Indonesian street signs are usually start with the abbreviation

• ‘Jl.’ for Jalan (street).

and also:

• green or
• blue

In Malaysia, the same word is shortened as ‘Jln.’ instead

You will find the 3 character word "หยุด" (Yùt) in Thai script.

Sometimes includes "STOP" in English below the Thai text.

Traditional stilt houses are often painted dark red-brown, light blue, or ochre orange, with doors and windows in bright blue.

Modern houses use a wider range of colors

A trapezoid-shaped bar on top of the utility poles

Thin white rectangle. Two small white/grey reflectors on the front and two red on the back

Reflectors placed in the center and near the top

Thin rectangular with a white top (upper third) and black-and-white stripes on the remaining two-thirds.

Reflectors are white or grey on the front and red on the back. A version without reflectors is also available

Kilometre stones in Malaysia are painted white and blue, and sometimes also show the yellow hexagon shield found on motorway signs

Cylindrical with a flat or rounded top. Painted in black-and-yellow stripes

Reflector is white on the front and red on the back side

White stone bollard with red top. Sometimes with vertical yellow reflector on the red part

Top can be flat or pointed

In Malaysia, green direction signs show a bright yellow hexagonal highway shield, a shape unique to the country

Usually on small roads in Thailand, direction signs usually have a plate with an arrow and in both languages

Billboards and shop signs often advertise the beer brands Angkor, Anchor, and Cambodia Beer

Green or blue (sometimes) community signs can be found in rural areas

Roadsides in Thailand often show both the red-white-blue national flag and yellow royal flags together, a striking combination unique to the country

A stone cuboid with a flat or pointed top. The red top covers one-third of the bollard, while the remaining two-thirds are white

In Viet nam, the red section only takes up about one-fifth of the bollard's height

A yellow or white painted reflector can sometimes be found on them

Websites often use the .th domain, which can be found on signs and billboards

Shape: Rectangular long or short

Material: Concrete

Color: White with black painted bot

Unique in Southeast Asia

In Thailand, you often see small roadside reflector posts. They are thin white posts with two round orange reflectors on top, one above the other.

Below the reflectors there is usually a small white plate with black numbers showing the highway and distance

Roadside markers in Thailand use a Garuda symbol: white for national routes (shown white on maps) and black for provincial routes (shown dark blue on maps)

Milestones are stone blocks with a white base and a red top, usually rounded but sometimes triangular.

The narrow side shows the road number, while the wide side shows a town name and the distance

You will find the three components word ឈប់ (Khmer)

Sometimes includes "STOP" in English below the Khmer text

The flag of Cambodia features a horizontal triband with a blue stripe on top and bottom, and a thicker red stripe in the middle.

Centered on the red stripe is a white silhouette of the temple complex, Angkor Wat

In the Philippines, directional and commercial signs almost always include clear English wording alongside Filipino

Uncommon in most of Southeast Asia

Driving side: Left side

Driving direction: Left side

Unlike in Cambodia and Laos where people drive on the right

Some Street View images were taken with the low-resolution camera, which makes the car blur look wide and circular and gives the pictures a brownish tint

Type: Private

Shape: Short

Background: Yellow

Text: Black

Driving direction: Right side

Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore - Left side

On two-lane roads, Malaysia is the only country in Southeast Asia that usually paints a double solid white line in the center instead of yellow

Red-and-white striped signposts

Most highways and village streets are paved with grey, jointed concrete slabs rather than asphalt a texture you’ll notice almost everywhere in the country.

The same feature is also common in Thailand

The tops of these concrete utility poles feature small rectangular slots and circular through-holes

Box-shaped electric shields. These boxes attached on utility poles

In Cambodia people drive on the right side

Type: Private

Shape: Long

Background: White

Text: Black

The Lao alphabet looks small and rounded, with only a few marks above or below.

It’s similar to Thai, but with fewer straight lines

Concrete road blocks(same as in Philippines) widespread in villages or in rural areas

Thailand is mainly Buddhist, so most religious symbols are Buddhist

Most roadside poles are square concrete columns with a vertical row of small pinholes

Thai utility poles are square concrete columns.

Holes: They have a single vertical line of small holes from bottom to top.

Similar: Poles in Cambodia and Laos look similar. In Sri Lanka, holes are only at the top.

Concrete road blocks are common. Similar can be found in nearby countries - Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam

Shape: Cylinder. Long or short

Material: Metall

Color: Bright red, orange or yellow

Center markings may alternate between solid yellow and white segments, with the yellow often appearing more orange

In the Philippines, you can also find square concrete utility poles with insulators attached to them.

Type: Private

Shape: Short

Background: White

Text: Black

Additional details: Blurred white plates show three white holes

Thai highways often use concrete paving marked with a big square grid of expansion joints

The same pattern is also seen in the Philippines and, less often, in Indonesia

In rural areas, houses are often built on stilts, with walls made of vertical planks, and sometimes they have 2 or 3 roof layers

Private vehicles have white license plates

Short and long variants are possible

Type: Commercial, buses and taxi

Shape: Long

Background: Yellow

Text: Black

Motorcycles have a small license plate on the front.

Unlike most nearby countries, every motorbike shows its registration number on a plastic plate above the headlamp

Cylindrical with a rounded top and black-white stripes. Reflector is a white rectangle on the front and red on the back

Sometimes with a circle in the center of the white line

Red flag with yellow star in the center

Since about a quarter of Malaysians are ethnically Chinese, many city signs include Traditional Chinese characters. This is not the case in Indonesia

Cigarette ads are very common in Indonesia.

They almost always include graphic health-warning images, which are a clear sign you’re in Indonesia.

The word ‘PERINGATAN’ means ‘Warning’ in English

Many poles have a short vertical metal bar bolted to the side, topped with a single ceramic insulator that carries one high-voltage line

Shape: Cylinder or rectangular. Long or short

Material: Concrete or metall

Color: Black-and-white stripes

Name: Indonesian rupiah

Symbol: Rp

Example: Rp 30,000

Some poles are concrete ‘ladder’ poles with indented steps

On highways in Thailand, Type-A guardrails are commonly used

Type: Private

Shape: Short

Background: Green

Text: White

Additional details: Dark mark in the center in a street view blur

Type: Private

Shape: Short

Background: White

Text: Black

White and yellow center lines (dashed and solid) are possible but short dashes are the most popular variant

Gold-trimmed, richly decorated Buddhist temples are common in Laos, as well as in Thailand and Cambodia

Ornate Buddhist temples can be found all over Cambodia, reflecting the country’s Buddhist majority. Similar temple styles also exist in Thailand and Laos

Long lamps are often attached to utility poles in Laos, similar to those in Thailand

Rounded concrete utility poles are sometimes paired

In Cambodia, tuk-tuks usually have black roofs.

The body can come in different colors, but the roof is almost always black

Indonesia sometimes uses yellow center lines, though not always

Malaysia always uses white road lines

Background: Yellow

Arrows: Bold black

Red flags with the communist hammer-and-sickle symbol can sometimes be seen along roads and on buildings

In rural areas of the Philippines, concrete drainage systems are common

In the Philippines, bright yellow, shoulder-height concrete blocks mark the edges of bends and junctions.

Their thick, square shape is a unique feature of the country

A special green sign—commonly posted at village entrances

Poles with barbed wire wrapped around them are unique to Sabah.

Name: Philippine peso (PHP), or 'piso' in Filipino

Symbol: Official ₱ (with two horizontal strokes). Common "PHP", "PhP", "P", or "P" with one broken horizontal stroke (see reference)

In both cities and rural areas, kerbs are often painted in alternating red, yellow, or black and white stripes

In the Philippines, pole markings can be yellow, orange, or blue. Always bright colors

They sometimes look similar to Taiwan’s, but unlike in Taiwan, they don’t reach the ground or are left unfinished

Hammer and sickle flag in Vietnam represents Communist Party

In the Philippines, you can find utility poles with round concrete poles with three insulators on top. They are very common

Background: White

Arrows: Bold red

Most Street View coverage is captured from a white Gen-3 Google car with a black roof and a visible camera mast

Looking back of the car in gen3 you can see a yellow dead pixel

Christian religious statues, often depicting Jesus or other figures.

Farmers in Vietnam commonly dry their harvested grain on the pavement during the harvest season

Commercial vehicles, taxi, busses use yellow licence plates

Shape: Cube or rectangle

Material: Concrete

Color: Yellow, yellow-and-black diagonal stripes. Or unpainted

In rural areas, residents often spread rice or corn directly on roads, using the warm surface to dry it faster

Type: Government

Shape: Short

Background: Blue

Text: White

The Philippine flag has two horizontal bands: blue on top and red on the bottom.

On the left side is a white triangle with a golden sun in the center and three golden stars, one at each corner of the triangle

Background: Black

Arrows: Bold yellow

In Thailand, the center of the road is always marked in yellow, either solid or dashed

Malaysia is different, using only white center lines

In Cambodia government related vehicles use green plates

In Thailand, roadside rubbish cylindrical bins are often made of plastic and come in bright colors. Cylindrical bins have lids and wheels, making them easy to move.

Large plastic barrels are also widely used as rubbish bins in Thailand. They are usually blue, grey, or black, often without lids, and can be seen placed along streets or outside houses

Many houses have orange or red clay-tile roofs with decorative ornaments along the ridge.

Newer buildings sometimes use corrugated or plain metal roofing instead

Many roads in Cambodia are still unpaved.

In Bangkok, transformers are often placed on top of concrete blocks

Roads usually have yellow lines in the middle, either

• dashed or solid

White lines on the outer edges are rare, but when they appear, they are solid.

Concrete road blocks are common in Cambodia, similar to those in Thailand and the Philippines

Pedestrian signs in

• orange or
• light yellow

with this design and form are very common

Along Thai highways, tall, thin lamp posts with a long horizontal arm reaching over the road

Background: Yellow

Arrows: Bold black

Type: Commercial, taxi, trucks

Shape: Short

Background: Yellow

Text:Black

This is unique in Southeast Asia, since in Laos yellow plates are used for regular cars, not just commercial ones