a view from above

i recently rediscovered the really cool spaceimaging site which has put many of the ikonos satellite photos online, like this one of some hotel huts in bora-bora. ikonos takes photos of the earth from 400 miles up while traveling at 17,000 miles an hour- an amazing feat considering half my photos are blurred when i take them while standing still.

i love looking at satellite photos of remote locations and wondering about the lives of the people who live there. if you click on the bora-bora thumb you can download the full image- an entire island world of 5000+ people visible on your desktop.

from the window seat of a 747  there's often some incredible scenery- flying over remote areas of alaska, the american rockies and desert, and the vast number of unpopulated islands in myanmar really gives one a different perspective from life in a big city. of course these days i usually opt for an aisle seat so i can get up and walk around without disturbing anyone.

was hoping for some good satellite photos of bangkok but the site seems to be quite selective as far as what they make available online. there's a good view of wat pho, but the other bangkok images aren't too special.

found on another site some different views of bangkok, chiang mai, and (oddly enough) nong khai. the link to sukhumvit is broken- click here for the correct url. nana skytrain station is in the center of the photo, which looks to be taken in 2002 or before as sukhumvit square hasn't yet been demolished and the ambassador shopping center is still intact.