Need help geolocating this! x_x

[kindred tree]

Hi, have you verified this with a mod before posting here?

[random solar]

Hey! I didn't know we had to do that. Could you tell me how to go about it?

[sage raven]

Hi, I think this should be okay.

[random solar]

@sage raven thank you! I would appreciate any help with what other tools I can use 🫂

[peak fulcrum]

Hi, yes we just spoke via DM, it's fine

This looks like a regular geolocation, so you wouldn't use tools per se

just deduction based on the clues in hte image

[random solar]

From the looks of the buildings it looks like somewhere in South Asia

The blurred language looks like Vietnamese/Thai? I'm not sure

[peak fulcrum]

yeah, exactly, that sort of thing

[random solar]

I've tried undoing the blur using GIMP but didn't work for me

[sage raven]

The colour of the license plate can help identifybthe country, a closer look at the shape of the letters can help identify the language, there's what looks like a parking ticket in the wind shield of the white car than can narrow it down, the number of lanes in the street, the overhead cables...

[random solar]

I might be wrong but it looks like the license plate is blue and white, and looking up plates in South Asia it could possibly be Laos, Vietnam, Nepal. The search is still too broad for me to be able to figure it out

[sage raven]

Okay, so that narrows it down a bit. Looking at the signs... Vietnam uses the Latin alphabet, so that can be ruled out.

[random solar]

@sage raven do you think the key might be unblurring the text in the image? I've tried using GIMP but wasn't successful

Also, are you able to read the text/sign even though it's like super blurry? I'm amazed

[gaunt fiber]

Take the advert in the middle. You can see there's accents in the "u" characters for instance.

Of those countries Nepal would probably be out as this looks like a country where outdoor life is lived. Bright colours, chairs stacked, balconies etc. I'd say that means higher temperatures

If you look at Laos writing system, http://www.omniglot.com/writing/lao.htm for instance, I could see similar things in the pic

[random solar]

@gaunt fiber Oh you're right. The characters do look similar. Thank you. Is there anything else that stands out to you?

[gaunt fiber]

Not exactly, but I have exactly zero knowledge on south Asia :)

Aside from it being a Streetview image

[random solar]

Haha what if we're way off and this somewhere in india xD

[gaunt fiber]

It's still possible sure.

[random solar]

If there was a Google streetview archive that we could do an image reverse search on that would be so nice lol👾

[gaunt fiber]

That it definitely would be :)

[chilly condor]

What about cambodian?

[gaunt fiber]

¯_(ツ)_/¯

Could be. If you're in gimp, perhaps see if you can clear up a logo

[random solar]

Cambodian was my first guess too. But still unable to find the location

[gaunt fiber]

That left board has a company logo. Perhaps a bit of embossing / drawing clear lines could give something to search for

[chilly condor]

I'm caught up on work so I'll take a look lol. Love trying out this stuff

[random solar]

I've tried that but after clearing it up a bit, all Yandex returns are random hoardings from China

[gaunt fiber]

Hehe

[random solar]

@chilly condor would appreciate it thank you

[gaunt fiber]

Yah, that'll happen

[random solar]

@gaunt fiber an OCR website threw back some Tamil letters which is a language spoken in South India, however the image in the poster appears to be an advert/campaign of some sorts and South Indians do not have that skin tone so idk

[kindred tree]

Tamil is also spoken in Sri Lanka

[chilly condor]

Is there a way to see what locations had streetview locations updated per year? Watermark has this as 2021

Virtualstreets.org looks to have some info

Oooo mapper.tv!

Might have some good info there

Looks kinda rough to navigate

[random solar]

I was wondering even if we narrow it down to country, how do we find the city? Do we just keep looking for the location using streetview because that would take ages

[random solar]

@chilly condor wouldn't that be legit every location? xx

[chilly condor]

Not necessarily. One place I was looking in Cambodia showed a 4 lane highway from satellite view, but showed a dirt road from 2013 in street view

[random solar]

@chilly condor oh that's interesting. I tried following paved roads in Ho Chi Minh City but Google earth led me to current dirt roads mostly

[visual kettle]

From a preliminary glance I thought Cambodia or Laos.
White centre-line on the road. From the angle of the white car (zoom right in and you can see a coloured registration sticker on the drivers side window which may help you), it could be either a one-way street or a four-laner with the photographer standing on some sort of median strip.....if it is a one-way street that sort of negates the right-hand drive thing but that's just adding more smoke.
Concrete power pole tapered at the top looks could possibly be Vietnam + there is a shorter stumpy power-pole..
Not too much to go on from the reflections in the vehicles though it may add credence to the one-way street thing.
Can't make out the drink poster next to the tyre shop.

[random solar]

@visual kettle interesting, thank you. I haven't had any luck with the registration sticker/parking ticket yet. I'll keep looking

[manic tulip]

any ideas what this ad could be for?

seems to be a drawing of some kind of long-eared rodent in that container thingy on the left

[chilly condor]

I thought it was 3 people lmao

But the right looks like beer

If it's Cambodia, it's probably angkor beer

[manic tulip]

haha, at this resolution it's basically a rorschach test

[gaunt fiber]

Yeah definitely:)

That right car has a giant blue sticker on the right side. Taxi declaration or something?

[peak fulcrum]

The thing on the left looks like a cocktail

So maybe it's something that you can use to make cocktails?

[random solar]

It looks like a shrimp to me

[sage raven]

I was thinking seafood too. something food-related, soup, fond, another ingredient?

PS: cocktails are soup for alcohol 😉

[random solar]

It looks like a local advertisement, I did some open searches rn and nothing came up lol

@gaunt fiber it's either a vehicle registration sticker or a parking ticket, but we can only make out the color with that resolution 😦

[gaunt fiber]

Ahuh

Also, license plates in Laos come in a surprising variety of colours apparently

[kindred tree]

I'll be honest, I thought they were cans of paint rather than a soup or a drink 😅

[haughty forge]

I think the architecture and vegetation may be some of the biggest clues. Those balconies on the long buildings with gabled roofs on the left side of the image give me Phnom Penh, Cambodia vibes.

I just can’t figure out what that tree species on the right is. It looks kind of like a Mimosa tree, which apparently is invasive problem in Cambodia. https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/cambodia-faces-alien-threat

[random solar]

Interesting 🤔 I'll take a look at the city on Google earth and see if I can find anything useful xx btw, does the yellow structure on the left side of the building look like a temple to anyone?

[random solar]

At this point, you might be correct 😂

[haughty forge]

Yup, it's in Phnom Penh. I don't want to ruin the thrill of the find for you all. Here's a hint. In street view, stick to the wider roads with lines painted on them.

[haughty forge]

That yellow building is a furniture store by the way and It doesn’t come up when I search the name in Google. If you just really want to know where this is, and aren’t interested in a challenge at the moment, just let me know and I’ll give you the coordinates.

[random solar]

@haughty forge thank you, I am roaming around Phonm Penh on Google earth at the moment. If I don't find it in next 15 mins, I'll dm you for the answer cause I've been staring at this image for the past 4 days now 😂😂

[haughty forge]

Sounds good.

[haughty forge]

It's here ||11.544321°, 104.901152° https://www.google.com/maps/place/11°32'39.6"N+104°54'04.2"E/@11.544335,104.9011259,3a,90y,191.35h,90.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1syJUT5lfet0tzjxQ6rKuxfA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!8m2!3d11.544321!4d104.901152!10e5?authuser=0&entry=ttu||

[haughty forge]

@visual kettle and @chilly condor If you two hadn’t mentioned Cambodia, I don’t know if I would have found it. I did a Google image search that cropped out everything but the yellow building. I don’t know why but for some reason the third result was an article about Cambodian factories. That was enough for me to take a look Phnom Penh. Immediately, the vernacular architecture and those damn mimosa trees all over the place along the streets looked like the city to focus on.

[visual kettle]

Yeah....wide roads, the architecture and those 'weed' trees gave me an inkling it was Cambodia.... nice find my man 👍

[haughty forge]

I couldn't have done it without you.

[chilly condor]

I was looking in seam reap and thought I found it there, but the street view was in 2013 with just a dirt road lol. Glad you were able to find it!! Great job!!!

[haughty forge]

It was mostly dumb luck

[random solar]

All of you guys are very awesome, I'm so happy

[haughty forge]

What about this one for a new challenge? https://discord.com/channels/709752884257882135/1125028072572325988 Take a look.

[chilly condor]

Oh yeah I meant to go back to that. Image search on the mural kept giving me Palestinian stuff lmao.

[manic tulip]

there goes my "long-eared rodent" theory 😂

it's actually amazing how different that ad looks in lower res

[sage raven]

@chilly condor on the money with it being beer.

[kindred tree]

That lower res was killer, I asked a Khmer speaker to verify and they were thinking it was Thai 😅