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149 cams
Thailand's webcam coverage is driven by two very different needs. The first is traffic. Bangkok has the densest network in the country, run by the city's traffic management centre and the national highway department. Cameras sit above the main arterials, the expressways and the bridges over the Chao Phraya, showing the stop-and-go of a city that lives in gridlock. Provincial highway cameras spread out from the capital, particularly along the routes to the eastern seaboard and the northern mountains, where they help monitor landslide risk and flooding. The second is coastline. Islands and beach resorts have put cameras on their sand, often operated by hotels, tourism boards or local businesses. These give a live view of the surf, the weather and how busy the beach is, and they are the most popular cams for visitors checking conditions before heading out. The southern bays, from Phuket to Koh Samui, have the densest coastal coverage. River cameras are a smaller group, mostly on the Chao Phraya and the Mekong, used to track water levels during monsoon season. A handful of city-view cameras top the skyline in Bangkok, Pattaya and Chiang Mai, but they are the exception. Most Thai cams are practical tools, and the best ones show the daily rhythm of the country, from a fishing village dawn to a Bangkok midnight jam.