GPS is used both to track where you have been - if you look at many of the trip reports you will see these tracks posted - and for navigation. The GPS'es you mostly see used by people touring on bikes have the ability to show maps, and are therefore not used 'in conjunction with' digital maps; they
are the digital maps. It is still advisable to keep a paper map as a backup, particularly if you venture out into the country-side where there may not be as many road-signs, or they may not direct you to your final destination, but rather to some point along the way.
There are several maps available for SEA. There is the ESRI Thai Street Map (which I am not sure how you would get hold of ahead of time, for planning purposes, but others may be able to contribute here), the North Thailand Map (
http://www.riderscorner.net/gps_maps_and_products) and the Laos GPS Map (
http://www.laosgpsmap.com/). The latter two are offered by people on this board.
There are also free maps available for an abundance of countries if you search around a bit for 'osm' (OpenStreetMap) and 'gps'. These are GPS maps made from the information at the Open Street Map Project, which you can find at
http://www.openstreetmap.org/. If you merely wish to cruise around on major roads, these should be sufficient, but if you wan't to get more adventurous in Thailand and Laos, for example, I would recommend getting the two maps mentioned above.
Having mentioned Garmin here, I would suggest that if you do decide to buy a GPS, buy a Garmin. There are a lot of maps available for them, and to be honest I can't remember ever seing a GPS on a bike that wasn't a Garmin. Get one of the map-capable devices, such as a GPSMap 60, 62, Montana or the like.
When using one of these maps you will be able to select your destination, along with any points you wish to go through along the way, and the GPS will figure out the route for you and show you on the display where to go (this requires that the maps you get are routable, but the ones I mentioned for Thailand and Laos are). The GPS can also help keep you out of trouble in for instance Bangkok, where the shortest route may involve a toll-road, where motorcycles aren't allowed. Telling the GPS to disregard these routes will make it find another way of getting to where you want to go. Another advantage with routing on the GPS is that if you miss a turn somewhere (you weren't paying attention, the road was closed due to road works or whatever) it will re-calculate the route for you on the fly and give you a new route (as experienced users will know, this doesn't always help in the case of a blocked road, though, as it may insist that you go back there and try again, but hey, it's an adventure, right?).
If you intend to bring a laptop with you, you can also install these maps on there and plan your trips ahed of time (easier on a bigger screen). Once you have made a route on the laptop, you can download this to the GPS via a USB-cable, and you're good to go.
I won't go into all the details about how to do all these marvellous things; others have done that before me and there i plenty of information available on the net. Suffice it to say that I would definitely recommend a GPS for any bike-trip such as the one you are planning. Enjoy!
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