I was planning from few months just to dedicate one of my days totally to Google Maps or Local Guides Program. Before Sunrise to after Sunset just to do as much as the contributions I can. Luckily, that day happened to come. I was hosting a Local Guides 360 Photo Walk Meetup at Bengaluru last week. I found that just one day before to my meetup, there was a 360Photo Walk Meetup at Yercaud which is more than 200kms from Bengaluru. I clearly had no idea on what to do. As I really wanted to attend the Yercaud Meetup since I wanted to meet Tamilnadu Local Guides and also to get some photography tips from Yercaud Meetup host, @TravellerG who is very much experienced in Photography. I decided to attend the Yercaud Meetup by departing on meetup day, Saturday early morning and to get back to Bengaluru by leaving from Yercaud on the evening so that I could not miss the Meetup at Bengaluru which I was hosting.
The difficulty was travelling around 400kms on the same day by bus would have chance to make me exhaust which may affect my next day meetup.
Finally, I decided that I will try and check out whether it work or not and yes it really worked.
I started my journey on Saturday early morning at 5 am from home then got the bus going to Salem and since Yercaud is a hill place and I had to get in a bus from Salem. The Meetup was 10AM to 5PM. I reached Yercaud around 1PM as I forget to get in a direct bus to Salem and it took me way long time to reach Salem itself.
Meetup host, TravellerG is so kind that he was about to send car to get me from bus stand but I said it’s fine just to share the location so that I can join them. I was really excited to meet all the attendees. After reaching the location and meeting them felt like just meeting our old friends as always. I met with @Saravanakanth Sir, @Mohanvee, @Rahulpillai555 and others. I gave the India Local Guides badge to them and one extra to give @JohnPeter who was not able to join this meetup due to health issues. Many places have been already covered during this meetup by all of them since I was late to meetup. We then had lunch and thanks to TravellerG for offering us lunch during meetup. TravellerG showed me how to take 360s and upload it to Google Maps in step by step by detail. It was great time learning about Photography and knowing their experiences in photography
I then shared my experiences about Connect Live 2018 to all of them. How I started as a Local Guide, What can we do in Connect. How was Connect Live, etc. All were very much interested in knowing it.
TravellerG then took us to tourist spots and busy streets at Yercaud. The real fun was started when we were taking photos and 360s of places and walking along the streets holding 360cameras, DSLRs and phones for capturing and mapping.
Many people seem quite curious to know about what we were doing. Many asked and we politely replied to them and they were really happy knowing how it will help people in Google Maps.
We then had a great coffee and thanks for offering it. Then we travelled to other places in TravellerG’s car and started to mapping it.
At that time, we met few students and TravellerG and Saravanakanth Sir explained about Local Guides Program to them. And the students were interestingly observed all they said. It was around 6PM at that time and I told that I had to leave to Bangalore. And I told how this meetup was to all of them. Exploring with 360s and cameras in a busy places like this was the first time experience for me. And how much mesmerized I am because of the hospitality of TravellerG, Saravanakanth Sir, Lambert Sir, Mohan bro, Rahul bro and others. Then, Saravanakanth Sir got an auto for me to go back to bus stand and then I returned. Thank you so much to all of them. I reached my home in Bengaluru at 12AM midnight and yes my goal was achieved.
Leaving the home before sunrise and reaching the home after sunset for Local Guides Program. Even my journey of many hours went on travel itself I still consider it as dedicated for Local Guides Program since that day had nothing to do with any of my other works.
Thanks to Local Guides Team for making me meet so many amazing people and my thanks to Local Guides across the globe for making the world a better place to live.
