6 July 2017 - It was the first time ever that I contributed as a local guide.
Truth be told - I didn’t know that I had already became a local guide back then. When I submitted my review via Google Rewards, I was unaware that it would count as a contribution.
It was only after receiving my first “Like” for one of my Google Rewards survey reviews that I realised my surveys weren’t mere data statistics - They were meaningful contributions that could affect another person’s decision making process. This singular “like” had since ignited the first spark I had to be a local guide.
As my job required me to travel both inbound and outbound, I did the best I could to share and post my afterthoughts of a place whenever possible. And it was also then that I began to take pride in my reviews, slowly expanding from hotels to places of interest (F1 Night Race at the Marina Bay Circuit) and savoury food delights.
Most people may feel that 2020 is the worst year of their life (and I can presume to understand why). For me however, it was 2019 as I had literally hit rock bottom (ending a 12 year relationship with my partner isn’t an easy journey to ride out at all) - to the point that I decided to re-evaluate my life and actively seek out things that aligned with my personal interest. In my attempt to move forward with life, being a local guide gave me something positive and meaningful to go about with; Through my contributions, I get to explore my surroundings and post my true feelings of a place on Google Map - And guess what? It had slowly became an integral to my rock bottom life!
Even though I’m currently a proud owner of a 12 year old westie, my first love has always been cats (case in point, my cat Wuya had lived with me for a full 15 years before she went to cat heaven). With the help of YouTube, Google and a new found sense of being an adventurer (as a local guide), I ventured out of my comfort zone, expanded my local guide into something global and before I knew it, I became a regular patron of this wonderful place - a (Malaysia) cat cafe outside my country of residence (Singapore), they gave me a form of therapeutic effect that I never knew I could enjoy.
Even though I was a Singaporean hanging out in a Malaysian place of interest, it was here that my journey as a local guide transcended local waters.
I met Monica, her friend Seonmi, and their lovely children at the cat café as patrons by chance, and coincidentally she was a local guide in Korea too, having shared with me that they would like to visit Singapore.
My desire to be their personal local guide gave me the courage to reach out to them, and let them experience how Singaporeans celebrate Lunar New Year, by inviting them over to my grandparent’s house then! They gladly accepted my invitation, and from the customary traditions to the food prepared for the celebration, they enjoyed it very much.
Together with my dad (whose interest was sharing local stories and histories), we also managed to show them various places of interest in Singapore (The Esplanade, Marina Bay, Chinatown and the heart of Singapore, Orchard Road) within the short amount of time they had to spend here. It was also through this experience that I manage to come up with a nifty list on Google Maps for everyone who would like to visit and explore Singapore with a limited amount of time.
Having said everything and after doing all these interesting activities thus far as a local guide, I do wonder every now and then what the program means to me and these are the few things that comes to my mind -
“Over coming great distances to make the world smaller and better while fostering new bonds with people and places from different cultures for eternity.”
Because in the end, it’s the heart that counts. And that’s what it truly means to me.
