I went on my first solo road trip when I was 15, despite having ridden neither alone, nor on a route that’s near this challenging before, and I wasn’t even in my home town, I decided that I “felt like it” that morning and never thought twice about it after.
The route included a near 25 miles climb on the Central Crossing Highway, which sports some of the steepest ascend in all of the provincial highway systems in Taiwan, and ending in Guguan hot springs in Heping district, Taichung.
All I had then was my road bike with no bar tape, a backpack, and a phone running on 2.3 that can barely handle itself, let alone any other apps.
I was stopping every 30 minutes or so to check if I’m still on track because I had to run Maps on the browser, and I didn’t have a phone mount, although the Maps on Froyo won’t talk to you anyways.
I still remember how Maps was like back then, finding a place without their address is like gambling at best, it’ll rage quit if you keep on insisting your distaste towards motorways, and using navigation is like playing Where’s Waldo except Waldo is that tiny blue dot you have to track down for yourself once in a while.
I still have the screenshot to vouch for it lol.
Despite all that, it has remain one of the most memorable trip for me.
I’ve never had the experience of wandering so far away from civilisation alone, in the direction I had the freedom to choose, not to mention staying the night wherever chance lead me to, and being in touch with every inch of tarmac that brought you closer to your destination.
This found me my new addiction, I can move however fast, whatever direction, on whichever route I prefer.
Road trips are no longer organised group events, but a blank sheet in which I get to be the author of the stories I want to compose with every itinerary, and the memories that comes with it.
I’ve clocked thousands of miles since then, and Maps has remained the first chair of my traveling companions.
As the kind of person who tinkers with every setting on my phone, I was always looking forward to every step of Android’s evolution ever since I got my first phone, which was an Acer E140 running on Eclair.
I remember my excitement when I get to see Lollipop’s new material design for the first time in 2013, talking to my phone non stop during the days of Google Now’s first release, and jumping into NFC payments after discovering Google Pay, just to name a few.
Somewhere along these times, I guess it’s only natural for me to pick up the quest of sharing my knowledge and ideas with the vast users out there to aid in Google Maps’ development in future advancements, along with Google’s various other products.
For all the help, places and information me and countless other users found on this platform during our adventures, the least I could do is to click some buttons and contribute my effort into building something so dear and essential to me, and maybe inspire other travelers to do the same in the process, whether for them to find a few great spots on their explorations, or the interest to join us in the Local Guides program.
Even before the program, I sent feedback like when the translation makes no sense or the addresses of certain stores are missing, and uploaded photos of places and restaurants I went to on a daily basis, although to be fair, Maps did kinda send notifications to my phone from time to time, and a few photos isn’t that much to ask when I’m the kind of person who take pictures literally everywhere I go.
Fun fact, I wasn’t actually aware about the program’s existence until much later after the program’s initiation.
Some day in 2017, I found a badge sitting on my profile picture and got very confused, which led me to the email notifying me of the Local Guides launch.
The email was nearly 2 years old by then, and I was already a level 4.
Nowadays, finding directions became so much easier with various transport and even cycling mode, there’re new categories being added everyday, and it’s even smart enough to recommend you places for dinner.
And in time, I’ve made it a personal mission to contribute my passion and experience in traveling and exploring, in an effort to help shape the future of this beloved product, and provide vital elements for it’s growth like data integration and user feedback, since I’ve seen how far everything’s come, and how much more there is for it to harvest.
To the countless fellow guides out there, for whatever reason you’re in this cause, thank you for making all those unforgettable trips possible, and it’s been an honour to have walked this journey along your sides.
I wish you luck in your future endeavours, and see you all in November!
From Kaohsiung,
Taiwan,
With love.
Important note: This is a Connect Live 2019 application post, the previous uploading & editting attempt was blocked in the pending stage. As the post was never approved, this is the same post and was uploaded in response to the deadline closing, and might become a repeated post should the original passed inspection.
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