Sometimes, you meet amazing people in the most unexpected places.
You can wander the bustling streets of Chiang Mai, Thailand, or ride a scooter down a cracked road in Long An, Vietnam at midnight, yet these experiences wouldn’t be complete if it hadn’t been for a chance encounter with that one person who made that trip worth it.
In these brief windows of connection, you begin to see what the reality is for the local people. In the three months travelling Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, I saw this time and time again. Despite a violent, war-torn past, the residents can be heard laughing at the local coffee spot, or seen resting under the shade of a palm tree.
They are living, and they are alive.
Of all the people I connected with on that trip, there was one person who left a deep impression on me. I call him “the elder”.
He runs a tiny coffee shop in the small town of Kampot, Cambodia. It’s not like the modern, hip café from your city with rustic decor, abstract paintings, or local flyers selling piano lessons; this was a wooden hut fitted with a small cappuccino machine and a bar countertop so you can sit, enjoy your delicious $0.50 coffee, and converse with the welcoming owner.
The elder speaks three languages fluently: Khmer, French and English. He shared stories of his time working with the World Health Organisation, during the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge – a communist party responsible for the massacre of two million Cambodians – travelling throughout war-torn Cambodia to provide emergency aid to the dying country men, women and children in his homeland, and negotiating with Khmer Rouge soldiers to allow them to bring medical supplies into the camps.
The conversation lasted only twenty minutes yet his stories will be locked in the deepest depths of my memories for the rest of my life.
I had to give this elder a Google review. Travellers like myself relied upon them to find great and unusual places. I wanted to share and encourage other travellers to visit this coffee shop and dive into the rich history of this unassuming hero.
But, his shop didn’t have a name. If you walked past it, you wouldn’t even know he sold coffee, let alone the best cheap coffee in all of Kampot.
I had to put this man on the map.
“I’m going to put your coffee shop on Google Maps, what is your shop name?” I enquired.
“Hmmm… I never thought about it. How about ‘Street Coffee’?”
“Done.”
Within five minutes, I set up his store in Google Maps, wrote my 5-star review (I would have given more if I could), posted photos and shared it with other travellers I met in Kampot.
That’s the power of Google Maps.
You can put local heroes on the map.
You can bring people to their stores.
You can help their community.
And, most importantly, you can share their story.
That has become my mission.