In the beginning of May 2019, I had got a chance to visit Betong city, Yala Province in Thailand which located 1,210 Kilometers away from where I live. This city is my hometown and this was a once in a while opportunity for me to visit my hometown; usually around once a year. And I had been having an idea that I would like to help improve the visibility and information of local businesses in Betong, Yala. So, I had called for a meet-up to for map-walking in order to start pinning locations that were left out.
I also promoted this meet-up in Betong Community Facebook group [Group name: เบตงบ้านเรา] in order to ensure that this news were wide spread and hit to the right targets. There were huge demand from the local folks to me that they wanted me to help pinning location for their businesses. Surprisingly, I have found out from local people that there are some people who are using this FREE service to charge around 50-200 THB/per pin to help adding location for those who don’t know how to do it. To me, I’m not sure this is proper to do or not, but as a local guide; I have felt that it’s my duty to help educate people on how to do this and claim their business. So, my journey has begun.
I started off by inviting my old friends to join me in the mission. I shared with them my experiences as a local guide, Local Guide Program, and how to contribute on map. This is to make sure that there will be some people who understand this process and being able to help others like me when I’ve already been back to Bangkok.
Each day I would set aside my time after well-spent with my family around 2 hours per day to go out and visit local businesses and helped them adding locations, talked to them for the correct information, contact numbers, and taught them how to claim their own businesses.
Besides adding location for them, I also supported local businesses by purchasing products from them, taking pictures, and adding reviews. I intended to add all reviews in English in order to add information for Malaysian and Singaporean tourists who are the majority of tourists to Betong.
Most of the time, the local businesses they really appreciated my presence and help; so, I always got offered some complementary such as free drinks and free meals at their shops. To me, this is a worthwhile experience that I cannot truly have if I’m not a local guide. Being a local guide has given me an opportunity to contribute back to my community, help more than thousands of people to find map more user friendly especially in a small town like Betong, Yala (the Southest town in Thailand). I expect that my contribution will these local businesses to attract more & more tourists to come to their shops.
Another story that I was so proud of was that when I visited Betong English Speaking Club to help completing information on their maps; I was invited to join their discussion group. This group of people are adults who are interested in learning English for everyday life. I was so impressed by their skills; most of them had just started to study English few years ago at age around 60 years old, but they could speak really well. I spent around 2 hours to be a prat of discussion group and shared a lot of views on different perspectives and topics. I would never get to do something like this if it wasn’t for being a Google Local Guide.
Being a part of local guides worldwide, I feel that once I begin to take some actions; the world has opened the door for me for new possibilities, new perspectives, and also the new self-reflection. I’ve seen my hometown in a new way which I haven’t thought of before. I feel that so much I could do here for my hometown; and also see many possibilities for my relocation back here, business opportunity, or even creating my own career path.
I am so happy being a local guide. This is the true happiness that matters more than any perks. I want to keep doing this as it keeps giving back smiles to my faces and fulfil me more wholeheartedly complete.
