“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
Namaste!!!
I am Surendra Shrestha, from the land of Himalayas,Nepal. It’s been almost three year that I have been actively contributing Google map as a local guide. But I was adding photos in Google maps since 2009 through panaromio; a product of Google which is discontinued later. I came to know about this local guide program via the AR game ‘Ingress’ as the game has a trend of hosting meet up on first Saturday of each month. In the meetup luckily, I came to know the presence of the local guide program.
Talking about Local Guide life, I love to travel in different new places & share my knowledge with others. In my journey I use Google maps a lot to find the routes of my destinations and also it also gives a general idea of the place. Doing this several times I use to find that the routes are missing. Lots of place are missing on map and those present in map do not have the right information in the map. As a local guide I use to add and correct the info and photographs. Doing this I feel very happy that my contributions are helping the travelers and promoting the local small businesses.
The whole world itself is filled with extremely unexplored or even untouched which are not listed in google maps which will give you not just a lifetime experience to remember but also a huge popularity among people who probably travel to common places and make them change their mind too. As a matter of fact, common destinations are no more in Vogue. We can say that “change is the only constant”. So, let’s explore more!
Traveling to a place which has been unrevealed ever since, can give you a memory to cherish for a lifetime. As they say, every place has its own story, we all need to embed that new story and add some freshness to our lives while manifesting something new yet raw. I love to travel those unexplored places and add them to google maps so that other can also explore the wilderness and hear the unheard voices of those places.
The local guide program itself also has helped me to connect with nearby fellows and fellows around the globe. This has been a great platform to show my activities and learn from others activities too. Joining in the connect I have developed participating in the nearby meetups as a passion. Hosting the meetups also falls under my interest and I have an experience of successfully hosted meetup also.
Now I have built up amicable relationship with worldwide local guide community through the local guide connect program. They have been a good help for me to run my journey smoothly as a local guide. Also, I am sure that the journey will be even smooth in upcoming days too.
I am an active member of different Google plus local guide communities. Communities are also playing a vital role in connecting with nearby local guides. Some of the communities I in which I involved are Nepal Local guides Community,Rapti Local guides, Mechi Koshi Local guides. As we all know google plus is no more with us.
My first Meetup hosting
It was wonderful experience to host a photo walk in the UNESCO world heritage site, Patan Durbar Square. I would like to thank all attendees for helping me in making my first meetup successful.
Date: September 23, 2017 | Venue: Patan Durbar Square, Lalitpur
Date: November 17, 2018 @ 10:00 (+0545)| Venue : Chabahil, Kathmandu
Some of other meetups that I have attended
- Patan Photo Walk
- International Month of Monuments
- Basantapur Photo Walk
- World Wide Geo Walk Taudaha
- Kathmandu Food Crawl Meetup
- Thamel Amble World Wide PhotoWalk
- World Wide Review Hour
- Godawari Paragliding Meetup
- Pashupatinath Meetup
- First SVTP Meetup Patan
- Patan Water Walk - Earth Day
- Panauti Monumental Photo Walk
- WORLDWIDE CAFE WALK - LUBHOO, LALITPUR, NEPAL
- Chapakharka Hiking with Google Local Guides
- Chandragiri Photo Walk, Nepal
My Post in local Guide Connect____: Namo Buddha : The sacred holy Buddhist Pilgrimage of Nepal
The local guide journey won’t be as much as I expected without your support. Thanks to all who support all way in my journey** @BishowvijayaP @RupendraNeupane @LaxmiG1 @Ambili_Raj **Thanks guys for all the love and support and also expecting the cooperation and coordination from all of you in upcoming days too. Thank you so much for allocating the precious moment of your life to read this post. See you around.
Happy mapping! Keep guiding!