Hi, my name is Sothea. I am a local guide. I come from Cambodia; a country in Southeast Asia. Many people recognize Cambodia through its history and Ancient temple. But let me remind you that there is more to be seen and experience. As a local I do want people to fully enjoy and experience more of what local has. And being a local guide allows me to contribute in a small way to that vision.
From what I see as a local, some areas in my community do not get as much attention from visitors as it should and that is upsetting. When this happens the visitor missed their chance to fully experience what local has to offer and places remain hidden. There can be a lot of reason behind this and one of them is lack of reliable information. This can limit people ability to explore the world and local communities also miss their chance to present themselves. My goal as a local guide is to do as much review on as many places as I have been. But the ultimate goal is to bring least known places in my community into the spot light and present it to the people. Many of these places are rich in culture that worth exploring yet remain hidden because they cannot meet the expectation of visitors or simply doesn’t have the mean to show themselves to the world.
Many places in Cambodia because of their lack of information receive little to no visitor. For example Lumphet wildlife sanctuary. Located in Ratanakiri province, this area was once a breeding ground for many rare species. Beautiful rapid that runs across the river and offers breath-taking view. However because not many people know about this, today, many forest area within the vicinity of the sanctuary, have been cleared for farming, and wildlife disappear. Until today little improvement has been done to recover the place. It is sad to see that the community is slowly dwindling down as more and more people move out of the community to seek better live elsewhere.
As local guide, the least I can do to help is review and hope that more people would discover this place and come to visit.
Local market is also another good place to visit. Despite their reputation market in Cambodia can be a very fun and exotic place to be. You can expect to meet a lot of people and enjoy the fun of searching for your item in the maze of people and goods. Most traditional market in Cambodia are very different from modern mall. They are usually pack with people and shops are mixed together. They are also the very place where you can enjoy street food and cheap local produces. And there is more. Market is also one of the best place to experience Cambodian culture.
Other places hold significant story from the old time. Like many of residential buildings in Phnom Penh that were built sometime before pol pot regime still stand strong and inhabited.
That being said, I personally think that local guide has the power to bring more attention to a place through their review and rating and so bringing in more visitors. Local people would be benefited from the increase of visitor and could use the information in review to make any necessary improvement in their community or business.
We local guide do want to present our community in its best way yet keep the information true and sincere. As much as we want visitor to visit our community, we don’t want to mislead them and ruin their expectation. Visiting new place should be like an adventure, you never know what to expect and I am glad that local guide is there to help. I hope that in the future Google map would become not just a tool for telling direction but a platform where visitors and locals meet and exchange idea.