When I was travelling through South-East-Asia for 8 months I took plenty of advantages from Google Maps. During this time I had 2 key experiences, where I found out how great Google Maps and that I would like to be part.
Here I would like to share my personal story with you what I like the most to share on Google Maps and WHY.
Best places are those which noone knows…
My trip through Southeast Asia finally took me to Taiwan. After some days in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, I had my next stop in the city of Taichung. Travelling blogs mostly promoted hiking destinations, wetlands and a visit of Rainbow Village, an urban art space. So I initially thought, that the city uniquely offers a night market and shops. Google Maps taught me that I was wrong. I discovered three places only by using Maps. Local Guides added some locations, that I neither had encountered in travel guides or on travelling Blogs, nor I have previously been told about those by a backpacker. Hence, I was just strolling around on Google Maps by zooming and scrolling where to find interesting spots. This was part of my strategy while travelling and my general mode use of Maps in order to get an overview over a city. I was surprised that I actually finally spotted three places meeting my interests to 100% ! I gave it a glance:
- No. 1: Taichung Second Market
- No. 2: The Painted Animation Lane
- No. 3: The Statue of Arthas Menethil
Those “quite hidden” and “almost unknown” sights really made my day! (Read my blog article about the full day here)
My conclusion: Making other people see unpopular spots by contributing this kind of place became one of my top “Why’s”.
A hungry stomach is not ready for sightseeing …
My second so-called “key experience” touches my lifestyle. Since I am vegetarian, with tendency to vegan, I sometimes felt like “being in a fix” when I was trvelling in Southeast Asia and it came to food. Especially in Taiwan I found it hard to find whole foods without meat and eggs. I was so glad being recommended vegetarian restaurant and even completely vegetarian food stalls by locals I encountered in hostels. Google Maps helped me a lot to find them quickly and it was a pleasure for me to add those places to Maps. But in fact, most of the vegetarian and vegan eateries I encountered by searching on Google Maps. And I was so grateful that somebody did the effort and took the trouble to add it to Maps, putting some photos and writing a small review. This is how I got used to write reviews about the vegetarian and vegan offer in food stalls, eateries and restaurants.
Conclusion: Google Maps is an excellent tool, helper and guide in many different travel situations. And opportunities for good food are quite important when being on a trip and without access to a kitchen. Even now, after my return back home to Munich, I still use Local Guides and maps a lot in my everyday life. And my intended use didn’t change a lot in the meantime 
