2022
Hello @ArielleM_
I am Niraj Bhusal , a level 8 Local Guide and a Google Street View Trusted Photographer from Nepal. I have been contributing as a Local Guide since December 2015 and it has been an absolutely amazing journey till now.
HOW I STARTED ?
I started contributing as a Local Guide since December 2015 and created Nepal Local Guides Community. Saroj Dhakal , who is a former Google employee from Nepal helped me alot creating Nepal Local Guides Community. I started expanding the community with Saroj Dhakal and Sovita Dahal. During the early days, we were only 3 in number and now I am so happy to say that, the small community has reached 429 members in Google Plus and 66 members in Hangouts group chat.
Later on I helped Laxmi Gautam, Abhishek Pandey and Abhishek Acharya to create Rapti Local Guides Community in Mid-Western Region of Nepal and I am sure they are doing great.
WHY I LOVE BEING A LOCAL GUIDE ?
I have always felt privileged to be a Local Guide as it makes me feel like I've been making an important impact on my community through Google Maps. I love traveling to new places and exploring new things about the places. Local Guides and Local Guides Connect has given me such an enormous platform to share my experiences with the fellow travelers all over the world. I believe that I have been able to spread some words around the world about my country. Also, I have learned so much about traveling and the places as well through this platform.
INTERESTING FACTS
During my initial days as a Local Guide, I used to carry a Motorola Moto G2 Android Phone and currently I have expanded it to a Oneplus 3T Android Phone, Canon EOS 80D DSLR Camera and a LG 360 CAM. Now, I am Google Street View Trusted Photographer with more than a hundred and fifty 360 Photos and a master Photographer with more than 1000 photos in Google Maps.
MEMORABLE MOMENTS
As Local Guides is a global community, we get to be connected to millions of people around the world as a Local Guide. Being a Local Guide, I always have the urge to connect with Local Guides from my country and outside my country to expand my experiences. I was in contact with Pavel Sarwar, Local Guides from Bangladesh who is currently staying at Malaysia. He came to Nepal and we stayed together in my house with my family. After he returned from Nepal, he invited me to Bangladesh and for the first time I had an International Flight to Bangladesh. I stayed with him and his family. I travelled to the popular destinations in Bangladesh with Pavel and his wife. Beside this, Bangladesh Local Guides community gave me warm welcome meeting there. I was also selected for attending local guides summit in 2017 but could not do so due to visa issues.
Namaste, Niraj
