Guest Blogger Kiki Keja (from Kikiaroundtheworld) wrote an article for us about how she supports the locals during her travels.
While traveling I sometimes choose a not so obvious destination. Besides a large number of well-known destinations, I have also been to Iran, Lebanon, Albania and Surinam. On these slightly unknown destinations, I also like to make use of the help of the local people.
Support the locals – travel style
The idea started 4 years ago in Bali to make use of a local driver. After some searching on the internet, I found a driver that I contacted and toured the island with for a couple of days. The nice thing about this is that you can support a local directly and there are no large organizations in between, so the money goes completely to this person. What is also nice about this is that you can discuss and communicate directly with this person what you would like to see and do. You can create your own schedule and make use of suggestions from this person. In this way, I have already used a local guide or driver at several destinations.
I met Driver Gusti in Bali in 2016. A friendly and calm man who showed me the highlights of the island in 3 days. Different temples, waterfalls, the most beautiful beaches, the shopping centre in Kuta. Everywhere Gusti took me he waited patiently for me to finish. Every day I was neatly picked up from my hotel and brought back as soon as we had seen all of the planned sights. 2 years later I introduced him to one of my friends who organizes group trips and since then he has been the regular travel agent for these group tours. I am glad that I was able to contribute to this success for Gusti.
In 2018 I planned a trip to Sri Lanka, also here I wanted to make use of a private driver. After some searching on the internet and approaching a couple of drivers, Indika was the first to respond to my message. Via WhatsApp, we mapped out a whole route together and I booked the flights and hotels. Unfortunately, the trip was cancelled due to circumstances and couldn’t go on. A big disappointment. In 2019 I decided to try again and shortly before departure I contacted Indika again. Luckily I could still arrange everything with him and I booked the tickets again. Indika drove around Sri Lanka in 5 days and showed me the nicest things and places. Even things that weren’t even on the schedule like a garden in the jungle where they sold all kinds of natural medicinal herbs and plants, also we often stopped to taste different tropical fruits at roadside stalls. We made the following tour: Negombo-Damulla-Sigiriyana-Kandy-Ella-Yala-Galle and we ended up in Aghungalla for a 4-day beach stay. The nice thing about Sri Lanka is that drivers get free accommodation at the hotels where their guests sleep. They also eat for free at the restaurants where they take us. Indika even went (for free) with us on our safari. Very nicely arranged!
In 2019 I visited Macedonia. Because I don’t like driving myself I was looking for a local guide/driver again. Through another online search, I found driver Celo. His English wasn’t very good so I discussed it with his daughter. The next morning perfectly on time he was waiting for me and took me to all the places I wanted to see. He turned out to be quite good at English and he was a very sociable and funny man. He stopped by the roadside to buy fresh apples to taste and loved my name Kiki. In Macedonia, there seems to be a brand that makes Kiki candies so when he was waiting for me the next day to do a tour of Ohrid he had bought me a bag of Kiki candies. What a huge sweetheart!
At the end of 2020, I went to Iran. A trip to Iran requires a lot of preparation and reading in advance. Again I chose to make use of a local guide. This time was also a bit more difficult because in Iran there is more limited access to the internet. Through a website where you can book a “free” city tour, I found Pouryai. After participating in the “free” tour, I had the feeling that I was far from finished and I had a huge click with Pourya. We were of the same age and had the same interests and ideas about life. Because of this, I decided to go on a trip with him for a few more days and of course pay him for it. So he showed me the highlights of Shiraz, took me out to dinner at places where you would never come as a tourist and we talked about the most diverse subjects. This gave me a good look into the life of the people of Iran.
Back home in the Netherlands I always stayed in contact with some of these gentlemen. It is nice to slowly gather more and more friends around the world and stay in touch with them. It is even more fun to keep their contact details and to be able to share them with people who are also planning to travel to this destination. In this way, we support local initiatives in multiple forms. I would rather give my money to someone at the destination than to a large company.
Written by: Kiki (from Kikiaroundtheworld.nl)
