#ScoutMyTrip

[redtardis27]

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Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising everytime we fall. #HimachalPradesh #Himachal #GalluWaterfall #Travel #TravelLife #Mountains #Blue #Green #Nature #NatureLife #WildLife #Wild #Trekk #Tree #Follow #ScoutMyTrip #ExploreLife #Explore #NaturePhotography #Trek #slowmotion #trekphotography #tripotocommunity #tripyoursoul (at Gallu Waterfall) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bt0qCAeH70w/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=yc88xehrhtq1

[earpanel]

ScoutMyTrip - The experiential travel planners beyond fulfillment

We caught up with Deepak Ananth, Co-Founder & CEO, and Vineet Rajan, Co-Founder and CMO of ScoutMyTrip, the feisty young travel planning startup that combines the strengths of Travel, Technology and Community, and has won several awards ever since its first soft steps in 2016 The intro to this piece is perhaps half the size of the interview QnAs, but in today’s day when participative, experiential travel is the new ‘go to’ for intrepid travelers, especially the youth who want to move beyond the clinical templated planning of mass packages and group hustles by travel agencies with an impersonal tour escort barking instructions like s/he were herding cattle, this travel planner’s offering is remarkably attractive. (Yes, crazily long sentence too, that). That cattle bit may have been exaggeration to make a point, but today, more and more people are discovering the joy of travelling not to a travel destination but its localities, walking, hiking, driving through them, well… imbibing the place, its local food, experiencing local dwellings, culture, music and its people. Enter – ScoutMyTrip. An all inclusive experiential subscription-based trip planner. Through this the traveller can experience local food suggestions, local activities to experience amongst other things, all of which is generally missed out while planning a trip. The local scouts from ScoutMyTrip help guide travellers with fresh and new suggestions bringing in the human AI. ScoutMyTrip can help plan for your next trip across more than 40 destinations across India. They plan to add more destinations in 4-6 months from now. Recently, ScoutMyTrip won the National entrepreneurship Award for 2019 in Travel and hospitality sector in A3 category. ScoutMyTrip is one travel planning offering that offers traveller keen to mainline on authenticity and the experiential, with personalized holidays planned and curated by locals – a human guide familiar with the works along even the itinerary that is finalized in consultation with the traveler. And you can hire a scout, who will be your online travel buddy and planner and will be with you through the ScoutMyTrip app. So your scout will not only plan your entire trip, but will also virtually assist you on your entire vacation. Super cool we think. So you can get a customized trip planning experience for your dream holiday with ScoutMyTrip’s award winning Travel Planner, add off-beat places and attractions to explore, choose local cuisines -- even toilets and routes.Right now, it’s available only for India, but Indians are loving the uniqueness and value delivery of the service.

I caught up with Deepak Ananth, Co-Founder & CEO, and Vineet Rajan, Co-Founder and CMO, of ScoutMyTrip, the feisty young travel planning startup that combines the strengths of Travel, Technology and Community, and has won several awards ever since its first soft steps in 2016. Excerpts from the conversation. Tell us about how ScoutMyTrip came to be Both us Co-Founders of ScoutMyTrip, that is Deepak Ananth and I,  have been avid travellers for the past 20-plus years.  We have always preferred exploring by the seat of our pants and learning about new cultures and experiencing the local countryside of India. During our travels, we would connect with a lot of people who wanted to do the same but were not able to get the required information to plan their travel. The information was either very scarce or too 'touristy'. We ourselves would have to do a lot of research before we embarked on a journey. To solve that prevailing problem, we started a journey planner that would connect the traveller with other experts -- locals in each of the places the traveller wanted to explore -- and enable information exchange. So essentially, you were actually providing an information and facilitation service for those who wanted experiential, immersive travel -- the sort that would help them not just visit a place or kind of place, but live it too -- in an experiential kind of way. As a business, do you provide your service to consumers only or businesses too? B2B or B2C? We are a mix of both. Our primary business has been B2C since our inception, but over time, our planning services have attracted a lot of businesses that are looking at getting their team to explore together and not just attend in-room conferences. Their experiences have led them to believe that a team that travels together works better together too.

Tell us about your B2B services. We have done B2B deals with large corporates like Honda, Mahindra and Mahindra, Milton, OYO rooms and many more. It’s been a very fulfilling journey thus far.  Most of the places that we take our clients to vary from Lonavala near Mumbai to a trip through the beautiful Northeast to a conference nestled in nature in Bhutan. Each of these has been extremely challenging but the team has been successful in getting the best experience out because of the vast Scout network we have in place. How is ScoutMyTrip different from other trip planners? Most travel companies specialize in Fulfillment and all other information given is to only aid the Fulfillment of hotel rooms and such.

ScoutMyTrip specializes in experiencing your travel. If a hotel room or a cab is required, we do cater to that need too, but we are one of the world's first subscription-based travel services where travellers are connected to a scout, who is a local and expert in the places being explored. The scout helps to build up an itinerary in tandem with the customer taking into account the likes and dislikes of the customer and also the way they'd like to travel. Once the itinerary is built, our local travel agent network bids for the fulfillment of the same and a quote for the hotels and other ancillary services is provided to the customer. This is a 360-degree approach to addressing all the travel needs of the customer. The scout is virtual and is with the customer from the time of planning till the day he comes back home, guiding and customizing every leg of the holiday.  With more than 150 scouts and more than 300 travel agents in every state of India, plus Nepal and Bhutan, we help give the customer the true India experience.

How have Indians' travel priorities and interests been? When do they travel with their familites, and when do they travel alone or with friends? For the customer, a lot of time has been saved that would have otherwise gone  into planning; also, the uncertainties have been removed. These would be the main deterrent for exploring new places.  With such a service the traveler is now able to see more of the countryside and experience India in a true sense rather than just go to the touristy places promoted on social media. One of the first customers that we planned for was a lady from Mumbai who wanted to take her kids and drive through the Himachal region in north India. A solo woman traveler, especially with kids, allowed us no margin for error. The team meticulously planned a 15-day trip for the family which was completed like clockwork. The words of appreciation that we got from the family and the pictures of happy kids playing in the snow was enough to give us a deep sense of satisfaction. Each customer is different. While travelling with families the requirements are varied, with kids needing separate attention and older people needing a different approach. Our scouts are able to marry the expectation to reality and plan an all-encompassing itinerary for the team. Which are the most popular destinations? Travel is very seasonal. June heralds the season of travel to the mountains up north and Leh and Ladakh journeys are very popular at that time.  The rains make the nature trails of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu very enticing.  Winters are special for Kutch, wildlife tours in Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. Through the year places like Goa, Kerala, etc are always in demand. What is your business model? Our business model is such that every deal we make is on a revenue-sharing basis. With either the scout or the travel agent being an active partner, we believe that we can only grow together.   On the B2C front, we have a subscription-based scout model that you can purchase for the days that you want to travel. This gives you access to a local expert for the entire journey to plan your trip! In case you need suggestions and help in booking hotels and vehicles, we have a very robust network of around 300 + travel agents in our network that can fulfill this for you at very competitive rates! We work on a commission basis for hotel and vehicle bookings. How do you market ScoutMyTrip ? Our marketing on social media and our PR team works around the clock to ensure that we get a lot of inquiries. The team also ensures that we are ranked very high on SEO and SEM for the keywords that define journey planners. We also participate in a lot of events that help us grow the ECO system and also spread the word about our unique business model to the potential customer. Do you provide your services to both - tourists and service providers? Yes. Tourists are our main customers. We also have received a few queries from inbound foreign travel planners to fulfill the requirements of their customers. We work on these on a case to case basis too. We also list a lot of service providers on our platform for Fulfillment from our side too. Therefore it is a win-win partnership that we work along with service providers from around the world. What is your marketing mix like? What media mix do you use, for which TGs, and why? Our main marketing has been social media with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter leading the charge. We are also very active in the blogosphere and have a very updated blog section on our platform. For the listeners out there, we also release podcasts that are travel-related on a very frequent basis. All details are available on our platform. Our TG has been the young traveller who wants to move away from just the normal hotel-based destination travel. A traveller who wants to explore a bit more rather than just tick the box of having been to a destination. Our current customer data shows us that most of our customers are between the ages of 27- 45 with family.  We also get a lot of queries from large families with a mix of people to help plan their trips efficiently. How comfortable are you on your opex? What's your tech like? Today we are happy to say that we are operationally sustainable and all our expenses are taken out of the revenues we generate on a monthly basis. As we add newer scouts and newer experiences, we use a lot of algorithms to make it easier to predict user behaviour. Our technology team is in-house and works with cutting edge tech to make the travel planning seamless and extremely simple to execute.  The infrastructure we have created will hold us in good stead for at least 2-3 times the current customer flow that we handle currently. In addition, we are actively looking at investments to be brought in to scale up in newer markets for inbound travel into India. What other travel destinations do you plan to add? The next travel destination that we hope to reach out to is the Southeast Asian market starting with Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. We hope to start this in the next 4-6 months from now. Read the full article

[halla-photo-contests]

Photo submitted by @udayansankarpal in MEMORABLE ROAD TRIP contest.⠀ .⠀ Prizes of worth Rs.3000 from our sponsors @scoutmytrip⠀ .⠀ ⠀ To be eligible you have to do the following:⠀ 1. Upload best Photo of your Memorable Road Trip(Photo must be clicked by you) on our website www.halla.in (LINK IN BIO)⠀ 2. Make sure you’re following @halla_photo_contests and @scoutmytrip.⠀ 3. Tag 3 friends in this post.⠀ 4. Share this post in your story and tag both @scoutmytrip and @halla_photo_contests .⠀ .⠀ ⠀ Last Date of contest: 22 June 2019.⠀ ⠀ Terms and conditions:⠀ * Photo must be clicked by you (We will remove duplicate entries) * One user can submit only 1 entry.⠀ * Before submitting your travel photographs ensure that you’ve followed the steps above.⠀ * While uploading a photo , do not forget to mention your instagram Handle in description section.⠀ * The more you share, comment and tag, the more chances you have of winning!⠀ * * * * ⠀ #myhallaphoto#scoutmytrip#travel#roadtrip#roadtriplanner #travelinsta #traveller #ladakhroadtrip #uttarakhand #road #trees #traveladdict #leh #ladakh #biketrip #cartrip #royalenfield #harleydavidson https://www.instagram.com/p/BypIWxaJNub/?igshid=porrp9ir39ad

[zirigoza-blog-blog]

Reposting @scoutmytrip: Featured 📷 @bhargavishamuk: Where water is the boss, the land must obey.⠀ .⠀ .⠀ .⠀ To explore more of Kerala checkout our packages. #LinkInBio⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #kerala #godsowncountry #keralatourism #keraladiaries #keralagram #igkerala #southindia #keralajunction #waterfalls #waterfallphotography #wanderlust #ipulledoverforthis #roadtrip #roadtrippin #travel #traveling #instatravel #instago #trip #picoftheday #photooftheday #incredibleindia #indiaclicks #india #AageSeRight #ScoutMyTrip

[behungryforever]

The Top 4 Biryanis of South India And Where to Find Them

In December 2017, ScoutMyTrip undertook the first edition of the Great Indian Food Trip – The South Indian Biryani Trail. A 4000-km discovery trail of the best biryani in south India was a true eye-opener. We mostly hear only about the North Indian varieties and, here in the South recognition is only granted to the Hyderabadi Dum Biriyani. However, there exist over 20 delicious varieties!

The…

[mytravelrecitals]

The winds caressed my face, eyes glued to the lush green sides of the road, skin gleamed with slight drizzle, playful sound of wind while cruising through the smooth Karnataka highways before I reached Wayanad this monsoon.

Road trips are definitely my kind of travel but bike road trips? Ummm… I didn’t know so much. There had not been a single road trip when I didn’t notice a series of bikers zipping through the highways in biking jackets and knee guards bedazzling the passers by with the classic sound of bullets.  To figure how it is like to be a part of this kind of clan, I headed on to my first bike road trip to Wayanad upon invitation by Scoutmytrip – an ultimate road trip planner, Onn bikes – a self ride bike rental and Wandertrails – experts in the real experiential stays and activities.

The Bike Ride 

First being first, I was excited from the time I reached the meeting point from where we were supposed to kick start our journey. The excitement multiplied on meeting the like minded travel enthusiasts, travel bloggers and passionate bikers. We assembled at the starting point to find our shining chariots – 7 Royal Enfield and 1 Avenger from Onnbikes stable lined up beautifully. I didn’t have the slightest of idea that so much discipline goes into group bike rides unless I heard the briefing from Scoutmytrip team and Onn Bikes team. The briefing included the sequencing of the bikes and cars (2 cars accompanied us) at all times in a zig zag pattern, next pit stop, to ensure the head lights are switched on at all times , to switch off the light for an indication and route to be taken for the 350 km ride to Wayanad.

  I chose to be a pillion to Srinidhi, a fellow travel blogger and hopped on to the only Avenger of the group. We cruised through the Bangalore Mysore highway to reach our first pit stop at Kamath restaurant for an authentic South Indian breakfast. In no time, we were on our way and cruised on the buttery roads dotted with marigold flowers on both sides of the highway.

My focus sharpens every time I pass through the Bandipur National Park to spot wildlife of that area and this time too was not any different. We swiftly passed through the stretch and halted at our next pit stop for a tea break (of course smoke break too – that goes without saying). We then zoomed away the remaining kms only to stop at our last pit stop for lunch in Sultan Bathery. After a quick lunch and an immediate fix by Onn bikes team in one of the bikes, we were on road again to hit our destination in Wayanad.

     Our stay in Wayanad

Sun had set when we reached Wayanad but our resort was still an adventurous 20 min 4X4 jeep ride away. We had parked our bikes and hopped on to the jeep to get enthralled by the drive till the nature camp. The broken trails replaced the roads, the darkness took the place of well lit town of Vythiri which we had just passed by, the gushing sound of water stream made us forget the sounds of bullet and the wilderness took over in the most raw form possible.

During the ride, I could fore see what coming 2 days at Dare 5000 Nature Camp by Wandertrails would be like. We were welcomed by none other than lush forests, the enchanting birds, the wild and yet the most comfortable beds after a long ride from Bangalore to Wayanad. The resort appeared to be a sure respite to my craving of untouched natural beauty.

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The bonfire was set and the experiences of travelers were shared over a sumptuous spread of local cuisine. The night went by in the comfort of nature and lullabies of birds.

The rainy morning gave a sneak peek of mind blowing views from the resort and I started hoping for clear views. I sipped my perfectly made black tea at the breakfast table while others started joining for breakfast. We were served with the most delicious idli sambhar cooked with immense love for sure.

It was indeed a relaxed morning where all of us were still deciding what activities to do for the day. With a bunch of activities like ziplining, valley crossing, laddering, archery, burma bridge, trekking at offer, we zeroed down to hiking up-till a private waterfall of the property. Hold up your jaw while I reveal about visiting the waterfall and other jaw dropping things we did at the resort.

  Rains decided to not go on a break and come with us on our hike to the waterfall. All of us got ready in our rain gear and followed the care taker of the resort who agreed to lead us. It came across as an easy trek of 30-40 mins but quite a slippery one. We crossed the water streams, got attacked by leeches (I got spared somehow), held on to the rope fixed by resort people and took careful steps till the waterfall.

I have always known that waterfalls look glorious in the monsoons but this sight was beyond words. It was a huge waterfall making the most sensuous sounds and indeed all of us fell in love with it instantly. While few of us crossed from one side to another and looked to be meditating right under the cold water of the falls, few of us were still struggling with the leeches and few were busy adoring the falls. After a playful time at falls, we headed back to the resort and were served with another mouth watering meal.

The conversations didn’t seem to end before we were called to witness another breathtaking sight. A small trail leading to a private sun set point of the resort. The magnificent view from 5000 feet above sea level of lush green forests, sun’s godly rays enlightening a part of the valley did leave my awestruck. I just couldn’t get enough of the mystical views which I had been hoping to see since morning.

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After enough pampering of eyes, it was time to pamper the tongue with hot pakoras and tea in the company of endless travel talks and a slight drizzle.

We decided to know each other a little better by playing a popular game Mafia. To say the least, we bonded well over this game and are still sharing Mafia jokes with each other even after 15 days of the trip. It was now time for dinner and this meal was also no less delicious than we have had till now. The simply cooked meal with authentic flavors completely bowled me over.

The next morning we hogged on some yum breakfast and with a heavy heart, we bid goodbye to the lovely people at the resort and started our journey back. This time I was a pillion to Sameera, a girl biker and we were talking to the wind in no time. We halted for lunch at a dhaba and ate to our soul’s appetite. I opted to sit in the car with Wandertrails team for a relaxed drive for the remaining leg of the journey.

The ride and the stay were planned to the finest details to make the experience memorable. The experiences which I garnered and the friends I made over the long weekend trip will be cherished forever.

  P.S. – This road trip was planned and sponsored by Scout My Trip, Onn Bikes and Wandertrails.

  The winds caressed my face, eyes glued to the lush green sides of the road, skin gleamed with slight drizzle, playful sound of wind while cruising through the smooth Karnataka highways before I reached Wayanad this monsoon. The winds caressed my face, eyes glued to the lush green sides of the road, skin gleamed with slight drizzle, playful sound of wind while cruising through the smooth Karnataka highways before I reached Wayanad this monsoon.

[mysticriderprateek-blog]

Can anyone guess the place???? Subscribe to my YouTube channel MysticRiderPrateek for more interesting stuff. LINK IN BIO. . . . . . #nature #love #naturelovers #travel #traveldiaries #traveler #wanderlust #ig_shotz #ig_color #instapic #picoftheday #photography #traveltoindia #india #best #earth #ridersofinstagram #landscape #landscapephotography #landscapelovers #pic #igers #bikersofinstagram #scoutmytrip #instagood #awesome #fantastic_earth #ig_world #ig_today

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Mallorca hangover is still there #mallorca #palmademallorca #awwstruck #mediterraneansea #awsomeview #springdestination #mustvisit #europediaries #europe #dreamdestination #makingmemories #traveller #instapic #curioustraveller #freebird #travelbff #ILoveToTravel #hangover #igrammers #indianblogger #travelblogger #scoutmytrip #blogger #bloggings #iamtb #nomadmeetworld #ig_europe #Spain #souvenirs

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You don't need magic to disappear. All you need is a destination. #HimachalPradesh #Himachal #McLeodGanj #Travel #TravelLife #Home #Mountains #Snow #Sky #Blue #Green #Nature #NatureLife #WildLife #Wild #Trekk #Tree #TriundHill #Follow #ScoutMyTrip #ViewFromBalcony #ExploreLife #Explore #NaturePhotography #Dharamsala #Waterfall #Stones #Clouds (at Dharmsala, Himachal Pradesh, India) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoenuhGFv1L/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=d1fdvtyllehx

[halla-photo-contests]

Photo submitted by Sourav Das in MEMORABLE ROAD TRIP.⠀ .⠀ Prizes of worth Rs.3000 from our sponsors @scoutmytrip⠀ .⠀ ⠀ To be eligible you have to do the following:⠀ 1. Upload best Photo of your Memorable Road Trip(Photo must be clicked by you) on our website buff.ly/2HmYjH5 (LINK IN BIO)⠀ 2. Make sure you’re following @halla_photo_contests and @scoutmytrip.⠀ 3. Tag 3 friends in this post.⠀ 4. Share contest post in your story and tag both @scoutmytrip and @halla_photo_contests .⠀ .⠀ ⠀ Last Date of contest: 22 June 2019.⠀ ⠀ Terms and conditions:⠀ * Photo must be clicked by you (We will remove duplicate entries) * One user can submit only 1 entry.⠀ * Before submitting your travel photographs ensure that you’ve followed the steps above.⠀ * While uploading a photo , do not forget to mention your instagram Handle in description section.⠀ * The more you share, comment and tag, the more chances you have of winning!⠀ * * * * ⠀ .⠀ #myhallaphoto#scoutmytrip⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #travel#roadtrip#roadtriplanner #traveller #ladakhroadtrip #uttarakhand #leh #ladakh #biketrip #cartrip #royalenfield #harleydavidson #goprotravel #goproindia #instaphoto #instadaily #SpitiValley #ladakhroadtrip #tripling #travelwithus #contest #contestalert #photojournalism #photocontest #photochallenge https://www.instagram.com/p/Byhb1EUJdgq/?igshid=15cgnixvbpeov

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"Because the greatest part of a road trip isn't arriving at your destination. It's all the wild stuff that happens along the way." — Emma Chase #roadtrip#adventuretime#amazingplaces#beautifuldestinations#beauty#nature#naturelovers#biker#travelphotography#traveler#travelholic#travelgram*travel#travelblogger#travels#wanderlust#wandering#wanderer#explorer#explorepage# @scoutmytrip @indian.travellers @awesome_india @punetravelclub @pune_life @travulls https://www.instagram.com/p/B1qA321HVyC/?igshid=2dfw1tbyh26t

[devilonwheelsblog]

The views never disappoints on Manali Leh Highway!!! . . Guess the place in comments section and win discount coupons for the upcoming tours from @theroadtripsco & @scoutmytrip . . Sharing this picture is a small attempt to spread love and smiles in the Himalayas by helping travelers and locals of the Himalayas. . Help us by spreading the word about us, so that we keep spreading the spirit of #ResponsibleTravel and the smiles and with our blog articles / posts, we keep helping the locals & the travelers traveling to the Himalayas !! 😊☺️ . . Tag your Himalayan pictures with hashtag #DevilOnWheels to get featured in our gallery every Friday and Sunday and also get yourself a chance to grab a cool DoW Goodies pack. . . For more tips and stories on traveling to #Himalayas do not forget to follow my feed or checkout my blog. If you have a travel question, you can always leave a DM or a comment on any of my blog article to get connected for any help.😊 😊 . . #dowladakhseries #manalilehhighway #ladakhdiaries #indiantravelblogger #himalayanblogger . . . #lehladakh #naturephotography #bestnatureshot #nakedplanet #discoverglobe #marvelshots #bittenbythetravelbug #fantastic_earth #natgeotravel #colours_of_day #roamtheplanet #earth_potraits #travelgram #moodygrams #visualsoflife #peoplescreatives #worldtravelbook #discoverearth #imatraveller #justgoshoot #watchthisinstagood #worldtravelbook #passionpassport #imatraveller (at Manali-Leh Highway) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bz5k1u9Fe6C/?igshid=qcwwco3y7dor

[dipakkadu]

कधीतरी घोंघावणारा वारा होऊन रानोमाळ भटकावं, कधीतरी टपोऱ्या थेंबांचा पाऊस होऊन गडकिल्ल्यांवर पडावं, कधीतरी झाडं होऊन येणाऱ्या पावसाच्या थेंबात भिजून जावं, तर कधी डोंगरावरून कोसळणाऱ्या धबधब्याचे रूप घ्यावे,कधीतरी ढगांचे रूप घेऊनी प्रत्येक ठिकाणी फिरावे,तर कधी हलकेच बाजूला होऊन उन्ह पडावं,कधीतरी शेतामध्ये लोमबाचे रूप घेवून वाऱ्याभोवती फिरावे,तर कधी फुलपाखरू बनून फुलांवर बसावे. असेच आमचे आयुष्य असते तर किती बरे झाले असते 😍😍😍 . . . Shot on @canonindia_official #maharashtra_click #maharashtradesha #maharashtratourism #maharastra_clickers #maharashtra_uncensored #travelxp #natgeotravel #fyitv18live #my_mumbai_my_dream #my_mumbai_through_my_eyes #thrillophilia #tripon #tripotocommunity #canon #maharashtrian_treasures #mumbai_ig #durg_vede #gadkille #insta_maharashtra #streetofmaharashtra #odhsahyadrichi #sahyadri_clickers⛰️🚩 #streetsofmaharashtra #shivajimaharaj @thrillophilia @tripotocommunity @tripadvisorindia @scoutmytrip @trip @trippyowl_com @traveltrioco @tripuntold (at Somewhereontheearth) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzrseshBETR/?igshid=1e47ukqcfk0ol