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Scoot Wandermust Winner – Preferred Traveler from India!

Scoot Wandermust Winner – Preferred Traveler from India!

Recently I was selected by Singapore based low-cost Airlines called by the name of ‘Scoot’, which opened up a contest in the month of June 2018 which was mainly published on their Facebook  pages all around Asia/world targeting specifically those countries or destinations where the airlines usually fly to. It was really proud moment for me to be selected on a global platform and to be the only Indian selected from my country beating thousands of application in their system!

About Contest

In order to participate in the contest, people have to post well thought entries in the form of a brief story telling or showing the airlines why they think “they have travel in the blood“.  The stories have options to be in the form of text followed by photographs or videos.

Wanderlust Adverstisement

Since it was a global competition, the key was not only on how you pitch or present your story but how genuine it is for selection Jury to decide if it synchronizes with the idea of the need of travel addiction!.

Is Travel is in Your blood?

The idea of travel is in your blood initiated by Scoot, originally arises from the research of DRD4-2/7R gene and its relationship to human travel. The research is organised by famous professor “Richard Ebstein” from National Institute of Singapore. He has been studying this gene-travel relationship from past 20 years and connects it direct roots to exploration and travel addiction.

Click on the image to check the video!

All the winners who will be selected in the contest are mainly invited to singapore to undergo this DNA test to actually discover whether this Exploration gene exist in them or not. Evenhow, if the results turn out to be positive/negative, the overall search was still purely based on stories and profile of every user or applicant who were applying for this contest.

Prizes for Winners

The prizes were distributed into 3 sections – 1 Grand Prize winner, 4 Wandermust Prize winners and 12 Participation prize winners.
Participation Winner: The participation winners were mainly given 100SGD worth voucher which they could redeem with Scoot flights.
Wandermust winners – These 4 winners consist of the main core section and were given the following prizes:

  • Roundtrip (basic) fare ticket from home country to Singapore.
  • 1 night and 2 days stay in Singapore with good rated hotel.
  • One roundtrip (Basic) fare ticket from Home country to any Scoot flying destination inclusive of taxes.
  • Complementary DNA analysis for the D4DR-2/7R gene variant.

Grand prize winner: There were 1 exchange to the grand prize winner along with wandermust prize was offering which mainly included 100,00 KrisFlyer miles in place of roundtrip ticket to any Scoot destination, which if I think is the best buy for grand winner!

My Selection and Prize

I was selected among the 4 wandermust winners in which I was sponsored a free trip to Singapore, along with a top rated hotel stay and DNA test. And I still hold one free round-trip to travel anywhere in Asia!! (Any recommendations?)

Scoot Wanderlist contest winners
Click on the image to check the video!

Among the all the travelers who got selected in this contest, only 34.62% were found out positive with DRD4-2/7R exploration gene and mine though came out to be negative.

But does it really matter whether you have a travel gene or not, whether its in your blood that implants the idea of this travel addiction!? For me travel is more of an experience, the way to explore and see the life outside the small buble we live in and explore the life as it is everywhere!

My story by Scoot

This is what scoot published about me”

” Meet Anubhav. An Indian native who travels the world on a budget and a whole lot of travel points. 

Having travelled to more than 30 countries (on extremely tight budgets), Anubhav’s no stranger to travel-hacking. He never fails to score the best deal on every flight he takes. 
At his free time, he works as a free travel advisor and is very passionate about helping others chase their travel dreams.
If you’re thinking of pursuing a full-time budget globetrotting lifestyle, look no further:https://dreamsvoyager.com/

Click on the image to check the video!

Travel is the best thing which I have found in life! There is so much to see and experience and I just feel I only might have touch the tip of the iceberg. Winning this contest gave me a good confidence and recognition as well to see the potential of how much far we all have the possibility to achieve and find our ways to travel and experience the world out there! 🙂

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Traveling the world with weak Indian Passport!

Traveling the world with weak Indian Passport!

International travel is such a fun loving lively dream that everyone who loves traveling wanted to do more and more of it, but is it as easy as it sounds for everyone around the world?

International Travel
International Travel
Travel the World
Travel the World Concept

I got my first opportunity to do a business trip to Europe in 2013. At that time I have no understanding or know-how to travel abroad, but with my curiosity I wanted to learn more and more about it. So like every other person, I started searching – watching you tube videos, blogs, articles but most of the success stories I read about were mostly from the people with a strong passport which I believe by default were already given the perks of International traveling. It was as if, they don’t have to worry about that first very foundation of it.

Today in my Indian passport, I have a valid tourist visas of US (10 years), Canada (5 years) & schengen (4 years) along with travel history of all strong visa checking countries like Japan, UK etc. Sounds like an easy-peasy? Well for some people this could be far fetched dream and for some people might not even know the essence of it (because all they need is to pick up the backpack and just hit these destinations anytime).

Indian passport at present is one of the weakest passports in the world, with bunch of only few Visa-free OR visa-on-arrival countries options, its even far more difficult to get a visa especially when you are applying in the developed countries. On top of it, every-time you apply for a visa the cost may vary anywhere from 90$-160$ which is also non-refundable if you get a refusal. (and yes there are so many people here who get refusals everyday).

Indian Passport concept
Indian Passport concept
Indian Passport concept
Indian Passport concept

And if you get a refusal on your passport, the credibility of your passport goes to rock bottom when you apply elsewhere next-time.

Besides, the amount of documentation that had to be arrange for any single application takes a load of time and efforts itself. A general thumb rule of documentation includes at least the following:

  • Cover letter & Application form duly filed, signed with latest photos
  • Salary slips (3-6 months)
  • No Objection certificate from Employer (if you are employed)
  • Bank statements (3-6 months)
  • Income tax returns (2-3 years)
  • old & Current passports and visa copies
  • Confirmed Flight tickets (yes they have to be confirmed!)
  • confirmed Hotel/accommodation bookings.
  • Marriage certificate (if you are married)
  • Detailed Itinerary plans

It varies a bit from applying country to country. But mostly some will require more than what is mentioned on the top list. There are some countries though which allows you to enter with valid US, UK, Japan, Schengen visas like Taiwan, Turkey, Philippines etc but it really doesn’t solve much of your travel needs.

The real question however, for people with weak passports is how to get long validity visas or how to increase the credibility of their passport, something I did for myself as I mentioned earlier!?

Honestly, as simple as it means, you have to travel more and more to maintain the best travel history. US is the only country which allows Indians to provide 10 years multiple entry visa at a cost of 170$-175$. It sounds expensive, but with the US visa, the credibility of your passport increases a lot. Afterwards, once you started to travel and apply visas in more and more countries, eventually you build a trust factor with your passport and so the journey becomes a bit easier later on.

But really you have to be a travel freak to get to that status. After getting about different 10-15 Schengen Visas stamps in the past 4-5 years (along with actual travel which were even more times) I was able to grab a 4 years long term tourist one but most of the people told me I was simply lucky.

For someone who loves traveling, they always found a way to work things out. I always try to see things from the positives side sometimes. Having a weak passport push me out of my comfort zone to find ways and learn new things everyday. It broadens the vision to see both the hard and easy sides of the travel and simply to appreciate what we get in life is best for us! 🙂

Do you have a strong or weak passport? Does visa applications play important role in your travel? Do take a moment to share you comments!

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