Stupidest and Craziest Travel Experience at India

When you start traveling for the first time, you suddenly realize the world is much bigger than you imagined. Crazy things can happen, and you might find yourself feeling completely out of your depth. My first international trip was to India, and it was nothing short of eventful. From that experience, I realized one thing: India is the perfect place to start your travel journey. Why? It’s simple—the country is vast, endlessly fascinating, and full of experiences that will ignite your wanderlust and leave you craving for more.

After my trip to Singapore, I came back feeling almost content, thinking, “Yeah! I’ve experienced almost every bit of Singapore.” But India? India doesn’t let you feel like that. The scale and variety of this country make it impossible to say you’ve “seen it all” unless you’ve traveled there for months. Even then, every corner has a new story waiting to be discovered.

The Journey Begins

I am a Mechanical Engineer, and during my bachelor’s, I built a solar car for a competition held in punjab, India. But this isn’t about the cars—it’s about the journey. We shipped the final car to India using an international delivery service, DHL, and then my team and I set off for Punjab. If there’s one major lesson I learned, it’s that lack of planning can turn a trip into an adventure — or a nightmare.

The journey from Bangladesh to India began with a short 30-minute flight to Kolkata. Our final destination was Punjab, which is on the opposite side of India. We went completely unplanned and didn’t have any place booked for the night. After reaching Kolkata at midnight, we didn’t know where to go. We roamed around the city for a while, went to couple of hotels and finally found a hotel but could manage only one room. The next day, we embarked on an epic 44-hour train journey to Punjab—yes, 44 hours on a train! There were many “dalal“s at the station who were trying to rip us off. We bought train tickets from Bangladesh but the ticket itself doesn’t gurantee a seat in the train. They were trying to sell seats to us. Anyway, we finally started the journey after dealing with all of those. It was exhausting, but there was something magical about it. Watching the changing landscapes through the window, meeting different people onboard, and sharing meals gave me a real sense of the sheer scale and diversity of India. We were getting off the train every major city and spending couple of minutes, eating street foods, boiled eggs and stuff. The food situation wasn’t that great. Most meals we found onboard or at the stations were vegetarian and very different than what we usually eat in the Indian restaurants. I guess we only had one complete meal with chicken while we were on board. Rest of the time we managed by eating boiled eggs, junk foods from the stations (mostly boiled potatoes with spices) etc.

We finally reached Punjab, participated in the competition, and even managed to squeeze in some sightseeing—exploring Punjab, Amritsar, the Golden Temple, Agra, the Taj Mahal, and Delhi before heading back to Kolkata. I will write in details about those in another post. The real chaos, however, began on our way back.

The Visa Crisis

We planned to buy bus tickets once we got back to Kolkata. Sounds reasonable, right? Well, that’s where things went off the rails. Our visas were set to expire the next day, and we found out that there were no buses to Bangladesh that day or the next. Most American or European travelers might not grasp the panic this caused, as their passports grant them easy travel to countless countries. But for us, overstaying our visa would mean becoming fugitives—unable to buy tickets, unable to stay at hotels, and with nowhere to turn. There might have been other way outs taking the help from our embassy, but we were panicking and thinking only the worst. It was a complete disaster waiting to happen.

Thankfully, you already know that we made it back. But let me tell you how.

The Wild Escape

We woke up very early the next morning around 4-5am and rented a Jeep to take us directly to the Gede border, which was the border specified in our visa for our bus exit. It was about a 4-5 hours drive. We figured that if we had our passports, crossing the border would be simple. Wrong. Indian visas can be quite tricky. When applying, we had specified that we would enter and exit the country by air or bus. That meant we weren’t allowed to cross at any random land border. And here we were, at a land border that was not on our visa.

The border official was adamant that we couldn’t cross. I’ll never forget the sheer panic of that moment. We joked—nervously—about what we might do if we ended up stuck in India. But behind the jokes was genuine fear. We spent hours pleading with the official, trying to explain that we were just students who came for a competition and simply wanted to go home. we showed them our competition photos and videos, showed them invitation letter from India and permission letters from our university. The guy finally took pity. It took a lot of convincing, but finally, after two or three nerve-wracking hours, he gave us permission to cross.

There were seven of us, and we loaded our bags onto five or six rickshaw vans. Not big motorized vans, but the small, human-powered carts used commonly in both India and Bangladesh. These vans dropped us off at the actual border. We offloaded our bags from the vans. From there, we walked across no man’s land, then took some more vans at the Bangladeshi side again, which brought us to our checkposts. Never had we imagined that we will walk across Bangladesh-India border and use vans for carrying our bags. For me it was funnier because it was my first ever trip outside Bangladesh and it started with a flight and ended with van rides. Who could have planned that!

Home Sweet Home

Even after reaching the Bangladeshi side, our journey wasn’t over. We still had more explanations to give. Border crossings can be intense, and we had a lot of explaining to do about our unexpected arrival route. But our police didn’t bother us much as we had valid passports and all documents. After all that, we found a roadside “hotel” (more of a small eatery) for lunch, where we managed to rest briefly before catching a bus from the Monohorpur Bus Stand towards Dhaka, feeling utterly drained but also deeply relieved.

Sitting there on the bus, with my teammates around me and the familiar sights of home passing by, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude—gratitude for making it back in time, gratitude for the journey, and gratitude for the stories I’d be able to tell. Despite all the chaos, the uncertainty, and the panic, it was these moments that made the trip unforgettable.

Reflections on Travel and India

Traveling can be unpredictable, and my first international trip showed me that being unprepared can lead to some of the wildest experiences of your life. India is a land of contrasts, extremes, and wonders. The sheer diversity—whether in its landscapes, culture, or even the travel challenges—left a lasting impact on me.

If you’re thinking of traveling to India, I say go for it. But perhaps plan a little better than we did. And remember, the beauty of travel often lies in the chaos. It’s the unplanned moments, the obstacles, and the unexpected kindness of strangers that turn a journey into a story worth telling.

Have you ever had a crazy travel experience that went completely off the rails? I’d love to hear your stories. Let’s share and laugh about the adventures that make travel so memorable. Happy traveling!