Travel is a wonderful teacher. It teaches a lot about the world and around you and can give myriads of experiences. But it also teaches a lot of things through accidents and mishaps. While travelling, no one wants anything bad to happen, but then shit happens and we are faced with troublesome situations. Vacations are supposed to be fun and relaxing, but sometimes no matter how much we plan, things go downhill. And then we make silly mistakes also!

People close to me know that I am quite a clumsy person and have a great habit of falling down. This has created a lot of funny incidents during our trips. With these mistakes and mishaps, we also learn not to repeat them again. I remember once I was asked to book flight tickets and I got a wrong one! I am sure all of you have faced some situations like this while travelling.

Travel Mishaps, Mistakes and We

Here are a few of our travel mishaps, mistakes and the lessons learnt from them. Some of them are downright hilarious.

Breaking my leg during the vacation

This happened long back when I was in school. Obviously, Agni is not involved here. During the school holidays, the entire family used to go for vacations. We had gone to Puri during one such winter vacation. It was the second day of the trip when the entire gang had gone to the beach and was having a nice time. I was too excited and wanted to show off and was trying to jump across the waves. Yes, I was warned by my father not to do so. A huge wave came and I could not control my stunts and fell down with a thud. And then I found having a terrible pain in my leg. I was taken to the Puri Hospital and my entire leg was plastered. The plaster remained not only during the entire holidays but also for a month after that.

While everyone was enjoying the trip, I was sitting in the hotel room with a foul mood.

Lesson learnt: No monkeying around at beaches where the sea is rough. After this, I am very careful with sea beaches!

Getting wrong Flight Tickets

It was a dream trip to Thailand with friends. I was supposed to go on this trip after an exam. I was asked to get the flight tickets. I very happily searched and got the best deal for flights to Thailand. Only later I found out that I got the ticket one day earlier! I booked a late night flight ticket that was after midnight and in my excitement, I did not keep a track of the date. The verbal assault was tolerable, but the fact that I could not go because of my the exam was really disappointing. The rest went ahead and they always tease me with nice beach photos till date! Though later I enjoyed a lot during my trip to Chanthaburi and Koh Mak in eastern Thailand.

This kind of thing happened again with train tickets also.

Lesson learnt: Check and re-check the date and time before booking any tickets, especially those that are at night.

Getting stuck in a riot in J&K

It was in 2013 when we had decided to go for the Amarnath Yatra. We reached Jammu early in the morning, but somehow missed the bus taking the Yatris. So we booked a car from Jammu to Pahalgaon and started our journey. At 12:30 PM, our driver asked us whether we would have our lunch. We said that we would have it sometime later. Little that we knew at that time ‘little later’ would become much later.

We got stuck before Ramban as there was a riot at Ramban. Anyone who knows about Jammu and Kashmir would know what a riot means there. We were stranded there for hours without food and water. We were supposed to reach Pahalgaon by 3 PM, but reached there around midnight. You can read the whole story here.

Lesson learnt: You should always carry some food when you are travelling! Also, whenever you face any such situation, you should trust your instincts.

Not taking warm clothes in Ooty

This was way back in 2009. We were in Bangalore enjoying a pleasant weather and decided to go to Ooty during the weekend. We were in our usual jeans and tee-shirts and did not take any warm clothes. Once in Ooty, we realized how cold it was. We were literally shivering. And the first thing that we had to do was buy jackets and socks!

Lesson learnt: When you visit any hill station, take at least one jacket with you!

The instances of falling down

As I had already said that I am quite clumsy. We were all set to climb to Chandrashila from Tunganath and were ready early in the morning. Just before starting, I slipped and had a fall hurting my back and hips. I somehow persuaded Agni to go without me. While he went to the Chandrashila summit, I had to be content seeing the glorious sunrise from Tunganath.

In a second instance, in Mumbai, while getting down from a car, I fell on my face and got a deep cut. I had to get eight stitches that day. Though it did not stop me from travelling around Mumbai, the stitches were quite painful.

Lesson learnt: You must have noticed by now that all these ‘mishaps’ have happened to me particularly. So the only lesson I learnt is that I am utterly clumsy!

Not getting a room at Gangtok

It was an impromptu plan to visit Gangtok in the peak of tourist season and it was a very bad idea. We reached Gangtok at 8 PM to find there were no rooms available in any proper hotels and guest houses. Finally, we booked a room at a shabby hotel with dirty linens and torn carpets. We somehow stayed there for the night. In the morning when we inquired about visiting Chhangu Lake, most of the transport operators asked for an exorbitant price. Ultimately, we returned that evening itself.

Lesson learnt: Never make an unplanned visit to a famous hill station at the peak season. We have visited Gangtok and Sikkim many times after this, but we generally avoid the summer which is a peak season.

Read about all our Sikkim stories here.

I almost had AMS

It was the first day at Leh during the Chadar Trek. The hotel room had a heater which used an LPG. The heater was on while we went to sleep. In the middle of the night, I awoke. I was feeling really bad, nausea and had a splitting headache. It pointed towards the symptoms of AMS. And the next day, the trek would start. I had some medicines, drank water and tried to sleep. The next day I was ready for the trek somehow. You can read about tips for planning the Chadar Trek here.

Lesson learnt: Before a trek, to have knowledge about AMS is quite important.

The trip that is never meant to be (at least till now)

I would not call it a travel mishap, but Gangotri and Gaumukh had been eluding us since long. The first time we decided to go there in the summer of 2012, we did not get leaves from the office. The second time, it was in October 2012, but we got an opportunity to visit Tawang and we went there. Finally, we were all set to visit there in June 2013. It was then the infamous cloudburst and flood happened at Uttarakhand and the trip was cancelled. And the trip has still not happened.

Lesson learnt: If that mountain does not call us, we will not be able to go there how much ever we want to go. We did numerous Himalayan treks after this, but Gangotri-Gaumukh has evaded us.

All these mishaps and mistakes taught us quite a number of lessons. There were other instances when we fell sick during a trip and were stranded at bus stops. Did you face any such incidents? Let us know about them and what are your tips to overcome them. We could all share and learn from each other’s mistakes!

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