Namastay pt. 3 - Facing Problems in India

In the early morning of March 5th, I took a bus to Jodhpur. Jodhpur is known as the Blue City and I was super excited for this since my favorite color is blue. I was once again alone so you know what that means, the nervousness came back a bit. Even though I had been in India for days by now, every city felt like a new world. There was just so much going on anywhere you looked, you could simply sit there and enjoy the time and feel like you were learning something. As the crazy person I am, I downloaded an app called Couchsurfers. This is an app where you can make friends online to hang out with, show you around the city, and they even sometimes welcome you into their homes to stay. They're usually travellers themselves, so it's a comfortable situation where you can talk about your traveling experiences and all with someone that understands. I met a few different people in Jodhpur, but didn't really click with most of them. One guy took me to a place called Kayalana Lake, which was an amazing experience. But when we got to the top of the small mountain we were hiking, he tried to kiss me and asked when I was going to meet his parents... Awkward.. After that, I didn't want to go on the couchsurfing app anymore, so I decided to just relax on my own at my hostel, Nature Horizons. This hostel had such a beautiful view and was run by some amazing people. Deepak, the owner, and his family took good care of me during my stay there, always making sure that I had everything I needed. He even came to rescue me after I drank a littleee bit too much whiskey and couldn't find a way back to the hostel.. Oops! My stay in Jodhpur was great and I really enjoyed it there. I would love to go back one day and explore more, since I never got a chance to actually go in the Blue City and see as much as I wanted to. 

In the early morning of the 7th, I got on a bus to Jaisalmer. I was so excited for this part of my trip, because I had booked a Haveli hotel room in the fort. What we call havelis are  basically like an old mansion, and this particular one I stayed in was more than 500 years old! The coolest part was that the owners didn't change the structure or history of the building much at all, so it felt like something from a movie. It was made of stone and even still had historic paintings on the walls. My room had beautiful architecture with many windows, a balcony, and all things you would dream of when you imagine a room called the "Maharaja (king of kings) Suite". 

So when I arrived in Jaisalmer, it was late morning. I was extremely tired from the trip, and I wanted to sleep. I checked in, got all things situated and went for a nap. After waking up, I went back downstairs and was ready to explore. I started talking to one of the hotel workers that looked to be around my age, and he said that he got off work soon, and he will come back and show me around the fort. That sounded like a great idea to me because I didn't know much of what to do in Jaisalmer, so I just waited around a bit until he got off work. We walked around the area and he showed me so many beautiful parts of Jaisalmer's Fort. It was such an incredibly beautiful city. Since it was a fort, there were old canons on display. We went to each of them, all significant in their own way. The people in Jaisalmer are amazing. Each person was so friendly, always greeting me, asking how I was, if I needed any help, etc. I had a constant smile on my face. Jaisalmer is called the Golden City, so obviously many of the buildings are a golden color. It was around sunset, and the sun shining on the golden buildings was absolutely mesmerizing. I had this brilliant idea, I was going to go sit on the rooftop of my hotel and watch the sunset as it cascaded across the city. And it was absolutely beautiful, until the sun went down and I went to walk back to my room. If you know me, you know how clumsy I am. I started walking down the old, uneven, stone steps, and one second I was walking down, and the next second I was on my butt, my leg twisted behind me, at the bottom. 

Yep, I fell all the way down the steps. The hotel worker that I was with ran from the rooftop, another worker ran from the bottom floor, because you know, my fall just echoed throughout the entire building. I hurt myself pretty bad. I could barely walk because of the pain in my ankle and back, and had giant bruises down my leg and back. And the best part, I completely broke my phone. This meant I had no contact with anyone. When I left for my trip, I promised my mom I would text her every time I left my hotel, and every time I got back for the night, so I knew she would be expecting a text from me soon. And you know, since my phone was now broken, I couldn't exactly contact her. Well, anxious Johnna was back now. Although I was fine and would be okay in a few days, my phone was completely broken and of no use. How would I buy my bus tickets, how would I communicate with anyone, how would I know directions, or even the time? I was too tired at that point from stress, pain, and crying, so I tried my best to sleep and would try to figure out my phone situation the next day, since all the shops were closed by now anyways. I woke up the next morning to the workers asking if I was okay, and telling me that my family called the hotel because they were so worried that they hadn't heard from me. Of course that day was Sunday, so the shops opened later in the day. I had to wait until midday to go to a shop, and none of them could fix my phone so I ended up having to buy a new one. This was when another problem came my way. In many places in India, my USA debit card didn't work properly, so I had to pay in cash most of the time. Obviously I didn't carry hundreds of dollars of cash on me, so I had to find an ATM. There were 3 ATMs nearby, I tried my card on all of them, and none of them worked. 2 were out of cash, and the other kept declining. It was so stressful, I was nearly in tears. I tried one last time, and finally it worked. I went back to the phone shop and bought the new phone. I got back to the hotel and began to set up my phone, only to run into another problem... All of my accounts and everything important was backed up through my USA phone number. Obviously since I wasn't in USA, my number was out of service, and I couldn't get the security code that the different accounts were trying to send. My level of stress was so high, but at least at this point I could contact people and get directions and basic internet, so that was enough for me. I spent a few more hours in Jaisalmer, but I wasn't ready to test my luck there anymore, so I booked a bus ticket back to Jaipur for that evening. While I was waiting for my bus, I played with some of the local kids and puppies. We were playing with lasers and tricking older people, laughing so much, even though we didn't speak the same language. For the first time in Jaisalmer, I was actually having fun! But I had already booked my bus ticket, so that evening I got on a night bus back to Jaipur. A beautiful festival called Holi was in a couple days and COVID cases were starting to go up a bit which had the local people very nervous of foreigners. I was also tired of travelling from place to place, so I decided that Jaipur is where I would spend the rest of my 6 days in India.