Adventure in Jodhpur

We arrived in Jodhpur late at night, and the first hurdle of getting to our hotel almost gave me a heart attack. We successfully got into an auto-rickshaw headed for the right place at the right price, but when the auto stopped in front of a dilapidated building, and the driver pointed down a darkened alleyway, I shook my head vigorously.

Would you go down this alley at night with a complete stranger?

The driver insisted the hotel was behind this abandoned building; we just had to follow the alleyway. I looked at Alex and whispered out of the side of my mouth, “There is no fucking way I am following this guy. NO. WAY.” We quickly called our hotel and asked if this particular route was normal. The man on the other line answered vaguely, yes, probably, but he would come get us. So we waited.

And he didn’t show up.

Meanwhile, I was about to lose it, standing at the top of a dark alley in the middle of nowhere in Jodhpur at 11:30 at night. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t imagine all the ways we could be robbed, murdered, and sold off for kidneys then and there.

Finally, the driver gave up and walked down the alley himself, returning five minutes later with someone “from the hotel”. At this point, we couldn’t really verify if this new addition to our group was really from the hotel, but we had no excuse to hold back anymore, so in we walked….

And we’re alive!

I’m going on TripAdvisor to make sure all future guests know about this particular quirk with this hotel. Seriously, not cool in the middle of the night with a rickshaw driver who may or may not want to kill you.