Lost in an Indian city at midnight after missing my train 🙂

Maybe your have heard many crazy travel stories, bad experiences & adventurous ones. Through my journey, this maybe one of the most adventurous travel experiences I’ve had so far. I don’t really consider it a bad experience but an adventurous one. It’s one of the travel experiences  that taught me how to keep calm & deal with unexpected situations.

The backstory

It was my first train ride in India which was my first stop at a digital nomad. At this time I didn’t have a project to work on so I was moving around exploring this country and it’s interesting culture while. looking for a new project to work on. I booked the train from New Delhi to Jaipur A.K.A the pink City. An old city that I was so eager to visit after seeing a lot of pictures of its amazing architecture.

In New Delhi, I left the hostel 17 minutes before the train departure time. If you if you’ve been to India, you should know by now that this may not be enough time to catch a train, especially if the train is departing from a huge City like New Delhi. I took a tuk-tuk which was the fastest transportation method available to the train station, or at least this was what I thought.

At the train station 

When I arrived at the train station, I found out that the train has already departed a few minutes earlier. It was past 5 p.m. and the trip takes a bit more than 5 hours so I decided to book the earliest train ticker that I could find and go on with my journey.

After almost an hour and half of waiting the train arrive. SURPRISE!!!! It was a double-decker train. Despite being more expensive than the one I missed, it was a nice and comfortable one so I was okay with that. 

Arriving to Jaipur

I finally made it to Jaipur. However, it was midnight and as soon as I got out of the train station, I was surrounded by tuk-tuk drivers offering their services & their “cheap” tours which is a usual scene in India. It didn’t bother me that much since I got used to that already by spending almost one week in India.

I made my way past them and got myself another tuk-tuk away from the ones who are following me. It was easier to negotiate the price & get a better deal away from the crowd. I didn’t have a SIM card at this time so I couldn’t order an Uber or Ola (another ride-hailing company based in India). The driver knew the hostel which is one of the common Backpackers hostels in Jaipur. It’s called Moustache hostel, I really recommend it. it was almost empty because it was the low tourism season in Jaipur.

Having dinner and losing my way back to the hostel

After checking in, I realized that I haven’t had a meal in like 9 hours. I decided to go looking for an open restaurant after midnight. Due to being a small city, there weren’t many late night food options available at this time. After walking for like 30 minutes, I found a restaurant attached to a small hotel that was about to close but they were still serving food. There is nothing that could match the feeling of having a nice meal after a long day, especially if it was a nice and a bit spicy Indian meal.

The way back to the hostel

I felt full and satisfied, now it’s time to get back to the hostel. I walked back following the same road that I took to the restaurant or at least this is what I thought. After a while, I realized that I’m going round and round & I didn’t remember which side street the hostel is located at. I stopped at the only small shop that I found open at this time and asked the shopkeeper if he knew where the hostel is. I had the booking details on my phone but since I didn’t have a SIM card, I couldn’t use Google Maps & I didn’t know about maps.me app at this time.

I thought I remembered the way back to the hostel so I walked back through the road I thought I came from. I kept wandering the streets which were almost empty except for rickshaw drivers and homeless people sleeping on the sides of the roads. It was already past 2 a.m. when a tuk-tuk stopped for me and asked if I’m going somewhere & he seemed knowledgeable about the area. Of course as soon as I hopped in, the driver started offering his tours. He was a nice old man in general and it took him less than 5 minutes to reach the hostel. I couldn’t have done that on my own because the streets looked all the same at night and it was my first time being in the city. 

Happy ending and lesson learned

The first thing I did after was buying a SIM card. After this experience I realized how important it was to have a SIM card while being in a new country for the first time or even at any time. 

Well, it was kinda adventurous start for my time in Jaipur which was followed by 3 days exploring the beautiful old city and unexpected sunburns. I will be sharing more pictures, information, and tips about the places I visited, stay tuned.