How would you respond when your girlfriend asks “how do you feel about couchsurfing in Jaisalmer?” Naturally, you would dismiss the notion of staying with a complete stranger for a variety of reasons. I had done the same, many times before, when the option had presented itself in the States. What could be more frightening than staying with an unknown person in an unknown town in a crazy and wacky country like India? I admit, not much.

G first told me about couchsurfing a couple of years ago after she had used the site extensively in New Zealand and the Netherlands. The idea was simple. A person puts up a profile on couchsurfing.com that lists their city and various other personal info. Somebody that wants to travel to a particular town could hop on and find a Host offering their couch (or spare room) for the traveler to stay at free of charge. Similarly, for people who aren’t out traveling at the moment, or maybe can’t travel for whatever reason, but are interested in learning more about other cultures and sharing their own, connecting with new people, and showing a visitor around, it offers a way to continue to have a chance for cultural exchange, even when you are at home.

One of the most important features of this website is the ability for individuals to place references on other peoples’ profiles. Surfers could ‘vouch’ for hosts and hosts could ‘vouch’ for surfers. Since its inception, other forms of validation have also been added, like using a credit card or bank account to verify that you are indeed a real -and authorities detain-able- person. Having eased up ever so slightly about the notion, I decided to give it a look. After seeing our prospective host’s reference page of over 50 people (all leaving great remarks, and all who had good references themselves), I decided to give it a go. That decision proved to be one of the coolest experiences yet.

After some email correspondence on G’s part, we scheduled to stay with a fellow named Dhanna. He even said he would pick us up from the train station when we arrived in Jaisalmer.

Off the train, we were surrounded by touts, and I started to give them the Delhi-D (Delhi-Denial as G and I refer to it) when I saw a guy, about our age, holding up a sign that said “Welcome G.” With a sudden shift from the Delhi-D behavior, I greeted him. We had found Jamin, Dhanna’s brother, who helped us with our bags, and got us into (and paid for) a rickshaw to the fort of Jaisalmer.

Within moments we were at the front door steps of Ishar Palace, and found Dhanna sitting behind a reception table. We introduced ourselves, and he welcomed us into his guesthouse while Jamin went out to grab us some “welcome drink” sodas. Dhanna apparently had two guesthouses. One guesthouse was for paying customers, and this one was used, almost primarily, for couchsurfers. Since it was still a guesthouse we had to check in (for legal reasons), and were then showed our room.

After situating ourselves, we went up top to catch a glimpse of the fort from the roof. This is where we met Hannah, a couchsurfing Irish girl, and Andy, a British fellow staying at a guesthouse a little down the way. They were sitting on some cushions underneath a colorful tarp when we introduced ourselves. After a few minutes of chatting, G and I took in the gorgeous scenery and then went downstairs to get lost in the 800-year-old fort.

During our time with Dhanna, I had more of an introduction to Indian culture than I had seen since arriving. He graciously answered any of our questions, taboo or not, about his culture. This was the first time we felt free to ask about the Indian caste system, and we learned far more than we could have imagined. From him, we booked our camel safari and our bus ticket to Jodhpur, and learned of another couchsurfer in Jodhpur that we could stay with. He even helped me find, and have customized, a camel-leather briefcase I had been looking for since arriving in Rajasthan. The experience was extremely rewarding, and Dhanna and his brother had everything to do with it. Sadly, our time in Jaisalmer seemed to rush by up until the end when we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to Dhanna as we raced to the bus stand (we had to catch the bus earlier than we thought in order to arrive at the next host’s place at a decent hour).

It was sad to leave such a warm home, but I was infinitely more happy to learn that in a place so crowded, and with so much poverty and so many scams, you could still find nice and extremely generously people to learn and grow from. That was the couchsurfing experience. It was my FIRST couchsurfing experience and it had allowed me to stay with locals inside an 800 year-old fort. I was blown away.

We waved goodbye to Jamin and to Jaisalmer as we rushed to the stand in a rickshaw. Now sold on the idea of couchsurfing, I was looking forward to meeting Ramniwas, in Jodhpur, for my second couchsurfing stay.

You can see where we stayed in the photos of Jaisalmer and also check out the photos of the Jain temple that was also inside the Jaisalmer fort with us.