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When I was planning my six week solo trip to India, couchsurfing with a relative stranger in the middle of the Thar Desert was never at the top of my “to do” list. “Couchsurfing” in and of itself is a generous term: when I say we were sleeping in the desert I mean exactly that - we drove around the dunes until we found a flat enough spot, laid our blankets on the sand, used our packs as pillows, and relied on the moon to light our way as we wandered up and down the undulating hills. If you asked me a year ago if I'd ever do this I'd say you were wild, but there was something about Mithali and her spirit for adventure that inspired me to take a chance. Jaisalmer, also known as the “Golden City,” is a state in the Southwestern region of Rajasthan that isn't too far from the Pakistan border. It's known for its magnificent fort, which was built over eight hundred years ago and consumes the surrounding flat desert landscape. Among backpackers, Jaisalmer is known as the place you go in India for the best camel rides around. As a first time solo female traveler I knew I wanted to do a camel ride but was apprehensive navigating negotiating it with camel jockeys on my own, so I decided that I'd go with the safe route and book a tour. I was in Pushkar for a week before I headed the eight hours west, and during that time I met Mithali, a fellow 27 year old who was on holiday from her hometown of Jaisalmer. You don't meet a lot of Indian women who travel on their own, so when she and I started talking I was intrigued to get to know her. One day over thali and chai we were talking about Jaisalmer and I asked her if she’d ever done one of these infamous camel rides. She chortled and told me, “yes, but if you really want a real experience of my city you have to sleep in the desert. That's what me and my cousins would do when we were growing up. Hey! Let me take you out one night to show you.” Mithali's earnest excitement to show me a more authentic side of her city inspired me to scrap my plans and do this overnight stay with her. My first night in Jaisalmer we went out to the Thar Desert around sunset and set up a fire. It wasn't like we needed it - the full moon lit the desert up with a muted underwater blue filter so bright that we could see everything clearly. We set our alarms for 4:30 AM to see the stars once the moon had set, and when we woke we laid in our blankets and oscillated between sleepily staring at sun rising in the horizon and dozing off again as the day began to heat up.