After intially been taken to a very smelly, half built budget hotel on the outskirts of the city and us making a huge fuss as we'd spoilt ourselves and paid for A class hotels, our lovely driver made some arrangements and checked us into the Krishna Prakash Heritage Haveli, which, with its huge room and balcony and lovely courtyards and decor, was a real gem after the s***hole we'd just seen. The location right in the heart of the blue city was great and we could wander the alleyways and narrow lanes (read: get very lost) at will, without getting into another death trap, AKA the rickshaw! To be fair, some are rather modern and feel almost safe and some have these great blackout metal sheets or even just curtains so that you can't see the on-coming traffic as it screeches to a halt about an inch away from you while the driver does a sudden U-turn and drives up the wrong side of the road until there's gap between cows and dogs and children to get to the right side. Those are my favourite! Like a lot of things in India, it's just best not to look sometimes. Like at the murky water your chai glass has just been 'washed' in at a street shop or the straw in your fresh lime soda that looks like it's been washed and reused, or the flies buzzing around the piles of fried food you've just bought some samosas and pakoras from or the rubbish heaps decorating the beautiful sights you're trying to photograph. Other times, you see, but for your own mental stability you try and block it out, like the look of desperation in the weary eyes of a malnourished b**** surrounded by her skinny puppies or the hundreds of deformed, limbless people left to beg for a living and the kids constantly knocking on your window gesturing for food, or in one case busking for money by doing cartwheels in the middle of a busy main road! Yes, it's definitely better not to look sometimes in India. It doesn't really make for a sound nights sleep when there's no distractions to block it all out, but i think its definitely a necessity if I'm to carry on travelling through this country of many contrasts.