We left Jaipur at 7am to start the drive to Agra which was pretty long. We had to pack just 1 bag to take with us for the week and leave the suitcases at the house which they’ll bring to Delhi airport on our last day. We made a stop at a place called Step Well in Abhaneri. We got out of the car wondering what we were doing there, we were just in the middle of an Indian village, but then we were led to this place which was actually really cool!
We got to Agra at around 1pm and were pretty starving! We spotted a Pizza Hut on the way to the hotel so decided to go there for lunch. We all seem to really crave western food after eating Indian food twice a day for the last few weeks. The pizza hut was really cool. I got a chicken crown pizza which had pieces of chicken kebab in the crust! Below is a picture of it:
While eating, all of a sudden the music got louder, all the staff got in a line and started doing a synchronised dance! It was pretty funny! We were all clapping along. We thought maybe it was someone’s birthday, but it seems that there was no occasion, its just something they do. Pretty cool! The staff there all seemed so happy and friendly! We started discussing how much they get paid to work there. We were mostly guessing between 100-200 rupees an hour which is the equivalent of £1.20-£2.25 an hour. One of the guys decided to ask one of the managers who informed us that the staff there work 9 hours a day 6 days a week and get between 5,500-6,000 rupees a month, which works out at around 25 rupees an hour, around £0.30. We were pretty shocked! We take out 5,000 rupees at a time when we go to the ATM here. Its crazy to think that it is almost as much as 1 month salary for what would be considered a good job here. After lunch, we went to see Agra Fort which was really cool. Its the 2nd largest fort in India. We could also see the Taj Mahal in the distant from the fort. We went to a market afterwards but weren’t too impressed. Agra is pretty dirty and smelly. It looks like apart from Agra Fort and the Taj Mahal, there isn’t really much else to see. We headed back to the hotel afterwards and just chilled and then went to sleep as we have to be up at 5am tomorrow to see the Taj Mahal. Below are some picture of Agra Fort:
