"The day I took a tour ;@(" a Luxor Travel Page by maykal

It gets everybody in the end.

After years of flat refusals, turned up noses and ridiculing those who went on them, in a moment of madness when defences were down, we were caught off guard and signed up for a guided tour of Luxor.

The minute we climbed into the minibus, I knew we'd made a mistake. Why, oh why, did we do it? What made us part with our precious Egyptian pounds and allow ourselves to be whisked off to the Valley of the Kings by a far too chirpy guide?

Well, two reasons really...one, my travelling companion, the lovely Miss C, had never taken a tour either, and if we hadn't relented eventually, the nagging would have gone on for days ("I said we should have taken a tour!")...and two, we'd lost our guidebook at the Pyramids and had no idea if it was possible to tour Luxor easily enough under our own steam.

Enduring endless jokes about Hatchepsut Temple being nicknamed "Hot Chicken Soup Temple", the twelve of us piled out of the minibus for two minutes to photograph a couple of statues. The guide, who had not yet paused for breath, continued his monologue...I wandered off to get a closer look. "OK, come back everybody, we're off to Hot Chicken Soup Temple, hahaha, everybody in the bus!" Miss C felt a wee tinge of guilt, having persuaded me to do the trip, and averted her eyes as she spotted my "dangerous" look while climbing on the bus.

The guide obviously knew his stuff, but there is only so much info you can take in, especially when you are somewhat narked at being on a tour in the first place. A speedy tour of the temple, and we were led off again, all attempts by us and a couple of giggling Spanish women to make a hasty retreat being scuppered by being embarrassingly whistled at by the guide...next stop Valley of the Kings.

Rules dictate that you can only enter three tombs, and in fairness on our own we would not have known which of the Allah knows how many tombs to choose...again, the guide was very informative, but I'd regressed to my school days where i'd habitually switch of and let my mind stray to other topics.

After that, and we went to visit the Papyrus "Museum", the place where we spent most of the trip...as most of you have probably already foreseen, it was no museum...yes, there was an attempt at showing us how papyrus was made, and yes, there were some impressive papyrus wall hangings...but each one came with a hefty price tag, and we were all encouraged to buy. Yes, it was a shop! I comitted the dreadful sin of wandering outside, and for my troubles, missed out on the complimentary tea.

We never thought we'd be so glad to see our hotel! The guides voice droned on and on in the bus back, and only the very keen German couple were still laughing at the same rather appalling jokes.

Once free from the tour guide's shackles, my first comment was "Never again", which was echoed by Miss C, I was glad to note.

The following day, we did our own thing, exploring the Temple of Karnak having shunned all guides...we could spend as long or as little as we wanted in any given place, and we revelled in the freedom!!

I've since learnt that it is most definitely possible to go it alone in Luxor, and by the sounds of it, much more pleasant too.

Luxor's monuments are impressive, but after being constantly under pressure to take a caleche, book a tour, buy a Nefertiti head, sail in a boat, we were both itching to get down to Aswan and back into Sudan.