Luxor

This is it, the catalyst for my passion of travelling. Without my time in Egypt I may not have developed the appetite for seeing more than just the average European beach once a year. The poetic aspect to this story of course is the fact that even this trip was never originally planned.

Myself and Lauren decided we needed to book a summer holiday and fancied something different, but as a failed chairman of a desperately dull advertising firm may claim, we were not exactly 'thinking out of the box'. It was by chance that this trip to Luxor came up in relation to our rather limited available price-range. To continue the contrived cliches, a hypothetical lightbulb lit up above our heads. It sounded so exciting, interesting and above all - different. The hotel was perfectly situated on the Nile, we were no more than 20 minutes walk either way from both the Karnak temple to Luxor temple and plenty of other attractions in between.

So, a few weeks later we found ourselves in the sweltering heat of Luxor. It was both the first time I had ever experienced such incredible warmth and genuine poverty. Quite a culture shock to say the least. The second we got off the plane we encountered the culture of tipping for anything and the 'hassle'. Needless to say, running to and hiding in the hotel room seemed the safest option.

Once I had slightly adjusted, we braved the night of Luxor and immediately encountered the incredibly 'persuasive' locals intent on selling their wares to us. The guide books may have claimed us to be the typical tourists sucked into buying cheap goods and ripped off, but, frankly, we had a fantastic evening. One man on a horse-drawn cart took us around the entire centre of the city (even through the middle of the markets!) and it cost no more than £1. Oh, and some more on the shops we stopped at. And maybe more in the markets. And the tips.

But that really didn't matter, we experienced all the sights, sounds and smells of Luxor on an evening in Ramadan and it was absolutely brilliant. The sights were fantastic, but I genuinely believe that engaging with the local population - being right in the mix of it is truly the best was to develop an understanding of the culture and is what inspired me travel further and further afield.
My highlight of the trip however, has to be the Hot air balloon ride. Up at half 3 in the morning, and ready to see the sunrise over the Nile, Luxor, its temples and the Valley of the Kings. It was truly spectacular. Compared to the normal pricing of such things in other countries, the ride was very cheap, but that's not why we went on it. Money really does not matter in regards to an experience such as this. Yes, we didn't get to see the Pyramids - but what we did see was a fantastic piece of ancient civilisation bursting with ruins, history and personality. It was a certifiable jump into the deep end in regards to holiday-making but one that I will never regret for an instant.