Luxor, Luxor, Luxor........

If it werent for the fact that it holds many of Egypt's treasures, I'd sooner give it a miss.

Everything negative about Egypt is amplified here - in quadraphonic stereo. The filth, the traffic, the scams, the aggressive touts.

The first day scam. The two Canadian girls, Joel and I decided to go for a wander to find some coffee. After a while we turn down a street with some shops that soon gave way to some tumbledown houses. We realised we werent in Kansas anymore when 3 very filthy kids ran up begging for money. Next thing a guy on a motorbike scares them off and introduces himself as Hussein and says he works at the hotel and saw us earlier when we arrived. He says he's not after baksheesh (money for "helping") because he's happy to help clients of the hotel. He's happy to chat in English (with a scottish accent as he lived there for three years). Anyhoo we tell him we're looking for an arabic coffee shop and of course he knows just the place. Hes chatting away and asking lots of interested questions. Before we know it we are going deeper into the slums of Luxor then tell him we really need to be going. As luck would have it we pop out on Television St (truly - its one of the main roads) and we're soon in a little courtyard coffee place which has gorgeous little settings and great coffee. All the while he's telling us about papyrus and where we can get it for half price. Things suddenly dont make sense as he's talking about things about our tour that arent right - we think he has us confused with another group. Al Jazira is on the TV and its about Libya do we ask him to translate. He says Gaddafi is gone as the army has refused to fight the rebels and points to two guys on screen holding a press conference saying tgeyve been appointed as interim government. We're all pretty chuffed to hear that. He wants to keep chatting but we have to get back to the hotel for a meeting so he goes to pay the bill and says its on him. We look at each other going - no way- but he insists. He goes to pay and we all leave. He's still with us and starts leading us down some other alley - we say we have to go or we'll be late - he goes on about the papyrus and its just down here and wont take long and is half price. We say no and walk away - he gets angry and wants his money for the coffee - £10EP he says (coffee is half that). We pay, he leaves cursing us in arabic. All that aside it cost us $A2.00 for a fantastic coffee and a thoroughly entertaining afternoon!!

Next morning we were supposed to go hot air balloon riding but Mohamed called at 4am to say it had been cancelled. So back to sleep till 6am so we could get to the valley of the Kings nice and early. We met our local guide and had a quick stop at the Collossi of Memmnon, then past the avenue of funerary temples before coming into the valley.

There was an impressive transparent topographical model of the site showing how each of the tombs are built into the mountain. I had no idea the site was so extensive or the tombs so large. Ticket price gave us entry to three tombs only (there were 10 out of the 63 open) - with Tutankhamun an extra £100EP - simply because his mummy rests there. After much deliberation, I decided to pass on seeing his mummy. I would prefer to remember his face. So it was into the tombs of Ramses 3, Ramses 4 and Merenptah.

The tombs are so much different from anything else we've seen. Subterranean, plastered, whitewashed and painted in vivid red, blue, yellow, green and black. The ceilings were painted dark blue with thousands of stars. Although each tomb didnt really differ too much from another they were all very interesting.

The heat was really getting up and it wasnt even 11am. Next stop Hatshepsut funerary temple. I was interested in this one for a number of reasons. Hatshepsut was the first female Pharaoh who had the high priests endorse the legend that she was the daughter of a divine union between her mother, queen of Tutmosis 2, and the King of gods Amun-ra. She was also the first Pharaoh not to wage war campaigns, choosing trade expansion into Africa and Asia instead. This site is also interesting because the temple is a unique three level design built back into the mountain.

By midday the sun was blazing. Our guide said Luxor is notoriously one of the hottest and driest places in Egypt - perfect to preserve subterranean tombs.

Lunch was a home-cooked affair at the house of our guide. Her neighbourhod is a bit dicey, and she isnt happy to be living there but her family were relocated due to excavations to uncover the avenue of sphinxes between Luxor and Karnak temples. Food again was delicious. Every single soup Ive had here has been packed full of flavour and this was no exception. We akso gourged on freshly made bread loaf, tahini dip, stuffed baby eggplant and capsicum, REAL chicken that actually had flavour and teeny tiny bananas that were so sweet.

We met up with Mohamed early evening to head out to the markets and dinner. We had a pretty crappy experience in the markets. The vendors here are much more agressive and in your face. I had one guy that pushed me too far waving his hands, cigarette and all just centimetres from my eyes - they just dont seem to get it - no one can possibly shop when three people are waving things in your face and yelling at you. So we've decided to buy in shops from now on.

Today we got up at 4am for the second day in a row only this time the balloon ride was on. It was magic. Ive wantwd to do a balloon ride since I lived in Canberra 20 years ago. We started on the west bank of the Nile travelling over it, Luxor Temple and the city of Luxor before coming down on the east side in a sugar cane field - as in the middle of a patch of sugar cane!!! Soft landing. The farmer went berzerk at the pilot! Great fun. Oh, and some lucky Luxorian has a great pair of sunnies from Australia - yes, they went overboard!!

Next stop Karnak temple. The site is sprawling, it had been added to over some 700 years of its use, by many Pharaohs. Though it is in a bad state of ruin we did see reconstruction work going on. It would be great to come back in 20 years and walk along the avenue of sphinxes from Luxor and see Karnak in all its glory.

On the other hand, it is here that the corruption of the Mubarak government really hit home. Karnak averages over 4000 visitors a day, and although today has been the busiest site for us, Mohamed reckons we only saw a quarter of usual numbers. Karnak alone pulls on average £95 million EP per year! Add up all the sites we've been to in the past week and we're talking a LOT of cash. Mohamed says the corruption is being unveiled daily and that billions and billions of $$ have gone into personal accounts of the regime. You really have to cone here to see how the people live to get why the revolution happened. Lets hope the new system will see a better share of prosperity.

Tonight we leave Luxor. We're all pretty happy about that. Next stop, Alexandria.