I arrived in Egypt after 3:00 in the morning. I was the only westerner on the flight. I was hoping I could share a taxi at least, but I wasn’t that lucky. Everyone else was going to private cars and taxis outside the airport. I was considering walking the 6km to town, but I wasn’t so sure that was a good idea. I finally had to agree to some taxi driver but he dropped me off at the edge of town for the price I paid (while picking up another passenger for free). I had to spend the next couple hours walking through the city of Luxor trying to find a room.
I had some maps on my computer and a street name of where I could find a guest house, but the maps weren’t totally accurate. I did finally find it by just walking down every street in the area and then sat outside and ate some of the donuts I bought in Dubai while I waited for someone to wake up inside.
Luckily, they did have a room available (I don’t think it was exactly clean though). On the board in the lobby I saw they will help you get a Student ID Card because that will cut the admission prices in half. I thought this would be my best chance to get one ever since my wallet was stolen a couple years ago. They took me to an agency and I paid for one but they said I would have to wait a day to get it. In the mean time, I purchased a tour to the Valley of the Kings and some other sites on the west bank of the Nile.
The following day I took the tour which was OK, but still no Student ID. After another day, I went to the Temple of Karnak. No student ID again. They said it would take another week, so they gave me my money back and I planned to get on the train to Cairo.
(photos)