Of the whole of Egypt, Luxor will probably make the biggest impression on visitors, not only for its treasure trove of major archaeological sites, but for the reception most visitors, especially if they're travelling independently from a tour group, will receive there - basically as walking wallets to profiteer from.

Within minutes of leaving Luxor train station, we were approached with three offers of hotels. While we were walking to the hotel we planned to stay at, we had several offers shouted out to us for kalishes and taxis. Finally we reached the hotel, and the receptionist first tried to overcharge us, then when we consulted our travel guides he backed down to the official rate, but claimed the rate didn't include breakfast. We finally haggled him into giving us the official rate with breakfast.

TOP LEFT The local tourist ferry, in front of Luxor Temple on the East Bank

TOP RIGHT Me at Luxor Temple

ABOVE, LEFT Luxor Temple

This didn't give us the best impression of Luxor, and it wasn't really to improve. Later, still our day of arrival there, we would encounter two men individually requesting our help to write letters in English. They would then take us to ahwas, but never showed any inclination to start dictating letters, instead trying to befriend us, teach us some Arabic, and offering themselves as a 'go-between' to buy local products for us 'cheaply'. When this failed to extract the possibility of any money from us, one sulked, tore up the piece of paper he'd used to write 'useful' Arabic words on for us, and told us to pay the bill and leave. The other man next attempted to trigger our sympathy, saying his father needed an expensive operation, and wanted us to help pay for it, to which Stef responded that we were students and couldn't afford to. I was grateful to leave both situations physically and with my sanity intact, feeling so wary and threatened by both encounters.

ABOVE LEFT Avenue of the Rams at Karnak Temple

ABOVE RIGHT Statue at Karnak temple

LEFT Obelisk at Karnak Temple

It's a shame Luxor's character has been so spoilt by the greed that has resulted from tourism, but is probably inevitable when it provides the main source of livelihoods here.

But being aware of this, it still seems incomphrehensible how some operators can be so rude as well as persistent, while trying to win our business! While we were trying to appreciate the view from the Nile riverbank, we were constantly followed by one trip operator, beseeching us to organise a trip to the West Bank with him. When we told him 'no' several times, to be ignored, we ignored him too, and then escaped him by paying to go inside Luxor Temple. However, over the next three days, he still followed us, and at one point heckled us loudly, claiming we wouldn't be left alone by anyone until we'd made a deal with someone (well it certainly isn't going to be yours, we thought!) He didn't actually leave us alone until he saw us openly walk up to another organiser, shake hands with him, and set off with this competitor on his boat to the other side of the Nile.

But not all of Luxor is this bad. We belatedly decided to avoid the main tourist throughfare and take a quieter sidestreet south. Here, finally, we relaxed, wandering around the local street markets, bargaining with stall holders to buy a smaller amount of food than they advertised (we didn't need bread 10 rolls!), but best of all, being generally ignored by most of the locals there!

BELOW RIGHT Me standing in doorway of building at Karnak Temple

BELOW Some cute goats outside Karnak Temple looking for attention, and probably food

BOTTOM RIGHT Statues at Karnak Temple

Taking a rest outside Karnak Temple before starting to walk back to the town centre, we were bemused by a young boy who tried to convince us we should have our shoes cleaned by him. As I was wearing leather trainers, he focused most of his efforts on me... to which I eventually told him I liked my trainers dirty. I felt a twinge of guilt when he looked so downcast, but didn't change my mind.