Luxor - Our Hotel

Madinat Habu, Luxor

We did the Valley of the Kings on our full day and then visited Karnak and Luxor Temples on the day we left. On arrival, the hotel provided us with a complimentary plate of fruit and a complimentary plate of biscuits, which we pretty much finished on our first evening.

We had a bit of a missing cutlery theme during our stay, as the tea and coffee making facilities were without teaspoons; when we ordered room service, they forgot to provide cutlery; when we ordered drinks at the bar, they forgot teaspoons for our tea and coffee; at breakfast I was caught “stealing” cutlery from another table since they'd removed mine before I'd finished with it. Someone, somewhere, was trying to tell us something, but I never worked out what!

However, the hotel was excellent and the staff was as helpful as we could possibly wish. We’d booked a room with direct Nile view as it was half-price, so after we’d got back from the Valley of the Kings, we went to the pool (I checked my shares!), and then thought we’d make use of the tea and coffee in our room (now supplied with teaspoons).

The night before, we’d noticed that all the lights had gone off on the opposite side of the river and we wondered whether it had been a power cut, rejoicing in the fact that at least we hadn’t had that problem. But we spoke too soon. We may have had teaspoons, but suddenly all the power went off in our room. Looking outside, it appeared that lights were on elsewhere, and they were on in the corridor, so we initially thought something had gone wrong with the electricity in our room only.

We traipsed down to reception only to be informed that it was indeed a power cut but that the emergency generator was keeping the lights on in the corridors and public spaces. So, that was the cup of coffee scuppered! The obvious solution was to go and have an alcoholic drink of some description, so we went to the bar and sat drinking wine on the terrace overlooking the Nile. Life could definitely be worse! This time we were in darkness and the other side was lit up.

We took our last meal in Luxor in one of the restaurants in the hotel courtyard. We sat down and I felt something wet on my arm. I looked around and Lena said she couldn’t feel anything. Then Lena felt something on her skin. No plants appeared to be above us that may have just been watered. No customers were nearby who may have been spilling or splashing water. Gradually, it happened a little more frequently and it dawned on us that it was rain. Because it’s so unusual, rain always causes hilarity in Egypt, so the waiters were laughing and asked us if we wished to move tables, but we decided to stay outside. It stopped almost as soon as it started.

As we took our coffee at the end of the meal, huge drops fell and quite literally splashed in a big dollop in my café latte. This time, you could see the water hitting the fountain causing the moat to look quite choppy. For Egypt, it was quite a heavy burst, so this time we did move inside, although it stopped after three or four minutes (which is quite a while for over here!). Anyway, it certainly wakened everyone up and I like to think it was a sign of the gods smiling down on us.