Whatever excitement that was associated with being in a "first-class cabin" of the train was quickly dissipated when we stepped into our cabin. Although the seats on our train to Luxor were relatively large, general cleanliness and maintenance of the cabin hints a strong desire for improvement. In a way, it was a disappointment. While I had quite a lot of fun taking silly photographs on the long journey, Sally had a difficult time sleeping (especially when the train stopped out of nowhere in the middle and technicians were hammering away trying to get something fixed!). In the end, the journey was delayed by 4 hours and we finally got into Luxor at 10am.

Inhabited since 3200BC, Luxor was once the capital of Egypt before it was shifted to the delta (i.e. Cairo). As the site of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, it has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open air museum", as the ruins Karnak and Luxor temple complexes reside within the modern city. Just a short hop across the Nile River to the West Bank, lie more monuments, temples and tombs which include the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. This city is a major stop along the popular Nile River circuit; thousands of tourists arrive annually to visit these monuments, contributing a large part towards the economy for the modern city.

After walking for almost 30 minutes, we chanced upon (while looking for Happy Land Hotel) Sun Set Hotel (E£130/S$32.50 per twin room per night) and decided to stay here. Located along Sharia Ali Ibn Abu Talib (a kilometre south of the Luxor Temple), the hotel was perhaps "too-well" hidden on this easy-to-overlook street (in Luxor East Bank) that failed to attract any significant attention from tourists or guidebooks (which would had caused the prices to increase). It proves to the best-valued accommodation we had stayed during our trip. Anyway (if you were wondering), we were not sure why they called it Sun Set Hotel; Luxor was neither famous for its sunset nor we could see any sunset from our room.

We took a good long nap over the hottest period of that day; it was certainly too tiring to travel "First Class" on Egyptian Railways for 12 hours. While there were some remaining hours of sunshine left before the end of the day, we decided to visit the Luxor Temple; which was just a 15min walk away along the Nile while it basks in the late afternoon sun.