Basata is the best place ever
23 Comments Published by Tom Gara on Tuesday, December 7 at Tuesday, December 07, 2004.
Well I wont even try to describe it in words, too amazing. Everyone in the world needs to come to this place before they die, just to realise how perfect life on this Earth can be. My problem now is that every weekend I spend in Cairo will have a shadow looming over it....:"you could be in Basata in 6 hours if you leave right now"..........."just go...."
In pictures:
Perfect little bamboo huts on a white sand Red Sea beach, complete with coral reef and beautiful blue-green water:
Oh, and did I mention that it is totally surrounded by the Sinai mountains, which change through a rainbow of colours throughout the day as the sun hits them from different angles?
And when you chill out in the main hut, you're really not that far from the water. Really. Not. That. Far. :
Yeah, chilling in the main hut - its pretty easy to do. In fact, its impossible to do anything else....
There is serious work to do though, like watching unbelievable sunrises, and looking cool with your manual SLR film camera:
Oh, yeah, the sunrises. The sun rises over the mountains of Saudi Arabia, which really arent that far away at all. In the daytime that look like a realistic swim, and at night when the lights come on, it looks like another small town just down the road. Moses and his people really didnt have that far to go:
I'll put this simply. Come to Egypt. Go to Basata. I'll be happy to join anyone who can make it in the forseeable future. I plan on spending as much time here as possible while I am in Egypt, and for the rest of my life no trip anywhere will really feel like it is 100% awesome without involving this place in some way.
My camera isnt waterproof , but if it was, I could show you pictures of the snorkelling - the reefs were so amazing that they would sell you on this place on their own. You're lucky......
In pictures:
Perfect little bamboo huts on a white sand Red Sea beach, complete with coral reef and beautiful blue-green water:
Oh, and did I mention that it is totally surrounded by the Sinai mountains, which change through a rainbow of colours throughout the day as the sun hits them from different angles?
And when you chill out in the main hut, you're really not that far from the water. Really. Not. That. Far. :
Yeah, chilling in the main hut - its pretty easy to do. In fact, its impossible to do anything else....
There is serious work to do though, like watching unbelievable sunrises, and looking cool with your manual SLR film camera:
Oh, yeah, the sunrises. The sun rises over the mountains of Saudi Arabia, which really arent that far away at all. In the daytime that look like a realistic swim, and at night when the lights come on, it looks like another small town just down the road. Moses and his people really didnt have that far to go:
I'll put this simply. Come to Egypt. Go to Basata. I'll be happy to join anyone who can make it in the forseeable future. I plan on spending as much time here as possible while I am in Egypt, and for the rest of my life no trip anywhere will really feel like it is 100% awesome without involving this place in some way.
My camera isnt waterproof , but if it was, I could show you pictures of the snorkelling - the reefs were so amazing that they would sell you on this place on their own. You're lucky......
You think this is amazing ? Go to Sharm. Just trust me. Head to Sharm. You don't need to stay in the fancy hotels but you will wet yourself with the excitement. Spare pants needed.
Meh.
If I wanted shopping malls and 5 dollar cups of coffee I'd go to.....well I'd go to Sharm El Sheikh :)
I like my bamboo huts and weird aging German hippies...Although I know the ocean and reefs around Sharm are about as good as it gets anywhere in the world - I think I'd rather stay in Basata and drive to Sharm for the day.
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Is that taleta in the picture? Oh how I have missed you!
Oh- and I really wouldn't recommend swimming to Saudi- the people in Dahab told us we would get shot. They actually told us a story about some silly tourists a while ago (they were Australian in fact, coincidence? mumken) that got put in jail for taking a boat over. On second thought- give er a go- let me know how it turns out. ;)
WOW!!! Next time you go to Basata pleaaaaaaaase tell me!! how about we go for Easter vacation?
23.11.05
My name is Alison and I am from London.
I have been staying with friends in the beautiful Sinai for one week, but my stay has just been turned into the most distressing murderous experience imaginable and I feel I have a duty to share it with everyone who enjoys coming to this place or is involved with it’s promotion.
Today on this beautiful afternoon I took a walk along the beach to visit a member of staff at Basata Camp.
Here, I must inform you that Basata promotes itself as an ‘ecco-lodge’ holiday resort. As an environmental project, the management receives many grants from Europe and other NGO’s as well as locally to help them carry out this valuable and costly work.
On this walk today my friend’s dog accompanied me. A pet Labrador named Dalma ,a life-time companion of my friend. After only being at the staff hut in Basata for 10 minuets, Dalma began having seizures. I know that the dog is not young and my first thought was that the dog was having a heart attack or a fit. The Basata member of staff I had gone to see immediately knew what was wrong and told me that the dog had been poisoned.
Dalma was having vicious spasms. Her whole body was contorting with seizures, forcing open her mouth. When she was not ridged she was panting heavily and was unable to breath. I have never seen anything so distressing in my life.
I immediately telephoned her owners as I was becoming increasingly hysterical from watching Dalma suffering so much and obviously about to die. I did not know what I should do to relieve her suffering. I was in a living nightmare.
To my complete surprise her owners said that they would be with me in a few minuets with an antidote for the poison. It was obvious to me that they knew what they were doing and had experience of this. They asked many practical questions, such as how long since it began, how long since she ate the poison. This I did not know and then they asked how long had we been on Basata beach.
For them this is not the first time that their dogs have been poisoned by the management of Basata. Dalma was even poisoned as a puppy.
While we waited for the dog’s owners to come the children who are staying at Basata all came running to the dog to see what was happening, many of them know
Dalma and so were very upset. As I tried to keep them away from Dalma they told me that a few nights before some more dogs had died in the night. Screaming in agony as the poison had slowly worked. They said that the next day their schoolteacher had gone with them to hunt the beach for the poison, but they had been unable to find it.
In my opinion this is not an activity for children resident or visiting.
Notably, when I ran to the camp’s owner’s wife for help, She didn’t say anything to me. Just looked at me. The children came running, but the adults all stayed right away.
Although the antidote was administered almost immediately the dose of poison must have been so large because after 30 minuets of pain Dalma died.
I did not lay this poison myself, but I can’t help but feel reasonable for the death of this beautiful dog. My mind tells me that I should have watched her more closely, or I should have been suspicious. I should not have allowed her to come for a walk with me.
But, Why should I?
As a tourist in Sinai I am not prepared for the likelihood of poisonous bait. This is a beach for families and children. A holiday destination where people come with their pets. Who would imagine that it is hiding lethal doses of poison?
My friends tell me that the Basata management has poisoned many of their dogs over many years. Yet they apparently do not care, as they do not stop this practice and just continue to do it. I have previously stayed at Basata and found it to be a great place for a holiday I found all the staff to be extremely helpful and I would not have believed that anyone there would be so cruel or stupid.
However, I feel it is a disgusting misrepresentation that a place where the manager is the
Head Of An N.G.O who’s work is to promote a cleaner environment, recycling and love for nature and who collects donations and is commissioned to protect natures’ inhabitants can be allowed to lay poisonous bait for healthy animals at all. Furthermore, without placing any signs or notifying the public or their neighbors. This must surely be illegal even by Egyptian law?
What happened today is not why people come here for their holidays. It was a traumatic sight and is completely unacceptable for adults and especially for children.
I do not know what poison was used to kill Dalma, but my fear is that if this practice of secretly laying bait continues the chances of a human tragedy are only increasing daily.
Thank you for your time,
hey u think basata is brilliant?
go to abu galloum, its off of dahab, u can getthere by a camel or by walking through the mountains. you end up in abu gallum completely surrounded by mountains and only you friends for company. bring music and a tent and sleeping bags, its worth it. also, try ras shitan, 'devil's head', its what one would call hippie haven and stay in a camp called 3ayash. ayash, have fun my sinai friend, i'm a sinai buff andays in the lookout for the next best camp,, i heard of this bedioun retreat in mount sinai that i might give a try this weekend.
nina
Hi Alison, this is Hassan from Egypt, Im sorry for Dalma man I just read ur post, I just want to clarify a very important point, the people of Basata are not poisoning any dogs of you or of your friends, but they are actually protecting you and your family from wild creatures that might move during the night and harm someone. Those poisons are to either let these creatures harmfull ones of course go away or simply die. By the way Im not defending the people of BASATA and i havent even been there yet!! but I will soon and I wanna assure you that those people are just doing so for you to spend a happy vacation but you know man shitt happens and I'm sorry again, take care and please for any further comments please reply at hassanabdelsalam@gmail.com thanks Alison and hear from u soon :)
BASATA!
Is the best place ever. One of those places where I have felt that I had died and gone to heaven. My cousins took me there and we styaed for a few days. It was simply amazing. How I wish I could go back to the days in the mid 90's, near the mountains and the Red Sea, listening to Euro techno beats in the background, sleeping in the shade, snorkelling in the salt water. What a dream...what an adventure...
i'm egyptian , i always thought a lot to do this basata step LOL , and i was worried about what i'll find there but believe me when i reached basata's ground i was amazeeed , nothing more realxing than that , even when u come back to the city u appreciate luxuries more , anyway i got a lot of pic for me there and beautiful pics , hit me up if u want them
it was really amazing bas heres only one main major problem, ( hanskokhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnn ) ....
Dear "Anonymous"
I can't imagine the original management of Basata would poison any dogs becasue I used to go there 15 years ago and there were a couple fo dogs that belonged to the nearby hotel which used to wander over to us at Basata almost every day. THey were very friendly and never maltreated or even discouraged from visiting. Maybe there are other people now who are not animal lovers... Your story really upset me though as I have 2 beautiful dogs myself and would be completely devastated if I saw them (or any other animal) die in such a way. I am still in love with Basata and if I witnessed such a thing it would destroy my love affair...
Basata is absolutely the best place ever. I am Australian and discovered it in 1988 with a friend. We had met a couple of guys on a bus whilst we were travelling to Israel and they told us of Basata. We got off the bus with them, they stayed 3 nights we stayed 3 months. We had the absolute time of our lives. There was only the basic huts back then, about 12 of them. The staff was Sherif, Abdu the cook (I wonder if he is the same cook there now) Hazem and Alaa. We had such a fabulous time and I am sure it was quieter then than it is now. It was magical and Basata has been my password on all my computers now for neally 20 years so you can see it made an impression. The food, the backgammon, the company, the desert, the beduoins who would come and cook tea and bread for us and the sea were just fantastic. My friend Michelle and I still talk fondly of the place and of the fun we had. I shall try and make it back there one day. So to all of you out there, it is true what is said, it is like no other place on earth and is so worth the trip.
Linda
Basata !!!
It was my first time to basata , two weeks ago , It was not only a great place to relax in PEACE , but it made me reconsider all my life style , the load of work ,the stress, everything there made me decide that I should shift my career and look for a quieter life. I should think of something else to do in my life instead of neing a banker !!!
Next time I'll go to basata ( which will be very soon) I will make sure that I'll go there alone to be able to think clearly of how am I gonna change this kind of life I am living .
Any way this was just to say that Basata is not a GREAT place , it is an INSPIRATION !!!
Sally
Alson, I'm sorry about this unfortunate incident that led to the death of Dalma.
This news is quite shocking to me. I have personally seen many dogs roaming freely around the camp over the past two years and poisoning was never a problem nor was anyone bothered by them. The cats at Basata are also very healthy and well-established residents.
Keeping that in mind, it is hard to come up with an explanation for the poisoning incident. I don't think that it was a member of the staff who did this but my guess is that it might have been administered by someone (maybe staff, neighbors or residents!) against rodents. If this is the case, then I certainly agree with you in that they should post warning signs and let everyone know. I have known the staff there to be very diligent in informing their visitors of any concerns that come up, however minor.
It would be great if someone could confirm these claims by confronting Sherif ElGhamrawy, the owner of Basata. That would give this argument some support.
Renda Said I have just been back from Basata. There is no other place on earth you come famlir to yourself like Basata. While Staying there you should consider dining at Castle ZAman which is an amazing resturant... Counting days till my next vacation there ..
I have worked in Basata for four winter seasons and I left when I found out the truth about the place.
They spray the fruit and veggies with enormous quantities of bug-spray every early morning (around 4, 5 o' clock).
When there are the fewest tourists in the year (or bi-yearly), they set fire to their garbage pit, and the dioxin-laden smoke settles on the beach and huts.
Sharif had a dispute with the sewage-removal truck company once (their truck welted on his property and they refused to come until he fixed the uneven incline) and he started to pump, a few times a year, the raw sewage into the garbage pit, underneath the rubbish. This caused the sewage to seep through into the coral reef, and the corals suffered badly.
Yes, Basata is a relaxing place but please don't get fooled by the "eco"-ness of it - that's all a sham.
Sharif hates dogs (it's an Arab thing) and I am pretty certain that he started laying out poison a long time ago, because stray dogs on the beach sometimes urinate on camper's stuff.
Everything about Basata is environment-unfriendly. Example: Sharif has no problem with "his" taxi drivers to let their carter oil out in the sand, as long as they do it behind the generator, where the guests can't see it.
When the bottle shredder broke and I wanted to weld it, he refused and burnt them instead. (He was afraid the machined would be damaged.)
The myth goes that Basata "grow their own food", but that's baloney. Instead, he simply buys the crappiest-looking veggies so he can pass them off as "biological".
Basata has struggled for years with a kind of lice in the floor mats of their huts, and their solution was to use ridiculous amounts of bug-spray. I mean half a can per hut.
I once spent weeks designing a solar-based desalinator, helped with two people who had that as a profession (I am an electronic-engineer myself). This would avoid the need for the noisy, smelly diesel generator and the even noisier desalination machine. Sharif refused to even look at the design.
Sharif is much more about making money than he is about preserving the environment.
Many people have asked him to offer whole-grain bread, but he simply thinks it's too much hassle getting the healthier flour, because it's bound to quota's but, more importantly, a bit more expensive.
That place is fake. A nice fake, I admit, but a total fake nevertheless. Bedouins are scantily welcome there. It is their land but Sharif has powerful conections in the Army and government. He is ruthless.
One of my best friends in Basata was a worker from a village. We went jogging on the beach in the mornings. One day he and his fellow workes from the same village were fired because some had stolen groceries. But he was innocent, but Sharif wanted to be strict and fire them all. Some years later I met him again, he was totally emaciated and begged Sharif to re-hire him because it was his last chance. Sharif refused. That guy was the meekest, most honest guy imaginable.
Sherif once asked me to help him to get rid of the mosquito's. I discovered that they bred in the desalinated water basin, and solved the issue by covering it with plastic. After a few weeks however, he inexplicably removed the plastic and Basata was plaged by mosquito's ever since. That desalinated water is totally unfit for human consumption because we were wading through it until our crotches to get the much out..
Basata has artificial greenery and it attracts a alot of birds. I have seen how, on average, Sherif's sdaughter Suheila's pet cat killed one rare local bird per day. They refused to do anything about this problem. I think basata is responsible for the death of at least a thousand endemic birds by now (I worked there from 1995 to 1998 or so, during winters)
If you want to enjoy the Sinai, and enjoy it in a true and honest way, don't go to Basata. Tarabin, or the many bedouin-run places along the Sinai coast are much more relaxing in the end. Basata's staff are all Egyptian arabs and not bedoeins. Egyptian arabs are afraid of the desert and hate bedouins. Support the natives and stay away from Basata.
One more thing: Every second day is fish on the menu, in Basata. This fish is illegally caught in a very destructive way from the coral reefs. Protect the Sinai nature and don't stay in Basata!
Hey Alison and Franciscus,
I don't know what you are trying to do but all in all i sense a lot of bullcrap.
There were always lots of cats in the main hut, 5-6 at the time and i have never seen a dead animal in my 5 visits.
and LOL at the "arab thing" about hating dogs..
And FYI there is not a single place in Egypt more environmental-friendly than Basata.. Even if all what you say is true it's still like 95% cleaner than staying at the Hilton
I just read the various postings above, and was very glad to read Franciscus' entry. As former director of the EU-funded South Sinai Regional Development Project, I came to know Basata and Sharif quite well, and therefore I am in a position to testify that everything Franciscus wrote is true: the extensive use of chemicals on food, Basata's unfriendliness towards the bedouin population (no one at Basata is Bedouin, least of all Sharif himself even though he falsely portrays himself as a Sheikh, at the local Bedoins' total dismay), etc. etc... Basata is purely a commercial venture (nothing wrong with that, if only Sharif did not pretend otherwise -- being do-gooder who helps his "fellow" Bedouin and preserves the local environment, which couldn't be farther from the truth). He raises funds through his NGO on those false pretenses (even tried to do so through my project), which in reality is just another commercial strategy to enrich himself and feed his thriving business. As Fransciscus mentioned, the Tarabin camps (Tarabin = Bedouin tribe) next door are the only real thing. Basata is nothing but a scam, and if you care about your health you should not stay there -- least of all eat their food!
What an idiot! Thanks for the laughs :)
i highly doubt that basata is killing dogs. sherif's family (extended and otherwise) have had pet dogs for years! several of them. sherif's nephew, who works for hemaya and basata, just brought a new puppy to basata that is a family pet of his. i am extremely well acquainted with all of the ghamrawys and find these stories of poisoning dogs utterly ridiculous. sherif's family loves dogs...so these great little conspiracy theories are just absolute crap. but thanks for the laugh!
Hi,
Just read he comments about Basata after staying there afew days last week.Amazing place indeed, maybe fake, but for sure very unfriendly. We got dark looks from the management since day one and that spoilt a bit the beauty of our stay.
Basata is utterly fake.
I met a guy there who was a fruitarian. He camped on Basata's beach. He was exactly of the ideological mindset one would believe Basata would endorse.
Although he paid the (high, for Sinai) camping fee, Maria, Sherif's wife, asked him to leave because he did not spend enough money in their shop, presumably. That was his explanation, at least.
I was later tasked to physically remove people when they became a nuisance (public nudity, walking on the corals) and I can assure that this fruitarian was none of the sort. He really fitted an ecological lifestyle and he tought me how to sprout beans and such.
The only reason I can think of is that he indeed did not contribute much to Basata's bottom line.
There are many more examples. I have nothing against being commercial, but what I do resent is that Basata cheats people into believing they're in an "eco-lodge", while in fact they're not.
As for the aleged poisoning of the dogs, I would not put it past Sherif, especially not since he mentioned it to me - that he was thinking about it. Stray dogs are a nuisance in Sinai because they pee on people's sleeping bags. It happened to me as well.