A Natural High - Amar Sina

© Chad Clark 27-6-00

pen july 00As the manic construction of characterless hotel chains continues unabated along the coast, stretching from one National Park to another, it’s refreshing to come across an oasis of ambience tucked away high above Ras Umm Sid.

You see, characterless hotels are built by characterless people and seem to appeal to characterless guests. This, unfortunately, is becoming the Sharm El Sheikh of the 21st century. Now one man, Magdy Al Adasy, is trying to change this with his alternative hotel called Amar Sina, or Sinai Moon, and boy does he have a story to tell…………

4 years ago he came to Sharm having been told by his doctors that he had a month to live. After 5 days he was feeling better, after 6 he felt he could walk unaided, and on the seventh day he knew that he wanted to make this place his home.

 

Having been trained as an architect at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Alexandria, he decided to buy some land and build a hotel that would be an expression of his character and help people to feel the same energy that he had felt back in 1996. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Amar Sina is like a small Egyptian village built around a pool. The architecture is a cacophony of styles and cultures that Magdy absorbed during his youth whilst travelling around Egypt with his bridge building Civil Engineer father. You know immediately it’s not an ordinary hotel when you pull up outside next to an old waterwheel, called a sakia, brought from the isolated farming area of Alfayum. There are more inside, some used merely as decoration, some used to irrigate the small farm at the back where vegetables are grown for hotel use. Also in this farm you’ll find donkeys, goats and sheep in pens, ducks in the pond, pigeons on the roof, chickens for eggs and a couple of cockerels for your early morning call. To get back to your roots, every Thursday evening a typical Egyptian meal is served in the farm. There is no menu, you eat what’s in season, and a seven piece resident Nubian band provides the musical entertainment. Back in the hotel as you wander along the meandering corridors, built rather narrow to encourage guest interaction, your eyes are drawn to various objets d’art brought here from all over Egypt. Trailing bougainvilleas adorn the walls, ethnic wooden balustrades stop you falling over the many parapets, wooden bridges carry you from one building to the next and a multitude of winding staircases take you up and down the different levels. Every room is different in shape, size and decoration and visitors have been known to leave their bags in the store when they fly home because they just know they’re coming back soon.

Apart from housing guests, the Amar Sina is also home to the Sinai Wildlife Project emergency centre where they treat accidents and injuries to local domestic pets. There’s also an emergency centre for the human body and soul in the form of Helena’s Energy Centre where massage, aromatherapy, meditation and various alternative therapeutic techniques are employed to help you achieve harmony with yourself and the universe.

Ommmmmmmmm

There is, as always, the ubiquitous dive operation run by Colona Dive Club, who last year chose to leave the hustle and bustle of an over commercialised Naama Bay for the peace and tranquillity of Amar Sina, where they can treat their divers like friends rather than numbers.

It’s easy to fall in love with this place, and this happens to the employees as well as the guests. Max Lindner, himself a long term Sharmer, was opening GM of the Amar Sina last year. When his contract was over he couldn’t bear to leave so he opened a restaurant here to pursue his own art, the art of cooking. He specialises in seafood, brought fresh from the Mediterranean to ensure the highest quality. The waters of the Red Sea may be good for diving, but leave a lot to be desired for the palette. Max has created his own mellow ambience here and starts every meal by serving typical Egyptian Mezza with typical German efficiency. Since there’s no accounting for taste, his regular Monday night barbeque provides some meat as well, a former speciality of Max’s when he was with the Kanabesh hotel in Naama.

It’s not finished yet. Magdy says that his place will never be finished and will continue to grow with new ideas and projects. For example, he’s just built a neat row of small ateliers that will house craftsmen from various disciplines furthering their art. For a man who was given a month to live, he’s very much alive and kicking.

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