SINAI: Most tourists’ visits to Mount Sinai and St. Katherine’s Protectorate go the same way:
Wake up very early. Jump on a bus chartered by a fancy hotel in Sharm El-Sheikh or Dahab. Arrive at Mt. Sinai. Hike up just as dawn breaks, and watch the sunrise with a few hundred fellow tourists. Go back to the bus, leave St. Katherine’s and tuck into a good breakfast and a nice nap back at the seaside hotel, happy at seeing Mt. Sinai.
The Bedouins watching the tourists hike the mountain are none too happy with this arrangement.
“This doesn’t help the area,” said Siggy, a German working with the Bedouins to create their own hiking organization, named “Sheikh Sina Bedouin Treks.” She believes that if tourists spent their vacation actually in the Sinai Peninsula, hiking with the Bedouins, it would prove beneficial for everyone.
“This [current arrangement] doesn’t help the people,” she said. “They just climb up and down and then disappear again… this is just profit for the tourist companies.”
Siggy works for a Bedouin named Sheikh Musa, who runs “Sheikh Sina Bedouin Treks,” along with a smattering of other eco-lodges scattered around St. Katherine’s Protectorate. Ask any Bedouin in St. Katherine’s and they will have heard of Musa–and have an opinion about him.
One cab driver described Musa as “a fake.”
“He’s not a Bedouin,” the man said, who asked not to be identified. “He’s a businessman.”
Everyone knows Musa because he runs all the local Bedouin workers in St. Katherine’s. Ask a Bedouin to guide you up “Mountain Moses”? The guide works for Musa. Stop at one of the local gardens and chat with the man tending the produce? The gardener works for Musa as well.
However, Musa told Daily News Egypt he’s not in it for the money. He believes he is helping his fellow Bedouins by running organizations like “Bedouin Treks.”
“[Money] is not important … I need everyone [to be] happy,” he said. “Mountain tours are not meant to make a profit; they are meant to help people.”
Specifically, Musa said the money mainly goes primarily to four Bedouin tribes in St. Katherine’s: the Jebaeeya, the Muzeina, the Terasih, and the Ueat Said.
“By coming, you help 3,000 Bedouins,” he said. “Some money goes for the guide … some to fix the garden. Some goes to help the women in the mountains … You need all to have some money … you don’t need one rich person.”
Musa, a member of the Jebaeeya tribe, said he would like to help even more Bedouin tribes, but needs more tourists to make a Sinai trip first.
“We need good marketing,” he said. “Now the people from Israel do not go to the mountain… the European people and the Israeli people only see swimming and beach here [in Sinai]. They don’t see the mountains.”
Musa said he personalizes tour groups based on what participants want. He has done everything from short two-day hikes to one long hike that spanned the entire Sinai Peninsula.
“We don’t do mass tourism,” Siggy said, emphasizing the individuality of their tours.
Musa said sometimes visitors to St. Katherine’s need to be eased into hiking the mountains.
“Some people eat too many chocolates,” he said. “You need to clean their body and mind.”
For those who wish to visit St. Katherine’s and not throw their whole lot in with Sheikh Musa, alternatives do exist.
“The Bedouins… they’re amazingly good in the mountain environment,” said Mark Knutton, who owns a lodge in St. Katherine’s. “They’re like the world’s best butler.
“However, once you put them into logical Western management… they fall apart,” he said. “The locals who run the B&Bs and the guest houses — they don’t quite get it… they’re spectacularly independent, but they’re so independent they can’t organize themselves.”
Knutton’s lodge, called “Bedouin Paths,” bills itself as a European-style guest house in the protectorate.
“We sell ourselves as a guest house, not just a camp,” Knutton said.
The inn, with a small restaurant, bus service to Dahab, and rooms ranging from dorm-style to private suites — complete with a full bath and small balcony — has become a good bit larger and more developed in the past two years, according to Miriam, Knutton’s manager.
More development is planned for the future. “We’re going to take things up to the next level,” she said. “New menu, new rooms.”
Bedouin Paths’ restaurant is one of its most popular attractions, according to the management. “It’s all very simple, but very fresh,” Miriam said.
While Knutton’s camp is a separate institution, it still tries to help the St. Katherine’s community. Ten percent of Bedouin Paths’ profits fund a small school to teach English to Bedouin children.
“English education here is very poor,” Miriam said. “And English is what they [the Bedouins] need if they want to work with tourists.”
In addition, the inn tries to buy goods from locals whenever possible, according to Knutton.
“We support the local businesses,” he said. “In terms of local shops we’re the biggest customer.”
However, Knutton admits that his inn’s increased comfort comes at a higher price than Musa’s camps.
“Nine times out of ten we’re more expensive,” he said. “But our quality is better… also, we’re not going to jack the price up when we find out you’re rich.”
“The mountains sell themselves,” he added. “What we did was we changed the quality of the hikes… and the lodging.”
Currently, Knutton said most of his business comes from foreign tourists. However, he said he is launching an ad campaign targeted at those living in Cairo, with prices ranging from LE 700 to LE1,000 for a four-day, three-night visit.
Sheikh Musa’s services are available from www.sheikhsina.com and www.sheikhmusa.com. Bedouin Paths’ services are viewable at www.bedouinpaths.com. Bedouin Paths runs a private shuttle bus to St. Katherine’s from Dahab, leaving the Marina Gardens Hotel at 8 am and 4 pm each day. Tickets are LE 45 per person, one way. A cheaper public bus is listed, but has not run regularly in some time. Public buses to St. Katherine’s are also available from Cairo.
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A bedouin tent.
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