Fell in love with Basata all over again

I finally was able to see a chance of taking some time off from work so decided to join a few friends to go to my favourite place in the world Basata. It was the fasted trip I had ever planned and ALOT of people ended up going in! Every day we had new people arriving and more people to hang out with which is always an added plus in Basata. We had all the basica covered: water mattresses and rings, check. Board games, check check check. Food for the nights where we have the energy to cook, check. Good music, check. Good company some of which you don't know very well, check. The best combination for basata is to go with a big group of people who are NOT your close friends because you get to mingle more, get to know each other, and it makes the trip more interesting. You get to see the little cute perks in everyone that you may not get to see anywhere else. Plus we had Tamer, God bless him, getting all sorts of water gadgets to use which we spent quite some time as a group pumping up! But especially that round water mattress made the trip jump up to another level! So much fun! Then we had Hazem getting his snorkel as well which I ended up using which introduced me to a side of Basata I hadn't seen before. The fish were diverse and colorful. We even managed to witness a school of fish jumping in the water. The great thing about basata is you can enjoy it with friends or even by yourself. Taking the water mattress out into the ocean by yourself and listening to the silence is amazing. Taking a walk by the beach at night with only the moonlight guiding your way is amazing. Sitting in the little island in the sea that's created around midday and staring out into the sparkling water is amazing. Reading, painting, sleeping, swimming...all just relaxes you and takes you away from your busy life back in Cairo. Then cooking with the gang is fun, playing board games at night and having other basata guests joining in is fun, socializing with the basata staff is fun too. There you are free to choose to be on your own for a while or with friends because you literally can do both with no strings attached and everyone respects it. There's a freedom to walking bare foot all the time, having no noise disturbing your thoughts, and having no ugliness surrounding you. Getting back to basics and having everyone doing the same reminds you of the humbleness of humanity and reminds you to stop and just be amazed by everything around you. You see it in yourself as you socialize with people you dont know, have real conversations with the staff, and in how bad you feel leaving the place. The hardest part is when you pack and remember "oh crap I now need to wear pants, sneakers and a t-shirt" and the second you get back to your busy life, the layers of responsibilities and obligations fall on you and you lose that humane part of you under it all again. Basata is a nice place to reconnect with yourself, with your surrounding environment, and with life.