Bishbishi Garden Village, Dahab

I came to Dahab with my girlfriend in April 2011 to dive but we didn't have a huge budget. We stayed at bishbishi which was basic but ok. However the 'no frills' didn't just apply to the look of the place. At 6am we were awoken by a huge blast. I couldn't see anything and was being slammed by concrete. I was thrown out of my bed by the blast and we were both covered in concrete and broken tiles. The whole room was destroyed as if a bomb had gone off. In reality it was the hot water boiler just the other side of the wall from our bed. Bishbishi cut corners and had no safety release valve on their boiler. This meant that when the boiler malfunctioned, the pressure built until it exploded. We were extremely lucky that both the Egyptians and tourists came as quickly as they did to dig us out. My girlfriend was hurt and presumed dead for a while as no one could hear her. I had large cuts on my head, back, legs and was bleeding a lot. My leg was very nearly lost and we came scarily close to being killed all because we wanted to save a bit of money on accommodation. The staff and owner came to see us in hospital and gave us a refund on the money we paid for the room which was pretty minimal considering what had happened. They were uninsured and therefore, I have received nothing from Bishbishi to help compensate for the treatment I needed to heal the broken nerve which left my foot paralysed for about 4 months. More than a year later and 'Jimmy' the owner won't even reply to my emails and is ignoring me. His hotel hospitalised me, scarred my girlfriend and I and stopped me from working and he hasn't even got enough of a conscience to offer us some compensation. I recently was told by my insurance that he claimed that none of my belongings were damaged which, whilst plainly impossible in an explosion of this size, has put me in a battle with my insurance to get any compensation. He truly is a despicable person and I would never put anyone I cared about under his care at Bishbishi. The room next to us belonged to a French family. The children were also hospitalised after the wall separating our room got blasted onto them. One child had to go to Sharm El Sheikh hospital for head scans. Don't stay here, it's just too dangerous.

Hi everybody, if you go to Dahab (a nice place to relax and a artificial backpackers spot with everybody working there and serving you is from mainland Egypt and only comes for work at the same time), *** Do NOT stay at Bishbishi Camp. *** It is only as cheap as many other budget places there (like 25 egyptian pounds for a single room w/o bathroom) but the staff is NOT trustworthy and of that kind of "would like to be business men" you don"t like to meet. :-)) They heavily overcharged me for a bus ticket to Ismailiya, as I found out later at the bus station. They wanted 80 Pounds, incl. 5 Pound for the service, but the real prive was (I proved that with the ticket counter) only 55 Pound. Do not invest your good money in staff that cheats you. Go somewhere else - there are quite a lot better spots to stay and book tours etc. ! Hope you have a nice trip, Dirk

Bishbishi a place where you can feel home away from home. The staff is very friendly and helpful, the owner, Jimmy, is crazy, but everybody loves him and the atmosphere is the best. For sure I'll be back! The place is nice and quiet, a 1 minute trip to the beach or the village centre, and at Jimmy's restaurant Funny Mummy at the sea side, you can get killer thick shakes. I did some diving with Shpinx Divers and Penguin Divers. Both were great! Don't mistake Penguin Divers for the Penguin hotel.