Interesting Saturday Night

[ih303]

This past Saturday at the lounge, these two guys from Saudi Arabia came in for a smoke. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but I've noticed middle-eastern people are particularly difficult to satisfy in a modern lounge, and we've had problems before. It's like they just sit there trying to find something wrong to complain about. But I digress.

Anyway, so they brought in their own hookahs, a pair of gorgeous golden KM 26"ers with these fantastic hoses with hose covers sporting thousands of 4" tassels coming off of them. They looked amazing. It was their first time in, and not knowing what we had, brought in their own bowls of Nakhla double apple. We told them we couldn't let them smoke their own stash but offered to pack them some NK DA of our own in their hookahs. They agreed so I proceeded to pack DA into a couple egyptian clay bows. We filled up their bases with ice and then water to about 1" up the stem, threw three AF Nats on each bowl, and took the hookahs out.

I'm sure I gave them a bad first impression when I put their hookahs on the table. I understand middle eastern tradition regarding hookahs on tables, but with our setup, it really does not make sense to put them on the ground. They did it anyway. The first thing they complained about was the water level in their bases. When all was said and done, they had water up to the neck of the base but swore it smoked better this way.

I sat with them and talked about how everything was for a while. They recommended I use more water in the base, poke fewer holes (I poked three rings of holes around the outside of the bowl with a corn cob holder), and make the holes bigger.

At the end of the night, two amazing things happened. First, we had a couple of middle-easterners leave satisfied, and second, I actually enjoyed smoking DA. We talked quite a bit, and they were impressed with how much I knew about the stuff. I'm sure they weren't expecting that. They said they'd come back tomorrow night with a couple of KM's like theirs to sell to me, so I'm looking forward to that.

What has y'all's experience with traditional smokers been? Have you noticed them liking more water and fewer, bigger holes in their foil? They showed me a bowl they packed an there was a total of maybe 12-15 holes poked throughout the entire top of the foil.

[fcbayern]

As far as holes go.. I can tell you that I have experimented quite a bit with this... and even though many people will tell you hole size and quantity only effect the pull of the pipe, I disagree. I have found that (at least for me) every tobacco has a different hole patternt hat works best with it.

Example:

I have found SB smoke best with double foil, and a million small holes (sewing needle sized). I think it keeps the shisha from coming directly in contact with the coals and burning..

For tangiers, I never got really good flavor from Tang using a toothpick, I have found, the bigger the hole, the more flavor. It must have something to do with the fresh air to smoke ratio..


Just my .02

[twoapplesplease]

I agree with those guys and like to set my hookah up that way.Having more water in the vase provides a better cooler smoke as long as its not so much it gets into the hose.And I prefer less bigger holes instead of lots of tiny holes.It just works better

I would consider myself a traditional smoker.I grew up with some close egyptian freinds and they taught me the ways of nakhla.