Noob Shisha Guy!

[atarilovesyou]

Hi all, just making my first post. I'm a Canadian returning home from work in Egypt for six months, and have enjoyed shisha at social gatherings. I like it, and unlike cigarettes (I was a smoker, clean for 10 years now) I was very worried about the addictiveness of it. I don't inhale anything nowadays, but to get the shisha to 'work' when I first was offered, I had to directly inhale to get the bubbles going...the 'mouth puff' wasn't doin' it!

Mind you I don't do it everyday (but I know some who smoke it quite regularly) I can say that I'm not worried of a full blown nicotine addiction to shisha, although it's psychological...I really relax, and even right now I wouldn't mind some minty sheesh!

The prices here are great on pipes and tobacco, so I'm loading up for my trip home. I picked up a medium sized pipe in Dubai, a good price with an extra pipe and tobacco holder, only to find when I went to the Egyptian markets about the different qualities of pipes. Turns out I got a comparatively cheaper quality pipe...



...the Egyptians tell me that the quality is in the material of the metal (tin, brass, copper being the 'best') and how many the pieces the pipe unscrews to....3 pieces being good quality. Mine is a single, light metal of unknown kind. But I like the simple look, and I'm not an everyday user either.

But now I'm thinking to pickup a much nicer version before I go at the famous Khan Khalili market in Cairo. Can the experts here point me in the right direction?

And how about some links to all things shisha...I've tried to track down the exact health effects, but since little research has been done, not much is available. I've heard that it's just as bad as smoking (which wouldn't surprise me) and others say the water takes out 95% of the nicotine and ALL the tar (which would impress me!). I know it's a tobacco product, and there are risks, but I'd like to think that my limited use (1-2 times a month..holidays) will not make my lungs as bad as a typical smoker. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Cleaning tips, that kind of thing....

Again, I am not an advocate of cigarettes and cigars, and I took a chance on shisha...I realized I was here only six months, but it's such a cool pastime for socializing that it would be a shame to not bring home a pipe and some tobacco. And the price is dirt cheap if you know the right guys over here!..lol...I was most concerned with the health effects, but since I didn't wake up the next day shaking away trying to light my pipe, I figure there must not be a whole lot of nicotine absorbed. I wouldn't dare take a single puff off a cigarette for that reason...I was pretty hooked while I smoked!

Thanks, hope to learn lots here!

[kram]

okie, if the hookah splits into 3 pieces dun mean its gd.
make sure u get enough coal for urself.
khalil maamoon brand pipes are generally considered very gd quality pipes.
get 1 or 2 maamoon hoses as u might want to split the flavors.
get brushes for cleaning, u can order those online or get them in egypt i reckon. get afew sizes so u can clean diff parts.

have fun!!!

[The King]

The hookah does not actually filter out everything. Hookah can't be good for you, but everything is okay in moderation right? I smoke bout everyday and I have no addiction what so ever. Don't worry about the addiction, especially if your only doing it a few times a month

[ASUSEAN1]

yea man, and pick me up a cool pipe in egypt and drive it down to Illinois

[newsman]

While you're shopping, make sure you get to El Fishawy in Old Cairo. Ask any cab driver to take you there, they'll know where it is. It's one of the world's great hookah bars, and if I remember correctly, they're open all night. Try to go at night if you can, the atmosphere's great... And have a double apple and mint tea for me!

[atarilovesyou]

Cool, thanks for the tips. I'll try to check out that bar in Old Cairo, for sure!

Are you guys saying that for different flavours, I should use different hoses? I didn't know that they could affect the flavour but it makes sense.

Most of the pipes I see in the markets don't seem to have any brand names on them...they're just pipes. I'll put some pics up soon of the ones I have and see what y'all think.

And as far as cleaning goes, I'll look over the site, but can anybody list a quick list of cleaning stuff I should buy? I have two hoses, who knows what the brand is, they don't look plastic but they don't look all fancy like the big cobra head lookin' ones I've seen on more expensive pipes.

[The King]

non washible hoses can go bad, hasn't happened to me... I wouldn't do that hose for every flavor thing, because you'll want to expierment with different flavors. If your worried about it, just go with a fully washible hose

[ASUSEAN1]

non washible hoses can go bad, hasn't happened to me... I wouldn't do that hose for every flavor thing, because you'll want to expierment with different flavors. If your worried about it, just go with a fully washible hose

+1 or jus convert to vinyl hoses, im changing all of mine today

[teox]

"a session of hookah smoking which lasts about 45 minutes, delivers 36 times more tar, 15 times more carbon monoxide and 70% more nicotine than a single cigarette. Generally, a cigarette will last no more than 5 minutes, which makes approximately 9 cigarettes in order to compare to the 45 minutes hookah session."

thats pretty bad in the tar and CO category. the nicotine is ok, 45 minutes is less than 10 minutes of cigarettes. im hoping that washed shisha will be alot better (ten times less?)

[Victim026]

Last I checked Shisha Tobacco had ZERO tar.....

[The King]

Smoke is not healthy for you, body runs on oxygen, not smoke... Smoking pretty much anything delivers tar, because its smoke. Moderation is the key to everything... weigh out the health risks to the enjoyment of hookah...

[Hookah_Bob3]

Shisha tobacco does have zero tar. Tar, however, doesn't come from the materials themselves but from the combustion of the materials, so there is tar in hookah smoke..just so you aren't naive about it

[ASUSEAN1]

Shisha tobacco does have zero tar. Tar, however, doesn't come from the materials themselves but from the combustion of the materials, so there is tar in hookah smoke..just so you aren't naive about it

yep, exactly right

[atarilovesyou]

..I'll be putting up my pics of my two pipes...well, pics of the pipes while I gave one away to friends!...as soon as I get back home.

As far as the tar issue, I've read that that water acts as a filter to remove the tar from the smoke.

All I know is that compared to cigarettes and cigars, shisha is a DELIGHT!...as an ex cig smoker, I can tell you that I have never had the ill day after effects I used to get with cigs, compared to shisha. The only thing is that just like chewing tobacco, if I have too much shisha I get a sick stomach...kinda my bodies way of saying, "dude, enough!"....

...I just can't see how shisa can be 'that' much worse than cigarettes. I realize it's still smoke, but water is a filter of sorts, or perhaps it just cools the smoke down in temperature so it 'seems' filtered...ha, I have no idea.

I thought of the water in terms of a stream...as the story goes, you can take a whiz in a stream in the woods, and walk 10 feet downstream and test the water and it will be completely clean...however, I guess that's not the water doing the filtering, but the rocks which act as a filter...much like a Brita water jug filter.

So even if the water isn't a great filter on it's own, shisha is still awesome and I'm glad it doesn't have an addictive quality (other than psychological!!...lol) over me like cigarettes used to.

Pics in a couple of weeks!....you guys can see if I bought duds or not...lol, at the Khan market they don't really go by brand names!...but they were quite against the quickstart charcoal...due to the extra chemicals they contained to light quickly. Sure are convenient though.

[newsman]

I don't think water actually filters anything out of smoke. It just cools it down nicely. But, then again, I don't know that what you breathe in through the hookah is all smoke. Having watched the smoke during many sessions, I've noticed that it acts more like steam. That is, it dissipates relatively quickly as opposed to cigarette smoke. This may be due to the vaporization of the juices in the tobacco as opposed to the actual burning of the tobacco itself. Also, you never actually burn the tobacco to ash like you would if you were smoking a cigarette or a cigar. Whatever the case, it sure is nice.

By the way, did you ever get over to El Fishawy?

[atarilovesyou]

..unforutunately, no...I've never actually been to a hookah bar, just around some hotels. Perhaps on my next visit! I did have some restrictions on where I could go, and Old Cairo I believe was out of bounds for me.