I often mention that there is nothing to do in the Middle East. This is mostly true but if you live there, the favorite way to pass the time is to smoke flavored tobacco from water pipes. Known here as Hubbly Bubbly, over there as Shisha. (A side trivia note is that in Lebanese Arabic, Hubbly translates into Stupid. Hubbly Bubbly = Stupid Bubbles. Oddly appropriate.) Because so many of the countries ban alcohol or even mixed couple activities, smoking Shisha is about the only widely accepted social norm for after work. After a year of everyone asking me if I had tried it, and I kept telling them I don't smoke, I finally decided to take a puff so I could answer, "yes, and I didn't like it." Earlier this year I got it over with and the moment was recorded so I could back up my claim. Apple flavored tobacco still tastes like tobacco. I'm not sure of the allure but my duty was done and I can go back to the ranks of the happy non-shisha smoking masses. It's too bad that we didn't get a picture of the actual pipe. It sits on the floor and has it's own tobacco and filter area. The pipe must be about 36 inches in length.
Looks just like the hookah pipe that I smoked in Las Vegas last year. I didn't taste the tobacco at all. In fact, it was like I was smoking flavored air. I have no need to do it again either.
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