Not Just For Alice's Caterpillar

Water pipes are known by all sorts of interesting names: hookah, hubbly-bubbly, or in Egypt sheesha. There is a small dish at the top where a flavoured tobacco is burned and then the smoke is drawn down through the water and out the hose attachment. The tobacco may or may not be enhanced with other things, but most of the time it isn't. There is also an assumption that the smoke is somehow cleaner for having passed through the water, but that is also false. The smoke from a sheesha burning an apple tobacco is really very nice, however passing a tip from smoker to smoker also helps to pass tuberculosis. That's not so cool. But if you stand watching the departure lounge at Cairo International, you will see lots of them boarding.