Health and Fitness Journal

I’m trying to quit smoking and my Egyptian friend Zahur suggested I try out using  hookahs. If you haven’t yet heard, hookahs are these exotic Egyptian water pipes that lots of university students are getting into smoking in cafes recently. They’re really becoming a social phenomenon near where I’m studying sports medicine.

I think part of the reason people are going in for hookahs, and the whole hookah bar thing, is because hookahs have the allure of being kind of rebellious, (because when you’re using a hookah it looks like you’re smoking hash), while at the same time possessing an image of elegance (the first thing that came to mind when I saw one was ancient Chinese emperors sitting on big cushions smoking opium).

It’s pretty funny that I had all those imaginings about the hookah related to drugs, though. As far as I could see from my visit to a hookah café in the student ghetto none of the hookah partakers there looked like druggie types. The scene there was much more diverse and less cliquey. No one there seemed to be passing any fashion judgments.

Some people in the café, seated on big fluffy pillows were dressed like they had just stopped off on the way home from the office. Other patrons wore hip hop duds. One guy looked like a cowboy. It made me feel a little more welcome, since when I dropped by I was still wearing my weight lifting sweats from the gym.

Comments are off for this post