Yesterday, Rebecca and I headed over to the hobby store (I needed some paints for some WWII 15mm miniatures).  On our way we passed a new cigar lounge with a Grand Opening banner.  The shop was in the middle of the Arab section of town.

On our way back from the hobby store, we stopped in the cigar lounge.  It was pretty disappointing.  There were a few leather chairs, a TV and a humidor that had less cigars in it than I have at home.  The funny thing too was that it was next store to a "tobacco" shop.  This seemed like an odd location.  The guy running the place never even said hello when we entered his shop.  All in all makes me wonder if the lounge wasn't just a front for some other, less reputable, business.

We left and popped into the tobacco store figuring that it was a head shop (which are always amusing to walk through.  It turned out to be partially a head shop, but more of a hookah shop.  We looked around, checked out some of the strange aromatic tobaccos and saw that they were having a deal.

I left the place $60 lighter in the wallet with a low end hookah, 10 X 50 grams of various tobaccos, charcoal, tongs and a brazier for carrying said burning charcoal.

I am going to light the beast up tomorrow and see what it is like.

Any of you guys have any experience with hookahs (being used with tobacco, not with other herbal substances)?  Any advice that you want to offer?

Hookahs are great for many substances.  

As far as flavored tobacco goes, I've smoked only a bit, but really liked cantaloupe flavor.

i smoke hookah pretty often. one trick is to use soy milk and ice instead of just water. and one major thing is it is nothing like smoking a cigar, or cigarette, or pipe really. instead of drawing the smoke into your mouth, you take it straight and deep into your lungs. it is really really mild... almost like flavored air.

I've only smoked one thing out of a Hookah, and it is not the substance you are asking about.  However, I had some friends in college that actually used a Hookah for tobacco, and they seemed to really enjoy it.

nwb

From my experience with a Hookah, during my younger days of course, adding a flavored liquid can be quite nice. Lightly diluted cognac comes to mind, even with tobacco...  

Yeah, I've only smoked what everybody else has from a hookah!


Wooooooooooo!

When I was stationed in Turkey the shops in the Konak Pasar in Izmir had some really nice hookahs for very little money.  Unfortunately, military customs wouldn't allow us to ship them back to the states since they considered them drug paraphernalia.  The Turks also had hookah bars all over the place and the coffee they served in them was some of the best I've ever had.

QuoteAlphairon - 1/3/2010  4:57 PM

When I was stationed in Turkey the shops in the Konak Pasar in Izmir had some really nice hookahs for very little money.  Unfortunately, military customs wouldn't allow us to ship them back to the states since they considered them drug paraphernalia.  The Turks also had hookah bars all over the place and the coffee they served in them was some of the best I've ever had.

There's a great hookah bar right around the corner from my house. I've been there a few times and found the love of coffee with the hookah there. I can't imagine how great it would be in Turkey!