Water-pipe etiquette
Trip Start
Feb 22, 2007
1
16
38
Trip End
Jul 19, 2008
Damascus,
Syria
Monday, April 2, 2007
Though shisha is ubiquitous here, I have developed a couple of favourite establishments at which to do damage to my long-term health. First is an-Nofra, a small but bustling café set in the shadow of the Umayyad Mosque in the heart of the Old City. The weather has been fairly cold since I arrived, but soon I can see myself sitting out in the front porch of this place watching the summer evenings unwind. The other good thing about an-Nofra is the storyteller - an eccentric, tiny old man (a Damascene Yoda if you will), and one of the very few original 'storytellers' left in Damascus - who sits each evening in his purpose-built, ornate high-chair, delivering his mythical tales through brilliant, old-man, rasping lungs, waving his cane in the air and smacking it down on the table at the end of a particularly good sentence. I understand very little of what he says, but enjoy listening to his unique voice and style as I puff quietly away on my nargileh.
My other favourite place is Beit Jebri, an expansive and beautiful restaurant set in the gorgeous surroundings of a traditional Damascene style building. Its large open courtyard is lined with orange trees, and in the middle stands an attractive marble fountain that spouts water hypnotically amid the bustle of diners. At the back of the courtyard is a small stage where each evening a couple of old men play traditional Syrian music with violin and lute. Above the courtyard are balconies that stretch all the way around offering diners an even better view from which to admire the surroundings. One does not even have to order food, and in fact many people go there simply to smoke nargileh and play cards or backgammon. Again, when the impending warm weather hits, and they remove the canopy that currently covers the courtyard, this will be a spectacular place to come and eat, play backgammon and smoke shisha!
During the course of my shisha-smoking here in Damascus I have come to pick up on some rather bizarre nargileh etiquette. Firstly, when you finish your turn smoking and pass the pipe to the next person, you must hand it to them with the pipe folded closed in your hand. The person receiving the pipe must then tap the outside of your hand then take it from you. When you receive it back the same rules apply, and you tap their hand in return. Apparently, if you simply hand over the pipe with it facing open (as one naturally does) it means "I want to have sex with you"! Secondly, you must never put out your cigarette in someone else's shisha tray; if you do it means "I want to fuck your sister"!
Honestly, I don't know whether or not to believe these customs, as it's difficult to see from observation because the locals, without exception, smoke a nargileh to themselves without passing it along - it's only us weak foreigners that feel it necessary to share. Still, when out in mixed company it makes for fun viewing to tell people of this etiquette, then watching them blush horribly when they hand the shisha instinctively to the next person without folding the pipe, realising in the process that they effectively told that person they wanted to sleep with them!
