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Shisha , sheesha , hookah. Whatever.
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After hearing just about everyone rave about the joys of Sheesha for the past few months , i finally had the chance to experience it myself today.

Sheesha is , for all ye homo ignoramus , is a water pipe filled with tobacco , usually smoked unadulterated in the Middle East but very often flavoured locally for some reasons unknown and yes IT IS LEGAL.

Why Sheesha when we can always get our daily tobacco fix from cancer sticks sold at daylight-robbery prices in palm-sized cardboard boxes ?

Well , the difference is ( from what i've heard ) , Sheesha is tar-free and thus it is much healthier ( however we all know that too much of a good thing is bad . USER DISCRETION ADVISED )

And it is a social activity as groups huddle around the pipes , passing the tube around for each person to inhale it and yeah basically one tube is shared among a group and if you have an obsession with personal hygiene and go around carrying bottles of disinfectant with you , chances are , you'll start foaming from your mouth and die from the spasms that ensue.

Anyway.

Met up with Wan , Fee , Samantha and Meili @ Arab Street where we settled down at this coffeeshop lookalike ( the prices of the food are NOT coffeeshop prices though. You have been warned . ) , looking like pariahs and vagabonds begging for food sitting on the badly worn carpet by the roadside.

Oh.. I couldn't help but wonder how filthy the carpet was , considering the number of people who had sat / spilled stuff / spat / farted / puked on it before.

Oh man , the weather has been obnoxious these days , and fuck , being the spoilt singaporean brats we all were , starting perspiring like stuck pigs within a few minutes.

The Sheesha ( or Bongs) arrived , and i was quite skeptical about it because i still did not understand the hype behind it as Wan explained that unless you smoke the entire 45 min's worth of Sheesha , you wouldn't be able to derieve the so-called kick unlike ciggs and alcohol and i was sorely disappointed.

So i asked him a simple question

"So why the FUCK are we smoking Sheeshas for ?!"

Wan scratched his chin thoughtfully and said

"Just for the flavour , lor. "

FLAVOUR?!?!

We had chosen a Rose ( ha ha , turkish delight geddit ?! ) flavour for our Sheesha and if the only reason other than catching up on gossip was to taste the ooh-so-exquisite taste of Rose , i think i'll have Bandung , thanks.

Okay enough of my ranting already , its largely due to disbelief lah , me Sheesha virgin you know ?

I had the honour of taking the first drag from the poorly concealed PVC tube and i was encouraged to take a really looooooooooooooong drag to make the most out of it.

Fee urged

"Suck it hard until you can hear the water inside the Sheesha rattling !"

Like a donkey i did just that and ...

I felt nothing.

I took a second drag and tarik-ed it just as i would a cigg .

Nothing but the sickly sweet smell of Rose rushing into my throat and out permeating the air, making me almost gag .

I gave up on it and went to attack my super large serving of chicken wrapped in arabic bread ( arabic my ass , don't try to bluff just cus' i newbie hor. IT IS PLAIN PITA BREAD DAMN IT ! )

And the chicken filling inside the pseudo-arabic bread didn't taste exotic either .

It reminded me of one of the dishes served at your nearest Zap Chai Peng ( it literally translates to Ten Vegetables Rice ) stall at your friendly neighbourhood kopitiam.

So yeah , we chilled ( actually no , we were sweating like stuck pigs remember ) and passed the Sheesha tube around as we gossiped about the happenings @ SSP but i stopped sucking the flavoured air just 5 minutes after the Sheesha arrived because the "scent" of the rose was so artificial and pungent that it made me nauseous just by smelling it as the rest exhaled it and also it left a funny dry sandpaper-like sensation in my throat during my few puffs of it.

Overall , my Sheesha experience was a bad one , but i must agree that it makes a good conversation piece and excellent for chit-chat sessions and gatherings. ( Cheaper than Starfucks or whatever coffee chain too , since its like $12 for one Bong that lasts about an hour so if you have a group of 5 .. Aiya , you do the math ! )




Meili looking bewildered .

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listenin to : marilyn manson - sweet dreams