Arab Street: Smoking Hookahs
It’s just tobacco, nothing more exotic. The tobacco is in a reservoir under the tray at the top, on which they place burning charcoal. The temperature of the tobacco is thus maximized without its burning to a nasty stinking cigarette-like smoke. You go to a cafe and rent a hookah, for a smoking session of 45-60 minutes, and scent the air around you like pipe smoke. I don’t know how thoroughly they clean the mouthpieces, but can’t imagine they harbor many live germs with all that heat going through.