If you can't stand the smoke....stay out of Cairo!

"Smoking Please" ......well not exactly....but it seems like there are signs like these all over city.
If you have a burr up your butt about second hand smoke the you should definately stay away from Egypt generally and Cairo specifically...
For instance it's not surprising to get into a cab and see the driver has a fag hanging out the side of his mouth...fruit and vegetable vendors cigarette ashes go flying all over the pommagranates  as he explains the price of his produce..meeshie! (no problem)
Motorcycles riders with wife or kids on the back...now there's an art...cigarette stuck in his pate ashes and sparks flying.
There maybe a chance they think cigarettes are a cure for cancer.
Of course you all know and have seen this pictures of men sitting in little outdoor cafes drinking strong tea or coffee while sucking away on hooka pipes. They read the paper or chat and laugh with friends the smell of the aromatic tobacco is sooooo enticing...as well...a young waiter hurrying down the street with a hooka in one had a perforated ladle in the other  carrying burning coals, rushing to service a customer....perhaps a store owner or some other type of business man where he works....on the street this is fine.
The principal of Kim's school invited some people to join her and her husband for a dinner out on Friday night last. It was a generous offer and a good deal, we would each pay for our meal...but we would go to downtown Cairo (about 15 kilometers) she was laying on the transport, a small bus she gets for free every now and then as one of the perks for being principal.

The restaurant is high end....it's called "Sequoia" and it's quite famous here abouts....it's on and island in the middle of the Nile..the island is named "Zemlak"  it's famous too....and it's very big...ultra rich Cairenes live and play there...

When we walk into this sprawling restaurant with low tables and seats and benches Arab style, waiters and busboys in nice white shirts black vests and ties  scurry around looking after lots of diners.

The left side of the restaurant is wide open from floor to ceiling to the "Eternal Nile" ,the moon dancing off the water..... tour boats cruising by and in the restaurant..... an aboslute fug of smoke from top to bottom carried around  the whole place by the evening breeze...the air was so thick with smoke you could cut it with a scimitar! I mean everbody was smoking a hooka.....young men old men...young women old women...maybe even little children I don't know.....and those without a hooka going full blast had a cigarette in their hands.

Finally..... night time at the "Ace Club" ...at the honkin' big bar under the tree outside.

Lot's of people at the bar ....everyone has a cigarette going and a pack and lighter ready to go right by their hands. Nubian Whores and lots of other people have hookas going pumping them like bellows....across the bar I see two guys maybe in their middle thirties I`ve seen them at the club many times....I think they`re British....this is just a guess but an educated one because they`re big...one guy is in fact huge and he`s wearing a rugby sweater with the name``SPENCE`` on the back...it looks like a highway billboard. Anyway...these guys are sucking away on hookas and the smoke they`re inhaling defies belief....Nanticoke quantities of it...their upper bodies disappear after they blow it out of their lungs....I didn`t think such a thing was possible...
Once again smoke hangs all around and you can`t get away from it....No....if you can`t take the smoke...stay out of Cairo.