Hookah-hookah!

My life isn’t full of novel episodes. Friends say I’m adventurous but that is in relation to their sedentary lifestyle. Truth is, I am pretty consistent, but every now and then, I break the chain of routine to do something new. Two weekends ago, after watching Angelina Jolie’s new action flick, “Wanted”, I felt I was ready for a new experience.

After dinner, a friend and I strolled around Greenbelt to burn-off calories. I noticed some Arab-looking patrons in Café Havana smoking through a hose attached to a glass vase. I remember an episode of “Pinoy Meets World” a few months ago, the show host, Paolo Bediones, traveled to Turkey and featured this water pipe called Hookah or Shisha. A Hookah operates by water filtration and indirect heat. From the first time I saw hookah, I’ve been curious about it but was a bit shy of trying it in an expat-filled Café Havana.

hookah, also called shisha, sheesha

At Bollywood, an Indian bistro on the 3rd floor of Greenbelt 3, I learned from the waiter that their shisha doesn’t contain tobacco but herbal fruits like mint, strawberry, orange, I decided to try mint. They charge P370 an hour. If you had seen us smoking hookah that Saturday night, you’d think that we were smoking marijuana! Haha! We were laughing like a pair of escapee from a mental asylum because we couldn’t get smoke out from the hose. The two ladies sitting in another table asked us “kung may tama ba?” Haha! Walang s’yang tama but we kept on giggling like schoolgirls. It took us a few minutes, and some coaching from our next table neighbor before we exhaled smoke. It was a pleasant experience, the mint flavor was relaxing...it also made me hungry!:-D

G exhaling her first smoke

Hookah (a.k.a. shisha, or sheesha) has mysterious origins. It is quintessential in Arab culture, but strangely enough, the hookah is believed to have originated in India, and another version traces its origins in China. Under the British rule, opium from India was smuggled into China and was smoked through the hookah which consequently became a symbol of luxury and affluence. It gained popularity in Turkey particularly under the Ottoman Empire where its contemporary shape also evolved 500 years ago. Smoking hookah (called narghile in Turkey) symbolizes familial conviviality, serenity and harmony.

I love the design of hookah. The glass vase reminds me of my lola’s antique glass lamps, the silver slender stem gives it elegance---it’s a beautiful piece of work.

Some smokers believe that the water used in hookah makes the tobacco less toxic. But experts say it’s a myth---tobacco smoked through hookah is no less toxic than tobacco from cigarettes. Even after passing through water, tobacco smoke still contains high levels of toxic compounds, according to WHO. In Egypt, doctors believe that the smoking of the traditional hookah is increasingly emerging as a significant health risk, due to air-borne tuberculosis transmission from pipe sharing and uncontrolled manual preparation of the pipe. After reading this article, my desire for a repeat suddenly vanished. Although the mouthpiece we used was wrapped in foil, I couldn’t help but think of bacteria that may reside in the tube. Oh well, at least now I can say that I’ve tried it.

To digress a little, beginning July 1st, cigarette advertisements are banned on TV, radio and print in accordance with the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2003 or Republic Act No. 9211. The total ad ban on cigarettes would be a tremendous help to health advocates who are working to discourage teenagers and young adults from smoking. I hope young smokers would think twice before making Hookah an option to cigarette smoking---think of TB, kids!

moi and my first hookah

G was really getting good at it!

Photo Hunt: Pointed

I'm normally not one for pointy shoes but the feel and comfort of this caramel Liz Claiborne mules totally dispelled all my doubts. I love wearing these mules with a pair of jeans. They make me feel a little bit country and a little bit rock 'n roll.:-D A mule, by the way, refers not only to an offspring of a male donkey and a female horse but also a backless shoe.

In the middle of a retail therapy moment, I bought this hand-embroidered Italian-made pointed mules at Neiman Marcus. And I almost peed with joy when I saw it was on sale at half the price! The price was still stiff for a peso-earner like me but as I said, it was a retail therapy moment. When I got home, I realized that they make my feet look like long pointy canoes. I have never worn them out. Fritz, my doggie, was trying to put them on before I took this photo (hehe).

"I did not have three thousand pairs of shoes. I had one thousand and sixty."

~ Imelda Marcos

For more PhotoHunters, please visit http://www.tnchick.com/

Sky Watch Friday: a cloudy day in Tagaytay

overcast sky at Taal Lake

view from the Palace in the Sky

Taal Lake is a freshwater lake in Batangas. Within the lake is an island with an active volcano, called Taal Volcano. Volcano Island contains a lake about 2 kilometers across, called Crater Lake. Within Crater Lake is another small volcanic island, called Vulcan Point. Vulcan Point is the world’s largest island within a lake on an island within a lake on an island.

On a clear day, Taal Volcano is best viewed from Tagaytay City ridge, the highest point in Cavite at 640 meters above sea level. The People’s Park in the Sky, formerly known as the Palace in the Sky, stands on the highest point of Tagaytay City. It was built for the official state visit of the former US President Ronald Reagan, but Reagan cancelled his trip due to political unrest during that time. It’s an unfinished 4-storey structure that offers the most spectacular view of Tall Lake and Volcano, Laguna de Bay and Manila Bay. The palace was crumbling the last time I was there---it’s hard to imagine the affluence it enjoyed during the heyday of the Marcoses.

For more Sky Watch Friday photos, please visit Wiggers World.

Litratong Pinoy: Tatak Pinoy

Tatak Pinoy #1: Bahay Kubo

Ito ang kauna-unahan kong pagsali sa Litratong Pinoy. Ibabahagi ko sa mga sumali ngayong linggo ang litrato ng bahay kubo na aking nakita sa Samal Island. Ito'y pahingahan ng mga bisitang dumadalaw sa kweba kung saan nakatira ang milyon-milyong paniki.

Tunay na Tatak Pinoy ang bahay kubo sapagkat ito ang ating pambansang bahay bago pa dumating ang mga Kastila, gawa sa kawayan at dahon ng nipa o niyog ang bubong. Ang tradisyonal na bahay kubo ay walang silid at ang mga gawain ng isang pamilya ay nagaganap lahat sa loob ng apat na sulok ng bahay. Sa mga probinsya, marami pa rin ang nakatira sa bahay kubo...mura lang ang mga materyales at mas maaliwalas. H'wag lang masyadong malakas ang bagyo, ang bubong na nipa o niyog ay nakakapagbigay naman ng sapat na proteksyon. Ang bahay kubo ay nagsisimbolo rin sa konsepto ng bayanihan na isang importanteng bahagi ng ating kultura.

This is my first entry to Litratong Pinoy. To those who participated this week, I'd like to share this photo of a nipa hut that I saw in Samal Island. This nipa hut is a resting place for guests who visit a nearby cave that houses millions of bats.

The nipa hut is an icon in Philippine culture and considered as the home of native Filipinos before the Spanish came...it is constructed from bamboo, the roof is made of nipa or coconut leaves. The traditional nipa hut is a single-room dwelling where all family activities happen in one space. Nipa hut is still being used as a domicile today, especially in the rural areas...the materials are inexpensive and the design provides good ventilation. Except for a really strong typhoon, the nipa hut can withstand bad weather. The nipa hut is also prominent in "bayahihan" (or a spirit of communal unity) which is an integral part of the Filipino culture.

The Sleeping (False) Prophet?

"We're sorry, our building was destroyed due to unforeseen circumstances."

A friend living in California forwarded to me an email about the prophecies of a certain Brazilian psychic Jucelino Nobrega da Luz. This psychic is said to have psychic dreams since he was 9. In the email, Jucelino claimed that he warned the US president in 1989 about the terrorist attacks in 1993 and 9/11. He allegedly sent letters to the Indonesian president in 1997 to warn him of the 8.9 earthquake on December 2004 that killed thousands of people in Aceh.

Jucelino has psychic dreams of disasters happening until 2011. He has predictions of tornado in Brazil, tsunami in Japan, earthquakes in China, Turkey, Sumatra, deadly temperatures in Africa and the Middle East, a cure for cancer, a new incurable disease, and another terrorist attack in the US. One of his predictions is an 8.1 earthquake to hit the Philippines on July 18, 2008---16 days from now.

My cousin living on a 5th floor condo asked me what she’s going to do with her breakable things at home. She was obviously shaken and has internalized the predictions. I told her in jest that instead of worrying about her TV set and DVD player, she can bring a sleeping bag and stay at my place on July 18th. A friend and I are organizing a party for July 18th, and she asked me yesterday after reading the email if we’re pushing through with the party. I said yes, we’re going ahead with the party---but our friends may be surprised if both of us would show up with helmets and flashlights. We could tell our friends that it's our fashion statement, or we move the party to July 17th...Of course, July 19th is out of the question if the prediction would come true! My friend went on to suggest that I forward the email to Phivolcs (or the Philippine Institute of Volcanology & Seismology) in case they haven’t received the email yet. Sure---then Phivolcs would tell me that there’s no scientific basis, therefore, the prediction is crap, and besides, nobody can predict earthquakes, right?

I was grinning like a lunatic as we ended our crazy conversation.

But kidding aside, a lot of people are taking the predictions seriously. Some call Jucelino the new Nostradamus, and Edgar Cayce's reincarnation. Most of my officemates are planning to file a leave of absence on July 18th; some are too scared to even finish reading the email. Since our office is on the 15th floor, and located near a fault line, it would be wise not to be there on July 18th, if you believe in Jucelino’s dreams.

I was a dream groupie in my 20’s, and up to this day, I find dreams fascinating. I believe in the existence of psychic dreams and paranormal phenomena. But I am often called a “non-believer” because I seek rational and natural explanations first before I believe that something is “unexplained”. Dream appreciation and interpretation didn’t begin with Sigmund Freud, the Father of Dream Analysis. For thousands of years, people have been fascinated with dreams and visions and their meanings. Ancient cultures have always given dreams respect because they believed that dreams are spiritual and a way of gaining insight, wisdom, and guidance for everyday life.

The Bible was written by prophets or seers as they were called during that time, and many of God’s messages came to the prophets in a form of dreams and visions. One prominent figure in the Bible is Joseph (popularly known as Joseph the Dreamer), Jacob’s son, who had a God-given talent to interpret dreams. Muhammad who is regarded by Muslims as the messenger and prophet of God, received his first “revelations” from God in the month of Ramadan in the 6th century. There’s also the 16th century French astrologer and healer, Nostradamus who claimed to base his published predictions using judicial astrology. According to Wikipedia, judicial astrology is an art of forecasting future events by calculation of the planetary and stellar bodies and their relationship to the Earth. Edgar Cayce, also known as "The Sleeping Prophet", is a 20th century American psychic who was known for his ability to channel answers to questions while in a self-induced trance. Considered as America’s most documented psychic, Cayce claimed to have predicted World War II in 1935 responding to a channeled question about global affairs. In a reading given in 1927, he predicted blood as a diagnostic tool of the future as well as the La Nina and El Nino phenomena.

It is safe to say that every culture in history has its very own psychic. Some cultures call them soothsayers, diviners, seers, and prophets.

My curiosity was piqued by this Jucelino Nobrega da Luz so I googled him last night. One calls his prophecies “pure esoteric”, another calls him a mad man, a con artist. I read articles in the net about Jucelino’s claim of the $25 million reward offered by the US government for capturing Saddam Hussein. He claims to be a psychic detective and he was able to able to know Saddam’s location through his supernatural mental powers, a technique called “remote viewing”. He allegedly sent letters to the US president detailing the exact location of Saddam in Tikrit. And for that, he says, he deserves the reward money.

My question is, could he use his “remote viewing” ability to locate Osama bin Laden? Or how about a few crates of Yamashita's treasures?

We don’t need psychics to predict earthquakes in the Philippines, Indonesia, or Japan. Unfortunately, we are within the Pacific ring of fire, and 90% of the world’s earthquakes and 80% of the world’s largest earthquakes happen along the ring of fire. And with our active volcanos, a severe earthquake can be expected every 8 to 10 years according to experts. It is estimated that there are 500,000 detectable earthquakes in the world every year. 100,000 of those can be felt, and 100 of them cause damage.

Before you panic and pack all your breakable treasures and heirlooms, buy sacks of rice and sugar, boxes of canned goods, a trunk-load of bottled water, please consider that Jucelino’s predictions are not quantum physics, and so far, none of his predictions have been proven true. My brother suggests that we all read an earthquake preparedness handbook here, just in case (hehe).

So let me whisper to you telepathically, like the royal elf of Middle Earth Galadriel whispering to Frodo of the Shire---"Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin."