Now We're Smoking!

Day 16, (April 15, 2013) of our OAT's Turkey's Sacred lands and Ancient Civilizations Tour. We wander around Gaziantep, Turkey

The history of Gaziantep reaches as far back as the Hittites. In the center of the city stands the Gaziantep Fortress and the Ravanda citadel. Very impressive--under restoration, tho.

Gaziatep is one of the most important agricultural centers of Turkey and is known for its pistachios as well as extensive olive groves and vineyards. Turkey is the 3rd largest producer of pistachios in the world and many come from this area. The city is also known for its copper workshops and is one of the leading produces of machine-made carpets in the world. The Green olive-oil based Nizip Soap industry is centered in Gaziantep.

Traditionally, commerce in Gaziantep was centered in covered markets known as 'Hans'.

We start our stroll there.

While looking around the Hani we hear dums. Climbing up toward the sound we come upon an airy room with five students attending a daf drum class. The instructor is young and is from an eastern Turkish university. He was in Gaziantep to give a five-day instructional class.

The drum is the Daf (Def, Deff, Daff, Duff), a large frame drum used in popular and classical music. The frame is usually made of hardwood with many metal ringlets attached, and the membrane is usually goatskin.

The Daf is mostly used in the Middle East, Turkey, Kurdistan, Iran, Armenia, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Azerbaijana. 

Another frame drum is the Irish bodhran.

The instructor 

Seven seconds of excellence--give it a listen

Metal ringlets line the frame; skin is goatskin

 The Students

The students play for us, just a short practice piece. We clap and yell, "Bravo!". They beam with pleasure.

Next we visit a shop with beautiful watermark items and met the artist who demonstrats the technique.

Leaving the Han, we walk up a busy market street

Starter set?

copperware products

Elmazipazan Güllüoglu Baklava--the best!

Window shopping

The call to prayer

 Time for tea and water pipe (hookah)

We sit on a lovely terrace to rest and have tea. Turkish law bans smoking in an indoor restaurant, but open-air restaurants can allow smoking. This place was a very yuppy, very popular place with young people. Couples at every table except ours are sharing a waterpipe--they last about 40 minutes.

Always on the lookout for adventure our OAT group orders a hookah. Our tobacco is flavored with chocolate and milk and is very mild.

Those who want to do so take a few puffs--but we don't inhale! 

We each have new, disposable mouthpieces for our use.

We can't figurre out how the hookah works. This explanation is from Wikipedia.

When one inhales through the hose, air is pulled through the charcoal (on top) and into the bowl (right below) that holds the tobacco. The hot air vaporizes (not burns) the tobacco, producing smoke, which passes down through the body tube into the water in the jar--for us, milk and chocolate. 

The air bubbles up through the water, losing heat, and fills the top part of the jar, to which the hose is attached and is drawn into the mouth or lungs,

Waterpipe or hookah

Nurdan demonstrates

I give it a try. 

The experience is fun and the general reaction is smiles and giggles at the novelty. I didn't get hooked on the hookah though.