Vision Istanbul

00:00

FX:  Call to prayer

00:08

Sales:  It's the junction of east and west, old and new, past and present. A place where mobile phones and McDonald's happily co-exist with traditions thousands of years old.

00:24

And of course, a place where the options for souvenirs are limited only by your imagination.

Sales in front of mosque

Super:  Leigh Sales

00:31

Sales:  We've got the very tough job of a few extra days in Istanbul at the end of an assignment in Turkey. When I asked my husband what he'd like me to bring him back as a present, he said a hookah, which is a type of ancient smoking pipe. Now other than that, I know nothing about them, so we're on a bit of a fishing expedition.

Vision crowded bazaar/merchants and food sellers/

Music

00:54

Sales:  In Istanbul there's only one place to start any sort of quest -- the markets.

Merchant selling wares/crowd scenes/

Merchant:  My pipes is the best. Forget the rest.

Fish and other foods on display/Hookahs/Man demonstrates Hookah for Leigh

01:14

Sales:  Among the rows and rows of fresh food and cheap gold, bingo! Hookahs of all descriptions.

In Turkey it's called a Nargile, in Egypt a Shish. In Australia we'd be more likely to call it an elaborate looking bong. They date from the time of the Ottoman Empire. Basically a bottle is filled with water. Tobacco sits just above the bulb, wrapped in tin foil and a hot coal is placed on top. You suck on a pipe, inhaling the smoke.

01:46

Man:  You can try.

Sales:  Is it just inhale?

Man:  Yeah, yeah. How is it?

Sales:  Nice. Apple.

02:00

Sales:  Among a kaleidoscope of knick-knacks, Simon Marhabi sells Nargiles, and is rapturous about them.

Simon

Simon:  If I smoke one packet of cigarettes daily, I would be tired, I can't work, I don't want to eat, I don't want to do anything. But Nargile I'm, every time I'm with energy and I can work and I can laugh, I can do everything.

Vision men and women smoking hookah in cafe

Music

02:28

Sales:  Even with such attributes, the practice of Nargile smoking is slowly dying.

Student talking/men smoking

Student:  In Turkey, very few peoples in our age is smoke Nargile.

Sales:  Why?

02:42

Student:  It's not often in Turkey. Because cigarettes is more often in here.

02:49

Sales:  These uni students are sampling a hookah between classes. It's something reserved for special occasions.

Student talks to Sales/Ahmet in café/Sales smokes with students

Sales:  How often do you smoke a Nargile?

Student:  Actually, this is my second time.

Sales:  Do you like it?

Student:  Yes, I like.

Sales:  What do you like about the taste of Nargile?

Student:  I can taste flowers, yeah.

03:10

Sales:  Ahmet Cemil Sonmez helps run the café where the boys have hired their Nargile. For one million Turkish lire -- around three Australian dollars -- you can buy about an hour's smoking time.

03:24

But Ahmet admits cigarettes are limiting his business.

Ahmet

03:29

Ahmet:  Because you carry cigarettes with you, you always smoke cigarettes but every now and then you get people who smoke nargile. People come once or twice a week to smoke nargile.

Vision people smoking cigarettes/men smoke hookahs in café and play board games

Music

03:45

Sales:  In Turkey, despite significant lung cancer rates, cigarette smoking is still quite free of stigma. While hookah smoking is no less harmful, because cigarettes are cheaper and more convenient, they're winning the day.

FX:  Bubble

04:02

Sales:  There are still some places though where Nargiles are central to life.

This is one of the few hardcore Nargile salons left in Istanbul. There are no women, and most of the clients are retirees.

04:19

The days are passed playing games, reading the paper, or simply thinking.

Man in hookah café/men smoking hookah

04:25

Man:  They make a good nargile here -- it's also got the history, and it's a better place to rest your mind.

Sales:  These cousins travel two hours each way to visit the Nargile salon two or three times a week.

Old man with hookah/men smoking in café

04:43

Old Man:  I love the nargile here. The nargile here is better, that's why I come.

04:51

Sales:  But the demise of the tradition is illustrated by the salon's aging clientele. Only one customer is under forty.

Gengiz in café/man plays music/tourists smoking from hookah

Gengiz:  It's nice -- it's an enjoyable custom from the old days.

Music

05:10

Sales:  Now the hookahs' saviour seems to be young tourists. Increasingly sipping apple tea and smoking the Nargile is the trendy new Turkish delight.

05:26

These backpackers are from Australia and New Zealand.

Karen

Karen:  When you smoke a cigarette you can actually feel the smoke. This is just so smooth, it's just like breathing air in. It's really nice. Yeah.

Blonde woman

05:36

Blonde:  Smells beautiful, it just smells like freshly cut apples. It smells great.

Sales:  Do you reckon it lived up the expectation?

Blonde:  Yeah, it tastes really nice. Really nice. Very different than cigarette smoking.

05:50

Sales:  Simon says tourists are driving are a revival.

Simon

Sim on: This year I see something strange, the people come from Australia, from Europe, from America, all they buy is Nargile. 60 percent or 70 percent they bring it for smoking, and 30 percent they bring it just for decoration in the house.

Sales and Simon look at hookah's

06:13

Sales:  As for my own mission, it's time for business.

Sales:  Okay, can you can explain to me how much these ones are?

Simon:  Okay. We have a lot of size. About the big one like this is 45 million.

Sales:  Lire?

Simon:  Yeah.

06:26

Sales:  The traditional Turkish Delight would cost less, but I do have my orders.

Sales and her hookah

Sales:  Well I've got my hookah, went the cheap $30 option, because call me cynical, but I give it about a week and it'll be sitting in the back of the cupboard gathering dust.

Vision Istanbul

Music

06:43

Sales:  In so many places around the world, tourist often speeds the demise of local custom. But this is perhaps one case where foreigners are actually reviving interest in an ancient pastime slowly fading away.

END

7'02"

Turkey POSTCARD

Reporter

LEIGH SALES

Camera

LOUIE EROGLU

Editor

STUART MILLER

V/T Post-production

Andrew Barnes

Production Assistant

Tracey Ellison

Associate Producer

Martin Butler

Producer

Haydn Thompson

Executive Producer

Peter Hiscock