I had my first Hamam (Turkish bath) ever the other day while in Turkey...... good place to start them! I had no idea what I was in for. My friend Judy had shared some funny experiences a couple of travel groups had but I really had nothing to compare it to in my own experience!
The Turkish bath, or Haman, as it is called, is part of the lifestyle of the Turkish people and goes back centuries. Even though there are now mixed Hamams, the traditional bath had separate bath days for men and women and in most cities that is still the case.
I had my first Turkish bath in Egirdir although there is also on in Selcuk I found out for ladies only on Fridays from 9 to 1. Egirdir has 2 days for ladies on Thursday and Friday.
The building is located in the middle of the city hidden away behind the post office. I entered the building and asked for prices first. It would cost me 40 lira (equivalent to $20 CDN) for a Turkish bath and soap massage, which was what Judy recommended.
I was escorted into a change room and the gal motioned to me to take everything off except my undies. She gave me a light weight striped towel to wrap around my body. With my research after the fact I found out the striped cotton (or sometimes cotton/ silk blend) towel is also part of the traditional bath.
Men are required to wear it in the bath around their waist and were not allowed to be nude at anytime. Of course nowadays they would just wear a pair of launch!
Women cover their body from armpits to thighs but once they are in the Hamam, they can just leave their panties on. Traditionally they would go nude and it is probably still acceptable.
The hamam can also be visited for many reasons, again part of Turkish tradition. A bridal party may hold a "cleansing" before the wedding, complete with food and drink and music.... tambourines and singing. Forty days after a baby is born the hamam may be part of the "coming out" party.
For me, I was just pleased to be all by myself in the hamam at first. I had also been given a pair of non-slip sandals to wear. I went through the main room, which had a non-operating marble fountain and a couple of long padded benches. Then the masseuse opened a wooden door and then motioned me immediately through a second one. Behind door #2 was a hot, steamy beautiful marble room!
It was certainly NOT what I was expecting. Turkish bath....bathtub....right? Or at least a pool. In the old days often a pool was part of the process but now it is a combination of heat and steam and water created by actual heating units and modern technology.
In front of me was a thigh high octagonal shaped piece of marble about 7 feet across that the masseuse motioned for me to lie on after motioning for me to take off my towel. No-one else here? Okay. As much as I am a child of the sixties there is still a part of the Canadian conservatism in-bred! I did as I was told and she left.
Oh my! Wonderful glorious heat coursing through my body from the marble and from the steam in the room. Marble is one of the hardest surfaces known but it was actually quite comfortable.
I lay on my tummy for awhile and then flipped onto my back. Above me small skylights set in the domed ceiling let in the daylight.
The door opened and another woman entered. I smiled and she smiled back. She then sat down on a bench on the side of the room next to a marble sink sitting on the bench. Next, she turned on the water and using a dish provided she began pouring water over herself. Centuries ago the water dishes were made out of hammered silver or copper but the ones for our use were plastic.
Well, I figured, I may as well give it a try and moved over to the wall, making sure first that I had the bath shoes on. There was no drain in the sink. The idea was to run water into the sink (both hot and cold available) and then scoop it out to pour it over my body.
After a few minutes I was back on the slab. I noticed the other woman had a loofa that she was using on her body and I wondered if I should have been given one. A few minutes later I found out I didn't need one.
My masseuse arrived, dressed as I was...just panties. She held two loofa mitts.
Using job specific English she asked, "normal or hard?". No soft involved!
"Normal please!" I answered. She again motioned me to move, this time to a marble slab built into the wall. I lay down, face up and the massage began! My whole body was loofa-d and I couldn't believe the dirt that rolled off! I'd had a shower that morning but obviously it wasn't that great. Yuuk!
Next came the soap massage. Somehow the masseuse squeezed and manipulated a bag with a couple of soap bars in it until it was full of frothy foam. She used it on my body until I was squeaky clean. I say squeaky because there was definitely no surface oil left on my body to grease anything up!
She quickly rinsed me before starting the final massage.. a medium tissue one as opposed to deep tissue. I think I would have come straight off the marble slab had it been deep tissue. There were 2 or 3 spots on my body that didn't like the intense pain as it was so I let her know through my yelling. She was good. She backed off.... not like my massage experience in China..... but that's another story!
She let my body have a bit of a break for a moment and went to talk with the other woman doing her own loofa-ing. I had to look over because with the wonderful acoustics in the bath it sounded as though they were singing together. They were only talking but the echos created a lilting sound.
The final part of the process was the rinse, which you would think would be easy. Not so. Most of it was but the final position she wanted me to get in was one my body rebelled against. I may have been good at doing the heel squat as a young person but there was no way this 66 year old body would allow it!
She motioned me to once again lie on the octagonal slab and I happily walked over on my now jelly feeling legs and was enveloped once again into the wonderful heat. I lay there for maybe another 10 minutes, not rushing to leave. Nor was I rushed. There was enough room for at least 3 bodies on the slab if I needed to share.
After exiting and getting dressed the last part of the process was receiving some rosewater on my hand. A young woman with Downs syndrome had the job to do that. I only mention that because it was nice to see that the Turkish culture embraced people with challenges and employed them.
The whole process took close to 2 hours and many people will stay up to 4 hours from what I understand. It can be a very social thing.
I was lucky that the other woman came out so I had an opportunity to take some pictures.
Would I repeat the experience? Oh yes!.... hopefully in Gorme, before we fly out to Istanbul.
The Turkish bath, or Haman, as it is called, is part of the lifestyle of the Turkish people and goes back centuries. Even though there are now mixed Hamams, the traditional bath had separate bath days for men and women and in most cities that is still the case.
I had my first Turkish bath in Egirdir although there is also on in Selcuk I found out for ladies only on Fridays from 9 to 1. Egirdir has 2 days for ladies on Thursday and Friday.
The building is located in the middle of the city hidden away behind the post office. I entered the building and asked for prices first. It would cost me 40 lira (equivalent to $20 CDN) for a Turkish bath and soap massage, which was what Judy recommended.
I was escorted into a change room and the gal motioned to me to take everything off except my undies. She gave me a light weight striped towel to wrap around my body. With my research after the fact I found out the striped cotton (or sometimes cotton/ silk blend) towel is also part of the traditional bath.
Men are required to wear it in the bath around their waist and were not allowed to be nude at anytime. Of course nowadays they would just wear a pair of launch!
Women cover their body from armpits to thighs but once they are in the Hamam, they can just leave their panties on. Traditionally they would go nude and it is probably still acceptable.
The hamam can also be visited for many reasons, again part of Turkish tradition. A bridal party may hold a "cleansing" before the wedding, complete with food and drink and music.... tambourines and singing. Forty days after a baby is born the hamam may be part of the "coming out" party.
For me, I was just pleased to be all by myself in the hamam at first. I had also been given a pair of non-slip sandals to wear. I went through the main room, which had a non-operating marble fountain and a couple of long padded benches. Then the masseuse opened a wooden door and then motioned me immediately through a second one. Behind door #2 was a hot, steamy beautiful marble room!
It was certainly NOT what I was expecting. Turkish bath....bathtub....right? Or at least a pool. In the old days often a pool was part of the process but now it is a combination of heat and steam and water created by actual heating units and modern technology.
In front of me was a thigh high octagonal shaped piece of marble about 7 feet across that the masseuse motioned for me to lie on after motioning for me to take off my towel. No-one else here? Okay. As much as I am a child of the sixties there is still a part of the Canadian conservatism in-bred! I did as I was told and she left.
Oh my! Wonderful glorious heat coursing through my body from the marble and from the steam in the room. Marble is one of the hardest surfaces known but it was actually quite comfortable.
I lay on my tummy for awhile and then flipped onto my back. Above me small skylights set in the domed ceiling let in the daylight.
The door opened and another woman entered. I smiled and she smiled back. She then sat down on a bench on the side of the room next to a marble sink sitting on the bench. Next, she turned on the water and using a dish provided she began pouring water over herself. Centuries ago the water dishes were made out of hammered silver or copper but the ones for our use were plastic.
Well, I figured, I may as well give it a try and moved over to the wall, making sure first that I had the bath shoes on. There was no drain in the sink. The idea was to run water into the sink (both hot and cold available) and then scoop it out to pour it over my body.
After a few minutes I was back on the slab. I noticed the other woman had a loofa that she was using on her body and I wondered if I should have been given one. A few minutes later I found out I didn't need one.
My masseuse arrived, dressed as I was...just panties. She held two loofa mitts.
Using job specific English she asked, "normal or hard?". No soft involved!
"Normal please!" I answered. She again motioned me to move, this time to a marble slab built into the wall. I lay down, face up and the massage began! My whole body was loofa-d and I couldn't believe the dirt that rolled off! I'd had a shower that morning but obviously it wasn't that great. Yuuk!
Next came the soap massage. Somehow the masseuse squeezed and manipulated a bag with a couple of soap bars in it until it was full of frothy foam. She used it on my body until I was squeaky clean. I say squeaky because there was definitely no surface oil left on my body to grease anything up!
She quickly rinsed me before starting the final massage.. a medium tissue one as opposed to deep tissue. I think I would have come straight off the marble slab had it been deep tissue. There were 2 or 3 spots on my body that didn't like the intense pain as it was so I let her know through my yelling. She was good. She backed off.... not like my massage experience in China..... but that's another story!
She let my body have a bit of a break for a moment and went to talk with the other woman doing her own loofa-ing. I had to look over because with the wonderful acoustics in the bath it sounded as though they were singing together. They were only talking but the echos created a lilting sound.
The final part of the process was the rinse, which you would think would be easy. Not so. Most of it was but the final position she wanted me to get in was one my body rebelled against. I may have been good at doing the heel squat as a young person but there was no way this 66 year old body would allow it!
She motioned me to once again lie on the octagonal slab and I happily walked over on my now jelly feeling legs and was enveloped once again into the wonderful heat. I lay there for maybe another 10 minutes, not rushing to leave. Nor was I rushed. There was enough room for at least 3 bodies on the slab if I needed to share.
After exiting and getting dressed the last part of the process was receiving some rosewater on my hand. A young woman with Downs syndrome had the job to do that. I only mention that because it was nice to see that the Turkish culture embraced people with challenges and employed them.
The whole process took close to 2 hours and many people will stay up to 4 hours from what I understand. It can be a very social thing.
I was lucky that the other woman came out so I had an opportunity to take some pictures.
Would I repeat the experience? Oh yes!.... hopefully in Gorme, before we fly out to Istanbul.
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