A turkish bath

The Turkish bath is the Middle Eastern variant of a steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna. They have played an important role in cultures of the Middle-East, serving as places of social gathering, ritual cleansing, and as architectural structures, institutions, and (later) elements with special customs attached to them.


The Turkish bath as a method of cleansing the body and relaxation was particularly popular during the Victorian era.


A person taking a Turkish bath first relaxes in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot, dry air allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an even hotter room (known as the hot room) before splashing themselves with cold water. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.


Seems pretty harmless when one reads it on wikipedia, well its not! When I first heard I was going to Turkey and for a turkish bath I was pretty excited, until Hoops and Aussie girl said that it would be in front of other woman I dint belive them. Uuummm big mistake.



So we land in Turkey, after not sleeping for 48 hours Mum and I walked into the Turkish bath ready for some R and R. We enter the cool room and are directed to our cubicles. The lady incharge goes "Here is your towel, you can change in there. Take of every thing and then follow me"

Shreez: "Every thing???"

Lady: "Yes! every thing" (quite impatiently)

I look at mom quite lost and then quietly goes to her cubicle to change.

We come out with all wrapped up and follow the lady to the cool room. As I turn the corner a biggish lady just drops her towel and walks out. Totally naked!


I at this point of time am flabbergasted and am getting quite uncomfortable as the minutes pass by. I whisper to my mom - "ma... why are people naked" Mom: " well obviously how else are you going to go have the bath"


uuuummmm.... ok


We walk into the steam room, and there are about 20 women all naked and getting thier massage etc. We sit in the steam room for about 20 minutes while our pores open. As we are waiting a big turkish lady rumbles in and begins to scream at the other ladies in turkish. The thought which instantly runs thru my mind is I really hope that she isnt the one who does my massage etc.


5 minutes later she walks in and smiles at me and goes "ready for your massage" Shreez gives a weak smile and once again thinks what in the world am I doing here.
While my mind is still trying to grasp the thought of this woman giving me a massage, she proceeds to remove her swimming costume (the ladies who work there, wear bathing suits) and throws some water on her self (they do that between every client, at least they are hygenic *shrug*) This by the way is done right in front of me.. shudder shudder

I am then taken to the centre bit of the room where the massages are given and am asked to lie down and she proceeds to give me a massage (which was quite relaxing, though it did not take away from the akwardness of the situation) and then scrub me down and remove all dead skin cells and dirt (which was quite a lot even after having a shower upon arriving in Turkey)

I then get a bath, a lot of water poured over me, while I try to grab some quick breaths between mugs of water.

You are then expected to walk from this room to the other room, where the fresh towels are kept (again naked!) and wrap your self up nice and snug and head back to the cool room, where you can order some fresh juice, turkish coffee (which is fantastic) or turkish tea (which is also fantastic)

When you go back to your cubicle, you are given a little bag, with a fresh pair of undies and a comb. (how thoughful ;) )

The experience was quite unnerving, but you skin feels great after it. And I can now cross of one thing of the 1000 things to do / places to see before you die

Oh yeah, in olden times, the hamam was a place where women gathered to gossip and mothes looked out for potential brides for thier sons. To make sure the woman in question had no unsightly scars or disfigurements. And they say people dont look. Bah!

And that ladies and gentlemen was my experience at the turkish bath!