Turkish Bath (Hammam) - Wow...interesting!

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  Istanbul, Turkey
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

After hearing a lot about Turkish Baths, we both decided it had to be something we tried.  After talking to a couple people at our hotel, we decided that the Cemberlitas Hamami was the best places for tourists to experience a traditional Turkish bad.  We went around 10:00pm and the place was not that crowded.  It is separated by men and women and consists of a changing area, a shower area, a big sauna/bathhouse area, and a massage area.  It is not intuitive as to what you are supposed to do when.  Although we were reassured that someone would explain to us what the process was like, and what we should actually do, that never happened....maybe because it was near the end of the night, or maybe because no one spoke English...either way, this set the stage for some funny scenarios.
 
First, I (Andy) changed into my towel and entered the shower area....a very big, Turkish looking man brusquely pointed and pushed me towards the shower

"The" Hammam (see story)

.  Ok, apparently time to take a shower...I was not 100% sure how that was going to work, so I was happy to find out that I got to do this part on my own.  After a quick rinse, I kind of wandered into the sauna area (which was described by Lauren as a big pizza stone in a 100 degree room surrounded by lots of weird ornamental washing sinks.)  I thought I had remembered the guy mentioning something about 15 minutes, so I laid on this stone for 15 minutes...then got up and headed back into the shower.  As I come out of the shower, I see one of the employees look at me, then look at his boss, who then looks at me, and then they begin arguing.  I was quickly rushed back into the sauna room and surmised that I should have been there the whole time and this other guy who was about to wash me got in trouble for me leaving. 
 
We get back into the sauna room and it is empty.  My guy motions for me to lie down, and then begins scrubbing me with a washcloth (we are both wearing small towels). After going through a layer of skin, he motions for me to sit up...before I can fully open my eyes and get into a sitting position, he throws a bucket of water into my face...eyes, nose, mouth, everything....I quickly try to regain my composure and it happens again. Now I really feel like I'm being waterboarded or something.  Before I can fully recover, I'm lying down again and now be waterboarded by soapy water.  My guy begins scrubbing me like he's in and Indian rope burn contest, and I'm just concentrating on breathing through the soapy bubbles in my mouth and nose (also, I have my eyes shut this entire time because I can feel soap sitting on my eyelids).  After the scrubbing stops, I stand up and get waterboarded a couple more times, but now I am ready, so I just hold my breath.  I imagine this is how people get washed before they are checked into a prison or something.
 
Now that I'm clean, I get to go take my own quick shower...after confirming that everything is still where it is supposed to be, I head into the massage parlor for a quick rubdown.  Overall, it was an interesting experience....I was definitely clean, if not relaxed afterward.  It would have helped knowing what to expect, but next time will be better.....riiiiiiighhhhhttttttt.
 
My (Lauren) experience was similar, but I had the good fortune of running into some English-speaking women before getting thrown into this experience.  All I could think of was that after a week on a sailboat with only the allotted 3-minute shower, a Hamman was just what the doctor ordered.  Apart from feeling as though I was being water boarded when they were washing my hair and/or laughed at by Turkish women for having minimal knowledge of what to do, it was an interesting experience that I'd recommend to anyone. 
 
After we got changed and met up with each other at the main entrance, we looked at each other and just started laughing.  The whole time each of us was going through our own experience, we were also picturing how the other was getting through theirs....too funny.
 
Here is the website: http://www.cemberlitashamami.com.tr/

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