Turkish Hamam...

i had my first experience with the famous Turkish bath today. it was a very...interesting experience. all the prior readings about what takes place didn't quite prepare me for the whole ritual of being thoroughly washed by another person (some have liken it to torture) .

most hamams are separated by sex; the women and men have different areas for bathing. you go into this steamy room (feels kind of like a sauna) where there is a hot marble/stone platform in the middle of the room, where you lay down to sweat and get washed. one is supposed to let the heat open up your pores before you begin the exfoliating process and scrubbing and getting soaped. Afterwards, you cool off with water on the periphery of the room and in a quiet room outside.

my very first hamam experience was somewhat atypical in that it was co-ed....right, you see where this is going. and my attendant (the person who scrubs me down, and bathes me) was male---which would've been quite uncomfortable had it not been for something even more disturbing....bunch of practically naked old men sitting on the periphery of the room while i was laying on the slab of hot stone in the middle of the room being handled like a piece of meat. the attendant was *very* thorough in his scrubbing and marinating cleansing of me, and while i had my bikini on, i felt naked, especially with the leering eyes from the peanut gallery.

despite all of this and the fact that i couldn't wait to be done in that room, by the time i was finished, i felt really great....an entire layer of skin had been sloughed off, and the tensions of my 24 hours of traveling to this country had been eased away. good way to start my journey in Turkey!