After learning about John’s experiences receiving an Ayurvedic massage in India and going to a sauna in Finland, you won’t be surprised to hear that he has opted out of the Turkish bath. (What is it with these two and bathing anyway?) Laurel, who loves the Turkish bath, recently went with a visiting lady-relative. Her previous experiences, starting thirty years ago, had perhaps been more authentic, but this one was certainly more luxurious. And who’s to say what is authentic anyway? We’ll describe the two sets of experiences, and you can reflect as we go which you would enjoy more.
A Regular Old Turkish Bath
Bathing is as important to the Turks as sauna is to the Finns – maybe more so. It is important to be clean, especially for Friday. And therefore, many Turks go to the baths at least once a week. Men and women are always separate, although some baths have gender-segregated spaces and others allow them to come at different times. Because bathing is so important, many members of the Ottoman court built baths throughout the city of Istanbul. So even a garden-variety one can be of historical value, and lovely. Typically they have domed roofs (like mosques), and are of brick, with marble in the baths and wood in the anterooms.
We’ll aggregate Laurel’s several previous experiences. The Turkish bath begins with you taking off all of your clothes and putting them into a locker. You get shower shoes and a towel to cover yourself with. First, you sit in a warm bathing room made of marble – though it is not anywhere near as warm as a sauna. You will pour hot water over yourself for a while, relaxing and chatting with your friends as you do so. Or you will sit by yourself feeling weird about being naked.
Then someone will summon you and will exfoliate you, first the face and then everything else, with a rough glove. You will be astonished and embarrassed about the quantity of dirty skin coming off you. But it turns out nobody is paying much attention to you. Your attendant will probably be chatting the entire time to the other attendants, and won’t mind much whether you understand her or not; s/he will communicate by pointing and moving your body around.
You will then lie on a marble slab and receive a massage from your attendant. It will last anywhere from five minutes to an hour long, depending on what you have requested and what they have understood you to request. (Have we mentioned that Turkish is a difficult language?) Still, however long, it feels great.
You will then be soaped and rinsed by your attendant. Maybe they will wash your hair, maybe they won’t. And then you’re finished! You can sit in your towel drinking tea and eating sweets for as long as you like. Eventually, you dress yourself and go about your day, feeling light and clean. You have paid somewhere between $6/£5 and $10/£9 for this experience, which has probably lasted just under an hour, depending on how long the massage and how much tea you care to drink.
Bath at Hürrem Sultan Hamami
This place was built in 1556, by the wife of Suleiman the Magnificent, the sultana known to the west as Roxelana. It is in Sultanahmet, right between Hagia Sofia and the Blue Mosque. So it is central. And classy as heck. Basic experience described above improves itself in the following ways:
- The hamam itself is, obviously, stunning. (Pictures in this post are not from the Roxelana baths, but from several other hamams of a similar date that are in renovation and currently serving as venues for art.)
- Pre-clothing removal: you fill out forms which ask you the kinds of questions you might fill out before a massage.
- Speaking of massage, everyone speaks pretty good English, and you are able to communicate whether you would like a massage and what kind and even if, say, you want them to avoid the ankle you sprained two months ago. There is also still a good bit of moving you around, and a lot of holding your hand to lead you from place to place. Presumably this is so you don’t slip on the marble floors.
- There is also more privacy; fewer people and more space for them to be in. So you could chat with your friends but you could also not, if you’re feeling shy about sitting around naked.
- Whereas previous Turkish bath experiences involved women in big black underpants and terry-cloth towels, this one had all parties wearing peştemals, lovely striped towels you can see for sale everywhere. (Probably that is now standard even in the lower-budget models.)
- The massage includes an indescribable bubble bath kind of thing where the attendant wafts a towel over you and somehow covers you in bubbles.
- And at the end, they give you some of the soap, shampoo, and conditioner they used on you.
- This one will cost you western prices: probably starting at $55/£50, but running much higher if you add spa treatments.
Laurel, being Laurel, loved both sets of Turkish bath experiences. And will probably have both again!
