My Turkish Bath Experience

Let’s go visit a haman! That was the plan for one of the evening’s activities during my recent trip to Morocco. A hamam, otherwise known as a Turkish Bath, is basically a sauna, a bath, and a massage. Our host wanted us to “experience” it all while we were in the country. We worked very hard at our work site during the days – lifting and toting rocks, moving piles of dirt, making cement and mortar, and playing ball with the school kids. The thought of a good massage and a sauna sounded great so I was all for it. At the time it didn’t seem to matter to me that I’d be in a hot steamy room with other men in our underwear getting a full body massage from another man I didn’t know well. At any rate I was all for it, sign me up!

As the experience played out, for me the uncomfortable part of the evening wasn’t being massaged (man-handled would be a more accurate description) by a stranger. No, for me, the hard part was laying face down on the sauna floor in a pool of hot water, steam, and the sweat from who knows how many other guys. I didn’t know (or want to know) what germs lived on that floor. All I knew was that I was contributing a huge amount of sweat myself and it was mixing with the sweat of the other guys. The only possible saving grace may have been the oil soap we were using surely must of had some amazingly effective bacterial cleansing agent and it was hard at work killing all germs in the area (we can only hope). Needless to say, I was a little concerned about catching some incurable disease from that floor that evening.

Overall it was a very invigorating (and cleansing) experience. The guy who worked me over did an amazing job on my body. I came away feeling very clean and tingly. Those sore muscles that I went in with disappeared and for the next day or two I felt absolutely great. Sitting and laying around in a pool of hot and sweaty water seemed very much worth the risks for the good clean feeling that I came away with.

Would I go again to the hamam if given the chance? Absolutely I would. Being able to give and receive a massage in a hot and steamy room with other men – why not?