"Experiencing a Turkish Bath for the First Time," by Michaela Arguin
A couple weeks ago my roommate and two of our classmates decided to visit a classic Turkish Bath. And let me tell you, it was quite the experience. Based on our research, we decided to go Al-Pasha Turkish Bath, located right off of Rainbow Street. For 25 JD, we got the entire package as well as a face mask.
When you first arrive at the bath, you are asked to wait in the main hall until there is enough space in the bath area itself. You are then brought into the locker room where you change into your bathing suit, or whatever you are comfortable wearing. Then you finally get inside the hamam.
The first thing we did inside the hamam was rinse off in the cold shower. Immediately after, you are placed inside the steam room. This was perhaps the hottest steam room I had ever been in! My friends and I found the steam to be so hot that it was hard to breath. But, while we were in the steam room, we were given these delicious slushies that kept us somewhat cool. Once you finished the slushie, you left the steam room. Then we rinsed off in the shower again.
After that we were able to sit and relax in the hot tub in the middle of the room. This hot tub was also boiling hot, so we could really only manage to sit in it for a few minutes. We were given lots of water and another round of slushies while we waited. The next step was the part where we got scrubbed.
We went one at a time and we each had to lay down on this giant table. Next a woman doused us in warm water and began to scrub away all of our dead skin. At one point we felt our legs and had giant chunks of dead skin coming off. It was gross but also rejuvenating to know how fresh our skin would be. After they scrubbed you down, we then were rinsed off with soap and water. When that was finished we returned back to the hot tub.
Enjoying our tea after a day at the hamam! Photo credit: M. Arguin, 2019
The next step was probably my favorite part: the massage. We went to another giant table that was heated and were massaged with oil. This part was super relaxing and felt great after being rubbed raw a few minutes before. After that they put on the face mask and we went to go sit in the sauna. The sauna was also extremely relaxing and we had yet another round of slushies.
Once we were done with the sauna, we rinsed off in the showers for the last time and we were done with our first Turkish bath ever! We wish that we had brought our own shampoo, conditioner, and lotion with us however, because we wanted to actually shower afterwards. Before we left, we sat in this really cool room with a giant aquarium and drank some delicious tea.
We will certainly be doing this again as it was super interesting. We laughed a lot and also felt super smooth and relaxed after! My skin was super soft for a while after too. If you ever find yourself near a traditional Turkish Hamam, definitely go check it out!
