Turkey: Visiting a Hamam

For most people who have been through Asia, when someone mentions a "Turkish bath," their thoughts automatically race to the red light attractions of Japan and Bangkok (and apparently South Korea and China, too) under the thinly-veiled guise  of "bath houses." While they now call them soaplands in Japan and massage parlors in Thailand, they were all originally known as Turkish baths (abbreviated as "Toruko," or basically Turkey, in Japanese) until 1984 when Turkish residents of Japan led by Nusret Sancakli raised a stink about the public besmirching of their homeland and traditions. I don't blame them.

With that interesting aside out of the way, we come from the country of onsens and super sentos—we're not squeamish about getting naked in front of others. As such, whenever we hear about some form of public bathing as an attraction when on vacation, we want to give it a try. So we did.

Hamam what?

Now for starters, what is a hamam is really supposed to be? Basically, it's you paying someone to scrub you down, then give you a massage. It's not sexual at all, which is a good thing since you'll probably wind up with a jovially plump and hairy Turk scrubbing you down. Or at least I did. In normal situations, the hamam will be divided for men and women. Men wash men and women wash women. We did find at least one place we asked though offering mixed baths, in which case a man will be washing you both.

For a brief historical explanation, Turkish baths started popping up circa the 15th century, carrying on the tradition of the Greco-Roman baths of the past. Traditional bath houses are usually quite aesthetically pleasing, complete with a big dome on the inside.

I have to admit that this experience isn't going to be for everyone—after all, it involves getting mostly naked and letting someone else touch your body. If you can stop being such a baby and just get over those little points though, it really is an interesting cultural experience that you're not really going to find in many places. Think of it as a little taste regal extravagance that most of us forego in our pedestrian lives. Now how could you pass that up?

Bath Procedure

Like their Greek and Roman predecessors, hamams are broken into three rooms: a warm room, a hot room and a cold room.

You'll start off by disrobing and fitting yourself with a snazzy plaid bathing towel. You keep this on for the duration, except for the bathing part where it is used to cover up your wedding tackle. Guys will normally not wear anything but the towel, while women may choose to keep their underwear on, usually without the bra.

From here, you'll head into the warm room. This room is designed to be dry and hot for you to just relax for a bit and build up a bit of a sweat. Think of it as a sauna, but bigger and not as hot. We showed up a bit late and were pressed for time, but if you're taking your time then this would be a good time to have a look around and enjoy the architecture.

Fancy-schmancy hot room at some place above our budget, but the concept is the same*

Next, you'll move on to the hot room. You'll notice immediately that there's a big dome overhead and a round marble platform in the middle of the room, flanked on all sides with a bunch of fountains and niches.

You'll normally have to wait your turn here, so grab a seat and sweat another bead or two. When the hairy Turk calls, it's showtime. He'll first don a rough mitt for the scrub massage to remove all that deep-down dirt you were blissfully ignorant of just moments before, along with a few layers of skin. From what I hear, you don't want to come after just getting a tan. It's actually quite a nice massage.

Female hamamist sporting traditional towel*

Next comes the bath portion. He'll first douse you in hot water, then lay you down on the marble slab. Next, he dips a towel in soapy water and then waves it around to collect air like an open pillow case, finally squeezing the contents onto your body for your own personal bubble bath (see picture above). You then get your second massage in the form of a full-body scrub down, minus the nether regions (thank God). This cycle repeats twice—once on the front, then the back—after which you get another liberal dousing of first hot water, then cold water.

From here, they give you a fresh towel and move you onto the cold room, which in our case was basically the reception area. They'll normally serve you tea and snacks while you just relax. Some people will choose to linger a little longer in the hot room or even take a shower or nap before moving onto the cold room, but we didn't bother.

The place we went also offered an oil massage in our package, so we took turns waiting in the cold room while the other person got massaged. The whole thing for us took about an hour.

Prices

Down to the brass tacks, you may be wondering what this little slice of heaven set us back. We paid 45 TL at the hamam we chose in Antalya for a package including the scrub massage, soap massage, oil massage and light snack.

You may hear vastly different prices depending on where you ask—I hear Istanbul and Cappadocia are especially pricey if doing the more touristy hamams. Some hotels will also offer Turkish baths, but from what I've heard these will also cost you more.

Our Hamam

Tarihi Balik Pazari Hamami
Address: Tuzcular Mah. Balk Pazari Sk. Kaleici Antalya

Phone: +90 242 243 61 75

Note: pictures courtesy of Google images