TravelChick

In Which I Am Vigorously Scrubbed Clean

This morning my mom and I went to a hammam in the Old City. I hadn't been since shortly after I got to Damascus; my first experience was at a hammam I didn't particuarly like and this hammam is open to women only on Mondays, when I had classes (Such is life in the Arab world).

My mom was particularly excited about the experience. Spa days in the US cost a lot and I had told her that the hammam here costs about $6. It's all wonderful, too. We walked in through two sets of doors and curtains straight into a marble tiled, skylit courtyard changing room (hence the multiple curtains and doors, to keep eyes on the street from looking in). Women in hijab came in, undid their hijab and settled in for some relaxation at the hammam. After wrapping up in towels and putting on getting our bowls full of loofahs, a scrub mitten, olive soap, and sumptuous smelling shampoo, we too were on our way and headed into the steam room to sweat a little.

While we were in there a woman strolled in and, after refusing our offer to make room for her to sit down, ever-so-casually asked us where we were from and what we were doing in Damascus. As she pressed us for more information, we found out that she's from Morocco. For the first time since I started learning Arabic, I was talking to someone from Morocco and I at last understood that their dialect is difficult to understand. I also finally understood that the hammam really is a place for women to socialize and check each other out.

Although my mom and I had decided against getting the rubdown/scrub with the scrub mitten, when the woman came into the steam room and asked us if we were getting the scrub, we decided to go for it. We had been trying to scrub ourselves with the mittens ourselves and weren't bringing up any dirt, so I thought it would be good to get a scrub. I went first, and, after scrubbing me all over while I was sitting down, the woman had me lie down and scrubbed me all over again. She had me turn over several times. She even scrubbed my hand and my fingers. My skin felt so smooth and lovely afterwards. My mom got similarly scrubbed, and then (after I nearly slipped and cracked open my head on the marble floor after failing to notice a small water channel in the floor) we moved on to wash ourselves, dipping the bowls our supplies came in to big marble basins filling up with water from wall taps and letting the water splash over us.

A nice wash with a loofah, olive soap, and sumptuous shampoo later, we stepped into the sauna to relax. My mom was so pleased; it was such a soothing experience, and we ended up with glowingly soft, smooth skin. All for the low price of $12 for the both of us, including our loofahs and the rest of our supplies. I know that, if my mom lived here, she would go to the hammam every Monday. She told me that I should go more often. It was fun to go with my mom because she enjoyed the experience so much. It really is wonderful, to walk into a soothing courtyard with a marble fountain in the center, into a hamman that's probably a few hundred years old, and walk out glowing, pores humming,

posted by Travel Chick @ 4:39 PM