We spent a night in Kusadasi, Turkey’s resort town on the Aegean coast. Locals and tourists alike flocked here, making tourism its primary industry. Unfortunately, we came during wintertime hence frolicking at the beaches or even taking a dip in the massive pool were very much a no-can-do. But after a long bus ride, all we wanted was some R&R and lucky for us, our hotel, Tatlises Hotel, provided an avenue for us to experience something that was unique to Turkey. And that is, their bath houses.

Step One:  Make an appointment with the friendly staff
We chose the package that included a wash with a relaxing oil massage at the end. I wasn’t a huge fan of oil massage, but the other two ladies with me wanted to try it, so I gave in.

Step Two: Undress
In every sense of the word. All threads off your body. That includes your unmentionables. They provide you with a cloth, bigger than a tea cloth, tinier than a towel to cover up while you shuttle from room to room.

Step Three: Steaming off
The hammam is like a large sauna with a round marble platform, or a belly stone in the middle of the room. You and your company will be sharing the same room, by the way, so all puritan modesty should have been left in the changing room with the rest of your clothes. You can choose to perch awkwardly on the platform or just you know, lay there and get someone to paint you like one of those French girls, bottom line was, just feel comfortable. You’ll be left there for a couple of minutes to sweat and loosen the dirt on your skin in preparation for the wash.

Step Four: The dry scrub
The female attendant will make you lie down at the edge of the belly stone and run a rough mitt all around your body, giving you a good scrub. The time spent in the hot steam would have probably loosen up the dirt on your skin already. I was alarmed at the amount of dirt she managed to scrub off my skin. I felt almost squeaky clean.

Step Five: The wash
This was when it got rather awkward. At the massage places I’ve been to during my lifetime, they’d usually herd you off to the shower after a scrub to wash off the residue. This time, we had an attendant to give us a bath. It was kinda weird having someone bathe you after all the years you’ve gotten used to not having someone to do so. The attendant worked up a huge ass bubble that she spread across my entire body with a sponge. I really needed to get one of those sponges, they were MAGIC. All the while, I thought of the scene from my favourite Japanese anime, Cardcaptor Sakura from long time ago where Keroberus was forced to have a bath using the Bubble card after having flour exploded all over him. I probably looked like him then. Anyway, after a whole lot of bubbles, a shampoo massaged onto my scalp, I was now clean.

Step Six: Relax and let the fingers do their magic
Despite my earlier reticence about oil massages, I enjoyed the session thoroughly. Most because the attendant was excellent at it. She worked through the knots accumulated from all the work I’ve been doing and somehow knew all my sensitive spots. She even asked me if I had injured one of my toes on my left foot (I have) before going easy on it.

After the massage, I had to wait for the two other girls, so I got dressed and lazed on the couch feeling like Ditto. Together, the three of us slithered back to our rooms and slept like a baby throughout the night.

The Turkish hammam didn’t provide the luxury of lazing around in a pool of hot water like the Japanese sento did, but it was an interesting experience. I would like to have tried a public hammam in Istanbul, unfortunately, we didn’t have any time for it. Overall it was a great experience, and we felt really clean for about a day till we did our fair share of exploring before having to step into the showers again. A must try when in Turkey, especially during wintertime.