After a self led walking tour of Antalya old town in the roasting heat, i fancied a traditional Hamam. I'd done this in Tbilisi, Georgia so I should have known what to expect...
Doing plenty of research of the best most traditional Hamam, I found one near my hotel. They had a scale of packages.
1. Hamam only
2.+ Body Scrub
3 + Body Soap Wash and massage
4 + Oil Massage
I went in for level 3 at 1700 Turkish Lira (at the time of writing £41.... Although the way inflation is going these will be meaningless numbers). Price would be higher as I was right in the tourist part of town.
First up I got a changing room, was given a mini table cloth to hide my modesty and changed 'into' that and was led downstairs to an even hotter cellar, from there I was squeezed through a tiny door into torture chamber 1. The proper hot room where I was told to lie on a marble slab and sleep for 30 minutes. Been so hot you can't breathe, fearing impending heat exhaustion death, sweating so much there is a river running from my body along the marble and having a rock hard pillow are not conducive to sleeping in my book.
I was glad when the bloke let me out and led me to torture chamber 2, the scrub and soap room. The bloke was a menacing looking brute, and he lived up to his look. The second room was cooler but nothing sub stifling.
The geezer put on a scrubbing mit and began to work on my arm. One fairly painful round of scrubbing took away the first layer of skin. The second and third layers took a bit more forceful treatment to remove. Every 1 minute or so he stopped the torture to pour near boiling water on me. He did that with just sufficient infrequentcy to make it a severe shock each time he did it. He repeated the process head to toe (except where the towel covered).
Having survived round two, he then came back hard with the Body Soap Wash and Massage treatment. It started painless enough, he got a pillowcase chucked a load of soap powder in it and foamed it up. This was a doddle after what had gone on before, but then came the massage, serious pressure was put on me, occasionally I couldn't keep the pain inside, any noises or moaning from me were treated with a heavy slap to the back and then even harder treatment.
The third phase seemed to last a lifetime, the boiling water was still get applied, but it was a relief as it meant 10 seconds when I wasn't getting the massage.
After it was done I was given a larger table cloth for a skirt and sent back upstairs where I was treated with Turkish tea and fruit.
Once the pain stopped I felt amazing so much so I'm considering a rematch before the end of the trip.
Highly recommended...once it is over.
