Hammam

 

Yesterday Mohamed (our boss) offered us hammam in his mother’s bath. It was a special experience, as we were greeted by a bunch of half-naked women, who sang and danced. It turned out that one of the girls was getting married, and that was why all the women were in the hammam. We were allowed to take pictures, but we thought it was a bit inappropriate, since many of the women didn’t really have clothes on, so you have to use your imagination.

The women don’t speak English, and we don’t speak France or Arabic, therefore all communication had to be through hand gestures. At first we were asked to take off our clothes (we were still in the hall), which we did, so we ended up in bikini. Then we had to sit in a steam room until she came back for us. We sat in the steam room for a very long time, and several times we were sure that she had forgotten all about us. But she had not. When she finally came for us she scrubbed our ENTIRE body – it was completely over our bounderies. The woman laughed at us, because we both were quite dirty, as we never go to hammam, and people from tunisia tend to go every week. After we both had been scrubbed and covered in oil, it was time for us to have a hair wash and to be covered with mud, which we had to sit with in half an hour. It is a strange feeling to sit with mud all over our body, while you only wear panties and a lot of women are looking at you. When we finally had to get the mud washed off, we came into a small cabin where two woman immediately began to wash us – you end up completely naked in front of her before she put a towel around your body and finally say that you are finish.

When we were finish after two hours in the bath and still wearing our towel, we have to eat cake and drink coffee in the locker room, before we were allowed to take our clothes on.

Although it was a special experience, it is definitely something that you should try, when you are at vacation here. We were in a large public bath, but it is also possible to get more private baths, where you are more alone. It is not very expensive to go the hammam, and in the more private baths it is also possible to get massage after, so you are totally relaxed when you come out.

 

A small fact:

It is only allowed for women to come to the hammam in the morning and in the evening, while men only have access in the afternoon.