Never Been So Clean

It has been a very busy couple of weeks as we have been touring Morocco with our fiend Sjoukje from the Netherlands. Yesterday after returning to Marakesh our trio meet with our host as well as Hala and Adam. Feeling rather durty we decided to try out the Hammam, or traditional bath house. We set off in the evening with our hosts, towels and soap to the neighborhood Hammam. After dropping the ladies off on their side, we entered the changing room, shedding all but the undies. We then descended into the hottest part of the Hammam, which is like a VERY hot sauna heated through the floor by a wood fire, which they also bake bread with. The first room in the Hammam is the cool down room, and the room get hotter the farther you go in. Usually you go to the hot room and work your way out.

After 15 min or so of laying on the ground softening-up we smeared ourselves with the traditional soap, which resembles a cross between molasses and grease, and continues to roast in the hot room. When sufficiently soft we moved from the very hot room to the hot room, We then took turns getting battered by the "rubber" who is the reason we got so squeaky clean. First, this 200 pound man, also only in undies, stretched me out. Not just a pre-game warm up, but a forced stage 3 yoga session. some of these poses included him, 200 pounds and all, sitting on my shoulders with me face down pulling my legs up over his shoulders, jamming my face into the hot tile floor.

After we were sufficiently loosened, the rubber then proceeded to scrub us down. All of I could think of to describe the feeling was like a dirty grill being scrubbed with a stiff metal brush, pealing of layers of old meat. It was not just a bit of dead skin, it was enough that it rolled up into spaghetti-like rolls, which were then washed off with plenty of buckets of cold water.

After our encounter with the Rubber we slowly made our way to the cooler rooms, and out. The whole ordeal took about an hour. Over our post-battering dinner we made plans to do it again, enjoying the experience immensely.



Today we said good bye to Sjoukje, who we could not convince to quite her nursing job and travel with us. We are currently in Marrakesh and are going to wake up early tomorrow to make our way to the coast with our host Ahmed. We will then begin heading south to Ahmeds home town to meet his family and attend his first nephews naming ceremony. After a few days of getting a first class tour of that area he will come back to school and we will continue heading south, with the deserts of eastern Mauritania in our sights.

More pics and stories of Morocco will come soon... ish.