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The CaÄŸaloÄŸlu (pronounced, approximately, ja-low-loo) hammam is the oldest functioning hammam in Istanbul and has been featured in lots of movies, as well as in the book called “1,000 Places to See before You Die” – facts you are made aware of as soon as you step inside their door.

We had a choice of 5 different packages, ranging from self-service to the sultan treatment. We chose based on our budget and each ended up with the second-to-the-sultan package. After a brief discussion about hygiene and being urged to buy our own scrubby mitts at a very inflated price, we went our separate ways.

His

I was given a towel, a key, and pointed to a change room and a pair of wooden slippers. Once I had the towel in the proper position I was lead down a corridor and through a couple more doors and into the main bath room. The center of the room had an enormous semi-circular bench. On the bench was a man enjoying his massage or at least I assumed he was being massaged though under other circumstances it could have been interpreted as being beaten to death. His masseur was a large hairy Turkish man. Having been given very little direction and none in a spoken form, I sat on the bench and took in the surroundings while waiting for my turn. The entire room was made of marble and had decorative brass fixtures. Natural light filtered down through the misty air and the heat of the room started the sweating process.

After chilling or rather heating on the bench for a while I decided to try out the whole “throwing water over one’s head with a metal bowl”. The exterior of the circular room had smaller basins with both hot and cold water taps – must have been quite amazing several centuries ago! The fixtures were quite old looking and some of the marble was chipped in many places – not all that surprising given the age of the structure.

After a few bowlfulls of water over my head and a little more time spent sitting and enjoying the heat, the large toweled hairy Turkish man who had lead me to the room motioned for me to lie down on the central bench. Once in position he subjected me to what must be considered torture by some.  In the process he managed to crack at least 5 areas of my spine and most of my fingers. Having completed this stage of the torture he motioned for me to follow him over to one of the basins where he proceeded to make a soapy mixture with ten bars of soap and some water and then used some kind of camel whisker brush to apply the soap to my skin. Once soaped, he used the $10 hand glove to scrub and dumped bowls of water over me for the rinse.

Once scrubbed and rinsed I was informed that the service was at an end but I could purchase a soap massage. I declined. Having declined the additional treatment my masseur asked me how I found the massage. I replied that it was good. He then asked me how much I was going to tip him. I was a little taken aback and didn’t realize that I was going to be shaken down by a large hair Turkish man while I was wearing blocks of wood on a slippery floor wearing nothing but a towel. I said I wasn’t sure but he pressed the issue and I finally asked if 5 was an appropriate tip. He said 5 is good but 10 is better. The communication was quite broken and I was never sure I was exactly understanding him but he made it sound like the tip was under the table and that when I left the bath room – as I had only a towel and my scrub glove on me – I would shake his hand and give him the money.

I spent a little more time hanging out in the hot steaminess of the bath room, lying on the central bench and throwing bowls of cold water over my back. I was unsure how much money I actually had left with me and as the tip was supposed to be under the table I was worried I wouldn’t have 5 in change. Once back in main area that has the men’s change rooms, I was asked if I wanted a drink (water, coffee, orange juice ). After an hour of sweating, a nice fresh orange juice sounded great and they delivered it to my change room. The change room was small but had a bed. As Oana was not in the main area when I got out and having made no plans for when or how long we would each spend in the sauna I spent some time just napping on the bed and enjoying the restful feel of my muscles and the cold orange juice. The relaxation could have been better but since the bathhouse wasn’t very busy all the male masseurs were just outside my door watching some sport on TV.

In addition to the oj I was also given a gift bag with a pair of boxers.
After a little nap I changed, found 5 lira in coins, placed them in my palm and left the change room. My masseur came over, I shook his hand, the money exchanged palms and then he formed his hand into a cup and counted it. Guess it wasn’t really under the table after all. He thanked me and I went to the little cafe area and had a tea while I waited for Oana. I had wrongly assumed that the OJ was a kind of on the house thing and part of the experience but no it was a $3 oj – ah well it was tasty. A couple minutes into my tea and Oana came out.

Overall it was pretty good but if you want a really good massage go to Thailand for the traditional massage – much better price and no shake down for a tip.

Hers

I found my own way down a windy corridor to a large room, where I was welcomed and given a key to one of the changerooms on the sides. I stripped down, wrapped myself in a too-short towel, put on a pair of ridiculous wooden clogs and locked the changeroom door behind me.

I was then directed to the steam room, which turned out to be a gorgeous two-story-high octagonal room built entirely in marble. Thanks to all the small holes in the domed ceiling, the natural light was more than enough to see what I was doing. I was then told to take the towel off, sit next to a sink and use a provided bowl to dump water all over myself. It was so hot and, well, steamy, that I mostly used cold water! For about 10 minutes, I did this while sneaking peeks around me to see what the other customers were doing. They all looked like tourists, so it was like the blind leading the blind. Or the naked leading the naked. Umm.

My masseuse appeared and proceeded to strip and rinse herself before donning a black and white one-piece swimsuit (as a work uniform!) After laying me out on the huge octagonal marble slab in the middle of the room, she soaped me up then had me rinse. I laid back down for a full-body scrub (using that ‘personal’ scrubby mitt I had purchased) … and of course she had to show me all the disgusting dead skin that came off on the mitt. My excuse: my sunburn was peeling! Right.

The scrub was followed by a wonderful and relaxing soapy massage, then a hair shampoo and scalp massage, then another rinse. This all took about 25 minutes and then I was free to use the steam room or the even hotter sauna room for as long as I liked. It felt pretty good being clean! I spent another 15 minutes or so relaxing and pouring cold water over my hair and enjoying the steam.

Back in the change room, I was given a small care package containing a pair of white cotton underpants with a cute ladybug design (which I may have worn when I was 5, but certainly didn’t seem appropriate at my age) and a hair comb. The change room had a hair dryer and a selection of cosmetic items, as well as a bed I could lie on for a nap. I wasn’t sure how long Ian would be, so I didn’t take advantage of the napping opportunity.
The only less-than-pleasant aspect of the experience was the masseuse’s story about having lost her husband and working as a masseuse to support her three school-aged children. I don’t know how much they get paid, nor whether her story was made up, but it seemed like a sympathy/tip grab.

I enjoyed the experience and certainly felt clean and relaxed!  Just before leaving, I managed to sneak a photo through the window of the changeroom – I liked the arches, but unfortunately the photo turned out pretty terrible!