Walking about and living around the streets of Morocco you get filthy. There is dust everywhere. After a day out and about it’s the first thing you want to do, scrub off the dust and the sweat. We decided to do as the locals do and visit the hammam. The hours for women were 12noon to 7pm. We had stopped by earlier in the day to check what we needed, what the price was and all the other relevant details and were told in a mix of French and what we supposed was Arabic to just come with a towel and shampoo and we’d be set, everything else would be taken care of.

Off we went. We had recruited a new friend from the Riad, Paullina, to take a break from her 4 month old baby and join us. We were handed some slip-on plastic shoes on arrival and made to strip before being bundled into a room deep in the depths of the old baths. There was marble everywhere. We entered a room filled with steam and about 50 other women all sitting on the marble floor or small stools, energetically scrubbing each other and their kids down. What a sight. The three of us, all white, trying to fit our three bums on the 1 little mat they provided must have been a hysterical sight and a ripple of giggles broke out around us.

The process began by collecting buckets of water from a running tap and lining them up around us. Paullina was first. A very large black Muslim lady manipulated her into place and she started scrubbing the top 5 layers of skin off her entire body. The feeling is a mixture of pain and incredulity. You see the skin begin sloughed off, and you laugh at the looks around you, but essentially it IS 5 layers of skin, and you are being rubbed raw.

We were laughing at each other, at the pain and incredulity, but once we were all scrubbed down, we learnt very quickly to keep our mouths shut – buckets of water started flying. You only had to turn your back for a second and ‘whoosh’ another bucket of water was tipped over your head. A good head massage and shampoo another few buckets of water, and then a full body massage with soap which would have been relaxing except for the hard marble floor underneath.

With a last bucket of icy cold water, we were slapped on our shoulders, towels draped around us and led out of hammam to finish up.

The experience was amazing. I’m not sure I would do it again in a public hammam, the hygiene is definitely questionable, but it is worth doing at least once. Muslims are very clean people. After this experience you really understand just how clean they are.

As we left the hammam, thanking our torturers on the way out, we were all literally squeaking clean. Despite a few bumps and bruises from the energetic massage on the marble floor we were absolutely invigorated.

Ready to face another day in this loud and boisterous city.