Amman - Jordan - page 133

BATHING WITH BRUISERS IN AMMAN'S
HAMMANS

If you thought you felt sore after walking up and down Amman's multiple hills, then just wait until you see what
they do with you at the local hammam (Turkish bath). The large, muscular attendants (male or female, depending on
your sex) could easily retrain as Sumo wrestlers and you can rely on them to find parts of the body you didn't know
you had. In fact, they'll remove parts of the body you didn't know you had, as the art of extreme exfoliation counts
as one of their many talents.
A largely Ottoman creation, based no doubt on a Roman obsession with communal bathing, Turkish baths have
existed as places of social gathering and ritual cleansing across the Middle East for centuries. Amman's bathhouses,
despite being largely modern affairs, belong to this decidedly masochistic tradition. Think we're exaggerating? Then
pay a visit to the Al-Pasha Turkish Bath Offline map Google map ( 4633002; www.pashaturkishbath.com ;

Al-Mahmoud Taha St; 9am-2am, last booking midnight) and you can make up your own mind about this quint-
essential Middle Eastern experience.

The torture begins with a brief spell in the steam room: while you meekly sip ice-cold karkade (sweetened hibis-
cus tea), you'll be scalded with missile precision by occasional boiling-hot drops of condensed water from the ceil-
ing. The next ordeal is a dip in the Jacuzzi, softening you up with dislocating jets of water for the scrubbing to
come. Don't even think about backing out now as the bathhouse attendant will have spotted you, waiting to beckon
you to an alcove in the wall.

Using what can only be described as a glorified Brillo pad, the attendant will quite literally scour the visible sur-
face area of your body. For a few extra dinars, they will even set to work on your callused feet with a precision file!
Don't expect phrases like 'no' and 'please don't' - uttered in either Arabic or English - to help you. More often
they invite an almost sadistic acceleration of pummelling, pounding and slapping, accompanied by snorts of
laughter. In fact, a sense of humour seems to be a prerequisite on both sides of the fluffy white towels handed out so
thoughtfully in the antechamber of the baths: in emergencies (as when a nose hair is plucked without warning or two
ears are lifted independently of the scalp) these towels can be used as a flag of surrender by battered bathers to sig-
nal that enough is enough.
After five to 10 minutes (which will feel like a lifetime) you'll be led to marble slabs for an olive-oil massage. If
you opt for an additional full-body mud pack, then prepare to be pinched as the masseur checks you're still breath-
ing under the caking armour. This is not the moment to try to strut off with attitude, nor to look back in anger, as
there is enough olive-oil soap on the marble tiles to make sure you aren't the one having the last laugh.

If, by now, the prospect of being bullied in the bath is putting you off the idea altogether, don't let it. The bizarre
part about the experience is that the moment you step out of the steaming pools of indistinct water and are laid to
rest on the marble platform, or the moment you expose your newly scraped and kneaded flesh to the outside air,
you'll feel so rejuvenated that you'll be booking your next appointment before you leave.

The full service costs around JD28. Generally speaking, women are welcome during the day, while evenings are
men only. Book ahead as, believe it or not, this is a very popular pastime. Also, be sure to bring a modest swimming
costume. Al-Pasha is easiest to find if you're coming along Abu Bakr as-Siddiq St (Rainbow St) from the 1st Circle;
it's the fifth street on the right. Taxis know it as near Ahliya School for Girls.