Visiting Al-Pasha.. A Turkish Bath :)

Let me start by saying I feel completely exfoliated and am by far, the cleanest I have ever been in my life.  Yesterday, I was able to visit Al-Pasha, a Turkish Bath here in Amman, with some friends.  Prior to arriving, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but considering how cheap it was to be pampered, it was something I could not pass up.

When you first arrive you are given a key and a locker and then directed to take a shower.  You then enter a very hot room filled with steam, and are provided with a cool wash cloth and a frozen juice.  Those of you who’ve visited the vapor caves in Glenwood,  I found this portion to be similar to my trips to the Vapor Caves, except the room is filled with steam.  From there you proceed to a hot tub...  perfect.  It was quite amazing to just sit and relax. 

 The next phase is the scrubbing.  Yes, I said scrubbing.  Now, for those of you that know me well, I don’t wear bathing suits.  I’m not very confident when it comes to my body, despite the amount of weight I’ve lost…  I’m just not there yet.  So, you can imagine my feelings when the woman directed me to take off my top!  In order for her to scrub my back, stomach, etc. this was necessary.  It was a woman’s day so it was only woman (both patrons and staff) and it was dim lighting, and to be honest, nobody cared what I was doing anyway.. so what the heck, off with the top!  Now let me tell you, having someone scrub you, really bathe you, sounds incredibly weird I’m sure, as I can’t think of anything like it in the states.  The purpose is to get rid of all the dead skin, and they show you some so you can see what in fact they are accomplishing.  It’s quite amazing what they are able to remove.  As weird as it may sound, let me just say my skin feels amazing!  After you finish this step, they pour water over your head to rinse it all clean, and then it’s off to massage.

 Massage… who doesn’t love a good massage.. and a full body massage at that!  A luxury that I would not have been able to afford in the states (at least not in the frequency I will be able to afford it here).  I could have lay on that stone table all day.  It was the most amazing massage, and she released an amazing amount of tension from my neck and shoulders.  Despite my desire to stay there all day, I was directed to the next room.

The next room was completely wood (cedar I think), and smelled wonderful.  There were coals burning in some sort of heating device and there were benches for you to relax on.   I didn’t last too long in this room, as it was quite hot.  We were provided more frozen juice while relaxing in this room.

We had added a foot scrub to our service, so it was back over to the scrubbing area.  This concluded our service, so it was time to shower, and sadly, prepare to leave.  After taking our showers, we headed out to the tea room, where we were able to enjoy a glass of water and some tea before our departure. 

The cost of all this- $29 JOD, which equates to about $40 USD!  This is incredibly cheap for such an amazing service!  I’m pretty sure you can’t even find a full body massage for that price back home, and that was only a portion of the experience.

I highly recommend Al-Pasha Turkish Bath and I will DEFINITELY be back.. many time, in fact!


P.S. I also had coffee at Starbucks with Sumbalina. We met via Instagram a few weeks before we left for Amman. What great conversation.. and we will definitely meet up again soon! :)