Happy Hammams!

Evolving from the Ottoman Empire, the hammam is the social hub of Moroccan daily life. Baths are separated by gender and locals are known to spend hours there gossiping with friends.

When visiting a foreign country, we always try to embrace the culture as much as possible and luckily in today's tourist world, a method of luxurious cleansing and relaxation was on offer.  Thus, we decided to let our inhibitions run wild and booked in. Our fearless guide Fouad recommended 'the 5 elements'; so we wound our way through a Medina in Marrakesh to a beautiful, white washed, building with magnificent archways.

Directed to change into hooded, fluffy, white gowns, and then led to the steam room,  we sat and sweated  in a temperature of a volcano's core. Moving on to the cleansing room, we lay (in only our undies) like slabs of salmon on  marble benches. Our attendants chatted and giggled as they put us through our paces. They  lathered our bodies with a brown mud like mix and proceeded to exfoliate with loofah mitts. A great source of amusement came when they showed us the enormous amount of dead skin removed.

After showering and another sauna, we were ushered to the next station. The massage! The masseuses were very thorough,  they honed in and concentrated on our weak spots and left us feeling very supple and relaxed. Still it was not over, we lounged on day beds, drank mint tea and reflected on how marvellous life is!