Yesterday, Shadea and I went to Al-Pasha Turkish Bath (click for pictures from the website) . This experience should be on everyone's bucket list. We arrived for our 2pm appointment and were immediately ushered into a locker room where we changed out of our clothes and into bathing suits. From there, a woman led us through the hammam. How can I accurately describe it? The hammam had about 10-12 marble tables around the perimeter where women were being either scrubbed or massaged. In the middle, was a stone hot tub. On one side of the hammam, there was a small alcove for showering. The ceiling had stained glass pieces that softened any natural light shining through.
Our first stop was a cave in the back of the hammam. A woman gave Shadea and me a washcloth that had been sitting in the refrigerator before pulling back the curtain that covered the entrance to the cave/ steam room. The steam room was suffocatingly hot. The steam made it almost impossible to breath and even more difficult to see. The cave had two levels. I tried sitting on the higher of the two but I only managed for a minute before I had to sit lower. After about two minutes, Shadea and I tried to leave but the same woman told us that our time in there wasn't up and turned us around back into the steam room. She placed the cloth over Sheada's hair. I followed suit. Somehow that helped. Another few minutes passed and a second woman brought us cold hibiscus juice. It was the consistency of a slushy and tasted like a sweeter cranberry juice.
After another few minutes, our time in the steam prison/cave was up. After rinsing off in the shower, the hot tub was our next stop. For all I know the water in the hot tub could have been boiling but it didn't feel as hot as the steam room. We soaked for 10 minutes or so before I was called to be scrubbed. Before I forget to mention, the marble tables are a "no-tops-allowed" zone.
So, on to the scrubbing. The woman threw some warm water on me and then grabbed a slightly rough cloth and started scrubbing literally from the bottoms of my feet to my head. At some point, she lifted up one of my arms said "look!" and pointed to the skin that was no longer attached to my body. Once she was satisfied with the amount of skin that had been removed, she got a loofah and some soap and cleaned me from head to toe. Finally, I was rinsed in warm water and then sent to the showers to rinse off again.
After my shower and another brief intermission in the hot tub, I was called to another marble slab for massage time! I don't know how long I was on that table being pushed, pulled and bended but I do know that it wasn't nearly long enough. I could have stayed for another hour at least. But, that wasn't an option and I was sent to the showers for a final rinse. After this process, all I wanted to do was sleep- I was so relaxed! Sleeping, however, wasn't an option. We were on to gold shopping!
So, after paying the 25JD for the hammam experience, Shadea and I took a cab from Rainbow St. to meet Akrum. Akrum is the antithesis of any negative stereotype of young Jordanian men. He is so kind, thoughtful and incredibly helpful. Case and point- he agreed to go shopping with Shadea and me! We were scheduled to meet Akrum in Jabal al-Hussain, the commercial area of Amman. There, the streets are lined with clothing shops, restaurants, and, most importantly in this story, dozens of gold shops.
Akrum took us from shop to shop where we looked through earrings, bracelets, rings, necklaces and anything else you can think of that might come in gold. If we were interested in the price of something, we (or sometimes Akrum) would ask the shop keeper to weigh the item. From the weight, he would calculate the price of the day. These shops don't even consider carrying anything less than 18 carat gold. Most often, the jewelry is 18 or 21 carats.
In several of the stores, we saw girls about my age with their families. Akrum explained that, more than likely, these girls were about to get married. They were there with their mothers and the mothers of the groom to settle the dowry- in gold. Akrum went on to say that men are getting married later simply because marriage is so expensive due in part to the tradition of pre-marriage gold.
While Shadea and I were looking around for our respective jewelry, Akrum was shopping for 'Eid gifts for his sisters. So, brothers, take a leaf out of Akrum's book. He got his sisters each a gold initial for 'Eid.
After we were finished shopping, we got knafeh. Knafeh is a Arab pastry made from very fine pastry, sweet cheese, honey and usually pistachios. There are several different types and all are worth sampling multiple times. The knafeh and conversation was the perfect end to a great day.
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