23.06.18
Two full days out doing touristy things and three days coming up of long days going to desert so we decided to spend an extra day having a bit of a recovery in Marrakech in our palatial surrounds. We had booked in for an eleven o’clock hammam treatment so we decided to have a bit of a sleep in and do some chores (take the laundry to laundry man etc) first thing this morning.
I had blogged the other day about trying to find the local hammam to have the authentic experience and I’m still a bit devo-ed that I haven’t tried the real McCoy but the western experience was a hard morning’s work! We arrived and were greeted with slippers, robes and those stupid disposable undies. We were then whisked up to the steam room to “relax” whilst we were anointed with black soap to open up the pores. Sideline note; black soap is made from the pulp from the argan nut after the oil is extracted. In case you were wondering, I’d say the main difference between a Turkish hammam and Moroccan is that in Turkey you soak before the scrub in thermal water, in Morocco you sit in a steam room before the scrub.
The steam room was too hot for me so I escaped after about 5mins and waited in the ante-room for the scrubbing to begin. Not quite the same experience as I had in Turkey.. for one, the room was octagonal shaped, beautifully tiled and the floor and stone blocks were heated. Secondly, the scrubbing wasn’t quite as abrasive and most noteably the washing lady spoke English so no arse slap to have me turn over! Otherwise, a very similar experience.
We were scrubbed, had our hair washed, moisturised, washed off and then eventually oiled down…. Heavenly experience. To finish off they took us to a room to cool down, have a cup of obligatory sweetened tea + more rest and relaxation… Its been a very hard morning’s work!!!
After our morning’s work we decided to spend the afternoon out in the Medina having one last walk around seeing the sites and sounds of Marrakech. We actually managed to find that local hammam we had been looking for the other day! Considering we had just had a bath we decided to forgo the local but it was slightly satisfying to actually have finally found what we were looking for!
We stopped for lunch at a trip advisor special.. More bloody tajine for me for lunch (I’m starting to get slightly sick of eating tajine- almost time to find a Maccas) and a coke to wash it down.. Main reason we had picked out this restaurant off trip advisor was that everyone talked about the roof top terrace… It was so worth it! Views were pretty impressive over Marrakech and could actually see the Atlas mountains! Best thing about the terrace was the breeze that was blowing.. its mid 30s here today and the slight breeze was just what the doctor ordered (and completely non-existent down in the Medina).
Whilst sitting for lunch both of us commented on how badly we could do with a beer or something alcoholic so we again turned to trip advisor to see if we could find a drink somewhere down the Djeema (our last stop for the evening). TA did not disappoint and lead us to an obscure-ish restaurant come bar just off the main square with this enclosed terrace filled with plants and blessedly air-conditioned…. It was pretty full of western tourists all looking for something to drink and all watching the football (Germany vs Sweden) and it had a full alcoholic menu~ beer, wine and cocktails. One thing I do have to say for Morocco.. for a country that is mainly Muslim (and therefore not a huge population of drinkers) they produce some pretty tasty beer (and this is coming from someone who wouldn’t call herself a beer drinker).. we’ve had two different types of local brew~ the Speciál + the Casablanca both of which are very drinkable. So drinkable that S ordered an additional one!
Our evening ended with a last walk around the Djeema checking out the sites and smells before we took one last wander through the souks and back to the digs for an early night in. Tomorrow, we’re off to the Sahara!