The pleasures and perils of the Turkish bath

Over at the San Francisco Chronicle’s Travel section, Melissa Myers tells about her recent first-time trip to a Turkish bath in Istanbul.

Before their first Turkish bath, many Westerners are unfamiliar with the correct protocol and procedure involved. Should I be naked? Covered up? What do I do exactly? As Melissa tells it, she was no exception.

When she’s given a small loincloth, she’s not exactly sure what to do with it. “I noticed that all the European women in the atrium had apparently been given some kind of tutorial on how to tie the loincloth just so, to cover all private regions, including their breasts. And here I was, exposed, the only topless woman – an American no less – in the room.”

Then she’s pulled into another room by her enormous Turkish masseuse, who bares all before rubbing her down in front of several other bathers.

In the end, Melissa decides that going to the Turkish bath, one of the Things to Do when you’re in Istanbul, was “worth the embarrassment.” Sounds like an apt description of all my travels.

Whole thing here.