Ah Chefchaouen! Never would have thought that I’ll be sitting in my living room, wishing I could go back and experience you again. So much charm, so much blue, warmth and adventure packed in one tiny little place. Before I made it to Morocco, I knew I wanted to try a traditional hammam. By traditional I mean as authentic as you can possibly get. No spa like places, no lush, no crowds of tourists. Just a simple, authentic Moroccan hammam full of locals.
The best way to find authentic places sure is by asking the locals. Finding the best hammam in Chefchaouen was no different. As soon as me and my friend settled into our accommodation, we got a couple of recommendations from our host which from what I gathered were more touristy places so the search for a more traditional hammam was on. Luckily, a friendly old man selling leather bags in the medina recommended that we try a place called Hammam El-Maslouhi. It didn’t really mean much to us since we intentionally did no research into it. But we quickly got sold when we heard that this was one of the oldest most authentic hammams in Chefchaouen. How cool?!
I’m not sure if it was the language barrier or local women’s more private nature but all people that we talked to were men. So finding out much about the actual experience and what to prep and expect was a bit awkward to say the least 😀 . All we knew was that we had to bring our own towel and soap and go during the ladies hours in the afternoon. What was quite interesting to learn was that going to a hammam is quite a sociable activity for the local ladies who apparently spend hours just chatting to their girl friends whilst scrubbing each other’s backs 😀 .
Here it goes …
We decided to go to a hammam on our last day so we had about an hour to spend there but in hindsight that was plenty 😀 . Armed with our towels and what we thought was soap, we went into Hammam El-Maslouhi. As soon as we walked in, we knew we’re in for adventure 😀 . The reception/changing area was dark and in general not particularly welcoming. There were ladies getting undressed and a few grumpy women standing at the counter. Although packed with big smiles on our faces, everyone definitely thought we were out of place there which to be honest was fair 😀 . We had literally no idea what we were meant to do or how much to pay. Nothing whatsoever! Conveniently, none of the women spoke any English as well so body language was the way to go.
After a bit of a struggle to land on a price, we paid 25 MAD each to have a go. Thoroughly confused about what’s next, we gathered that we’d better take some clothes off. So looking pretty naked (the dress code was swimsuit bottoms 😀 ), still standing at reception, we were handed a bucket and a mug each. Yes, a bucket 😀 ! A semi clean bucket but who cares 😀 ! Totally confused at that point, I couldn’t hold myself together and burst into laughter.
I couldn’t help but think “What the hell is going on???” After some more confusing nods, we made it through the only door we could see. This is when the fun began 😀 . We opened the door to what turned out to a total sauna, 40-45 degrees and steam everywhere. It was roasting and if you wear glasses like us, not wearing contacts was just the cherry on top. Both me and my friend could barely see anything without the glasses on. But some things couldn’t stay unnoticed!
The place was all tiled, looking like a massive bathroom with women sitting on the floor from both sides, scrubbing their backs and combing their hairs. Mold was nicely covering most walls and we could see hairs travelling towards the drain. We were the only two foreigners in a roasting room of semi naked women. How these women could spend hours in there, I didn’t have a clue. The place was so rough and so hot, I was feeling dirtier with every single minute spent there 😀 .
As confused as we both looked a lovely local helped us fill our buckets with some hot water and the show was on. When they say it’s a public bath, take that quite literally. Armed with our buckets and a mug to pour over each other, we figured we might as well take a quick shower and get the hell out of there 😀 . Sat on the floor!, we started scrubbing ourselves with what my friend was convinced was soap. After about 30 min of laughing around, pretending to be loving our scrubs, we figured we’d better go. We had seen a fair share of everything a hammam has got to offer. We smelled nicer from the ”soap” but that soap was weird. No foaming, no nothing. So I definitely felt way cleaner before the hammam than after it but the experience was one of a kind for sure.
Two days later, in the market in Fes a lady offered us a body scrub perfume. It looked a hell of a lot like our ”soap”, I thought 😀 . Turned out we had taken a shower with a traditional scrubbable perfume. No wonder I didn’t feel cleaner 😀 . If you ask me if I’d go for a hammam again, I’d say hell no 😀 . But the experience was something I would have cried if I had missed out on. So definitely DO IT! You’ll laugh your lungs out (discretely) just like I did. But please don’t make our mistake and buy some proper soap 😀 .
Insider tip: If you want to wash your hair as well, bring your own shampoo and don’t expect to get a hair dryer, not in the authentic places anyway!
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