Adventures in Thailand

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted, so I have a lot to report. Many people may have heard some of these stories, and maybe they haven’t.

We have passed our 3 month mark now, and things continue to get better and better. The weather in Ankara in the Spring and Summer is very nice; currently it’s about 61 degrees farenheit. This alone has probably contributed the most to the great improvement in the moods of both Meredith and I. The people that we met at first are beginning to become pretty good friends, which of course is wonderful. We also took our first trip outside of Ankara, to a town called Safronbolu, which is known for its well preserved Ottoman era houses. Meredith’s salon has grown to the point where she says she doesn’t want to take too many more clients. Mer is also completely comfortable going out on her own, into stores and other places. That was a very difficult thing at the beginning. She has made friends with other non-working spouses and they love to go shopping together at least once a week. We have two 3 day weekends coming up, and are thinking about taking another trip down south to Kapadokya, which should be quite fun.

Yesterday I went to my first Turkish bath, called a Hamam. The guys I went with unfortunately like to go at 5:30 in the morning, but I felt like this was one experience that I needed to have, so I decided to go for it. The inside of the hamam looks kind of like the inside of an Ottoman house; they have a large courtyard-like area with chairs and a fountain in the middle of it. Surrounding the courtyard are 2 floors of small changing rooms with cots in them. You go in there, disrobe and put a towel around your waist. Then you go across the courtyard into the actual bath house. The bath house itself was kind of dark, with a domed ceiling with holes cut into it, kind of like skylights. Every thing is made of stone, from the floor to the ceiling. I don’t think it was marble, but then I was kind of in a daze… The first thing you do is go sit in a sauna, which was way too hot for me. I was very uncomfortable; it hurt my lungs to breathe the air in there. It did however make me sweat out all the beers I had the night before! Then you go out into the center of the room, which has a raised slab in the center. You lay down on that and are then washed from head to toe by a bath-guy. And no, you’re not completely naked and they stay away from your mid-section! First they use this glove that scrapes away any dead skin that you might have had on your body. Then you get rinsed off, and are then doused in soap, using this weird looking bag that I guess is filled with soap suds. Then you get a simple massage, for about 2 minutes. He also crossed my arms over my chest and pushed, cracking my back what seemed like 10 times. I was then led to these large tubs of water, and he washed my hair. I was rinsed off, and he pointed to another container, which was filled with cold water. I told him yes that I wanted the cold water poured over me, but I’ll tell you what, it was a major shock to my system. Then you leave the bath house and are dried off. We went to those chairs in the middle of the courtyard and sat there, waiting for the other guys. It was a little like a massage in that I was very relaxed, and kind of dazed. Once everyone was out, we then went and had some breakfast around the corner and I was home by 7:15 and back in bed. It was definitely an experience! I can’t quite decide whether or not I want to go again. The sauna was just too hot, but it did clean me off very well and felt very good.

A lot of other stuff has gone on since my last post, but I’ve written too much for one day!