CLEAN & PRESS
Having my naked body rubbed raw by a silent, cranky woman doesn’t seem like a satisfactory way to spend my time in Marrakesh. But it turns out to be one of the best things I do in Morocco’s second city.
I’m at a hamam, a traditional public bathhouse where locals go to relax, socialise and get really, really clean. I wasn’t looking for it, had no intention of undressing in front of multiple women, but I’d come across the hamam while trying to make sense of the complex grid of alleyways that coil like smoke around Marrakesh’s souk (market). A map of these narrow corridors – if anyone could be bothered to draw one – would resemble a knot of tangled necklaces.
