What to eat in Morocco
06 Jan 2007 Leave a Comment
in General Health Tips Tags: food, restaurants
it seems many people get sick while traveling in Morocco. Sometimes and maybe most times people don’t get sick due to poisoned food or ruined food but just by the fact we are not that used to different waters or bacterias in food.
Things to avoid:
1-non boiled water
2-non boiled tea
2-tap water
3-meat
4-not so fresh salads with tomato and watch those eggs
i have been drinking water in morocco for a few years now and i have notice the difference. i started to drink tap water in major towns and villages due to recent government development projects of decent water supplies to people. i remember that for the first time during summer 2003 the smell of chloride was in the air…
Hammam in Morocco
12 Oct 2006 1 Comment
in General Health Tips Tags: hammam, Marrakech, massage
Its funny how I got to understand that the majority of tourists that travel to Morocco wish to go inside traditional Hammams, but somehow, they are afraid and end up skipping that part.
So here I want to demystify the whole sense of Hammam being a dangerous thing to do. Hammam is basically a house, where you will clean yourself with steam and black soap rub.
In Marrakesh the common price for a quality hammam is around 5 euros while if you want the real thing with proper conditions and professional diploma staff you have to expect to pay around 30 to 50 euros, but i have to say this is worth every single euro you pay.
Why, well, its hard to tell cos I don’t even like it that much, but my reasons are due to the steam I just can’t handle. I don’t like steamed rooms like hammams or sauna or even Russian bania.
Somehow people love it and enjoy it very much. I guess that if I could actually handle the hot steam without getting itches all over my body, I would like it too.
So, if you wish to know the process of how you should act inside a hammam, or what exactly you have to do while inside, here a small article from a Hammam in Marrakesh that explains step by step what happens:
“A Morning at the Hammam”
In the Hammam
- You benefit from the steam bath
- Scented soft black soap
- Traditional body peeling
- After …
- Chosen service (ghassoul, henné..)
- At last …
- A relieving head to toe massage.
All the area of the Hammam is a private zone and you profit from our private ambiance. The decorated fountain and the chill-out room will leave you to rest and dream about life, to read or to share the secrets of Moroccan women with you hostess.
If you wish to know a bit more check out the website:
More about Hammams
This is another very good article I found about Hammam, taken from Wikipedia:
The Turkish hammam (also Turkish bath or hamam) is the Middle Eastern variant of a steam bath, which can be categorized as a wet relative of the sauna. They had played an important role in cultures of the Middle-East, serving as places of social gathering, ritual cleansing and as architectural structures, institutions, and (later) elements with special customs attached to them. Europeans learned about the Hammam via contacts with Turkey hence the European name for it: “Turkish” hammam.
In Western Europe, the Turkish bath as a method of cleansing the body and relaxation was particularly popular during the Victorian era. The process involved in taking a Turkish bath is similar to that of a sauna, but is more closely related to the bathing practices of the Romans.
Taking a Turkish bath firstly involves relaxing in a room (known as the warm room) that is heated by a continuous flow of hot dry air allowing the bather to perspire freely. Bathers may then move to an ever hotter room (known as the hot room) before plunging themselves into a cold pool. After performing a full body wash and receiving a massage, bathers finally retire to the cooling-room for a period of relaxation.
In Turkey, the advent of modern plumbing systems, showers, and bathtubs in homes caused the importance of hammams to fade in recent times.
The word “hammam” simply means “bathroom” or “toilet” in many dialects of vernacular Arabic.
I took this article about Hammam from:
