It’s hot in the Turkish Hamam
When I travel for business as a speaker for an exhibition there is always a welcome committee at the airport. Also this time travelling for ACE of MICE to Istanbul. As soon as I came out of the doors and entering the hall, I saw the sign of the exhibition, nothing special. Next to the sign an old man of 85 years with a stick standing there to wait for someone. I had to laugh and wanted desperately to take a picture, but decided not to. I have seen many welcome committees, but not as charming as this old man. Behind the old men, there was a young men in a black suit that came to me… all fine at the end.
Staying in Istanbul, I really wanted to block the time to enjoy a hamam and massage and decided to stay in the hotel (the sales manager was so generous to give me a reduction). I booked the hamam and a massage. I came at the reception at the time I booked. You always have to put that sexy ‘paper slip’, which I did. The lady took me to first to the sauna to warm my body, fine with me. So I took 2 towels and lay down and relax. Just a few minutes later a musculed man full with tattoos enters the sauna, sees me and goes out immediately. You stupid women!.. Lying in a hamam in your sexy paper slip, that is totally not appropriate in a public sauna! You could have created a heart attack. You should know better, this is not your first time …. 3 minutes later he enters again and created a burka of 2 hamam towels…. I had to laugh so hard, but couldn’t.
I have seen a lot just this was missing…. So sweet and respectful towards me… Just it didn’t make me feel more comfortable, I couldn’t really relax anymore. I was really relieved when the lady came to get me out of the sauna and bring me to the hamam. Unfortunately you can’t bring your camera into the hamam… it would have been a bestseller. The tone was set! By the way, I had a great hamam and sauna.
When I came back from the hamam, the housekeeping knocked on my door with a gift. A mousepad as I was using the flyer of the spa as mousepad…. a link with Word of MICE???? It’s all in the details. So cute!
My day of departure was incredible, wet snow was falling down and so cold and windy, unbelievable! Time to say goodbye to this amazing city of 20 million people…. The transfer which was confirmed by mail didn’t came (not used to this in Turkey where I started my first job in 2003, yes already 16 years ago) so I ordered an Uber.
The Uber came, I entered and not even 5 minutes later it started already… I had to laugh, according to the driver I was very pretty and he wanted to join to me back to the Netherlands (number X in line, I have fans everywhere!). I showed him my wedding ring and we laughed again. After 2 minutes our conversation turned into a meaningful discussion about the current situation in Turkey, he was very open and clearly not a fan of the current president. Sad to see that we often don’t get to see the real picture.
Again proof of concept, I would love to do a campaign to support the country which clearly needs support to the local economy.
PS Turkey is also a cat friendly place… A public cat hotel :-)