Warm Slab

“Warm Slab”

When last we met, arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott was penning his final words of “It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more,”

yet I was just getting started.

So, to re-cap, there is a design norm in modern Turkey that aims the shower head over the toilet. In turn, scatologically-inclined people must grapple with a compulsion to dry off the toilet before feeling comfortable enough to drop their nethers onto the hole and peruse a few articles in The New Yorker. Of course, since Turks in general haven’t cultivated the habit of reading, they simply wipe down the toilet, or not, so as to feel comfortable enough to do whatever it is a person does when sitting on the toilet and not reading. As a written word lover, I’m uncertain of what this is. Would it be staring? Yes, probably staring. In my experience, Turks are remarkably adept at The Stare, clearly drawing upon thousands of minutes of focused practice that could otherwise have been occupied with ingestion of typeset.

In sum, toilets in Turkey are wet. People with pelvic needs either get wet or set themselves to drying the porcelain whilst clenching their legs together. Then they read or stare.

Or play solitaire on the wall in front of them, if it’s a magnetized wall, and they have magnetic cards.

Or have a chat on their cell phones, genteely covering the receiver during moments of audible strain.

Or plan menus. No matter the day or recipe, it’s probably true that they need to get yogurt. Or white cheese. Maybe some peppers. Cucumbers. Plus a passle of them shriveled olives.

Eternally, any mental picture of shriveled olives must needs be superseded by a thought of “Hey, Caesar, it’s time to wipe, and not the toilet.”

Yes.  This is what I’ve learned in the past six months. First, there are olives, and then you visit the bathroom, and then there’s a general wiping down.

This is how it is. I’ve got it, er, in hand.

When we moved in to our inn-sitting job at the fairy chimney, therefore, the bathroom in our room felt very familiar:

See the shower head?  See the toilet?  Like that.

Fortunately, all the rooms at the guesthouse have in-floor heating, including the bathrooms.  Already, then, the bathroom in our room was superior to what we’d experienced elsewhere.  The joint might get wet all the time, but thanks to the heat in the floors, the wet takes care of itself pretty quickly–it’s absorbed into the rustic red clay and dried up by the warmth.

Don’t go waving your hands in the air, though, and keep your high kicks to a minimum:  the toilet seat isn’t heated, so the porcelain still ails with water.

But somehow, it’s better.  As an added bonus, we can put wet mittens and hats on the bathroom floor, and they dry in no time.

Verdict is:  we have stumbled into an okay Turkish bathroom.

HOWEVER, if you want a seriously groovy bathroom, just walk out the kitchen door, across the courtyard (careful of the 120 pound St. Bernard; he really likes lasagna, so if you look at all like a limp noodle, you’ll be privy to the kind of wet that only comes from a bath in dog spit), and enter the guest room called Battal.

Because Battal has a hamam-style bathroom.  A big one.  As in, there’s room for a toilet well away from the shower (which is built into an old tandoor oven pit).  Furtherly cool is that there’s the heated floor, plus a heated slab designed for post-ablution relaxation.

It doesn’t take the clever inn-sitter more than a few days to figure out how to crank up the heat in the hamam bathroom, take a hot shower, follow it with a sit bath wherein bowls of warm water are tossed over the head, and top it off with some vigorous exfoliation and laid back slab time.

According Muslim tenets, men can take up to four wives.  According to Turkish bathroom laws, Jocelyns can take up to two husbands.  I already have me a Groom.  Now I have me a Hamam.  Put them together, and I have something sounding ever-so-appropriately like a “groom’em.”

Here.  Meet my new beau; admire his features:

Dry toilet smiles a welcome.  Fish tank is placed in wall for easy whimsy.  Two rolls of toilet paper are well able to keep pace with even the most extended visit.

Bathroom shelves are carved out of the local tufa rock.  Homely wooden chair is conveniently located nearby to assist with emergency toenail clipping.

Antique pictures from Ottoman times hang on the walls.  Elevated traditional hamam footwear rocks so hard that, in comparison, today’s Croc sandals seem even more an oppugner against nature.

Two panels of marble separate the toilet from all other water sources.  Two panels of marble keep marshal the warmth towards the bathing area.  Big red clay slab beckons.  Saucy thing.

Visitors to hamams past serve as role models for how to kick back languidly in the presence of multiple exposed breasts.

Rectangular indentation is a perfect perch for filling copper dishes with water and then dumping the contents over the head.

Marble sinks don’t drain but serve as repositories for water of all temperatures.  A ewer here; a copper pot there, and before you know it, you’ve forgotten that your family had a nine-day tour to Egypt planned for this week, a tour that has collapsed in the face of citizenry in revolt.  Tour gets cancelled?  Visit Hamam.  He washes away all tensions.  He helps you find the peace of mind to plan a consolation trip to Italy, departing this Saturday.

Shower hole (former tandoor oven) can be filled with water and used as a tub or used for a quick baptism into the religion of red clay.

Loofah scrubs clean both backs and attitudes.

All of the outfitting in the room is authentic…

the same stuff used in a harem hamam hundreds of years ago…

even conjuring up images from thousands of years before that, of a Magdalene washing the feet of a carpenter she fancied.


Well washed, heartily scrubbed, warmed to the core, visitors to Hamam run their hands over his fine paneling as they exit,

marveling at how right a bathroom can feel when wet and dry know their places.

Comments

comments

Comments

15 responses to “Warm Slab”

  1. unmitigated me Avatar
    unmitigated me

    I feel distinctly as though I need a shower…who's watching the inn/dog while you are away? Are the owners back already?

  2. Jocelyn Avatar
    Jocelyn

    Unmitigated: the owner's mom and dad live here in the village, and so her dad is going to watch the dog, fish, turtles, and occasional cats. Mostly the dog. We'll pick it all up again when we return.

  3. haphazardlife Avatar
    haphazardlife

    What happens when you have to go back to the primitive bathroom? You poor dear.

    – Jazz

  4. yogurt Avatar
    yogurt

    A shower hole, huh? That is bizarre. Do you recommend the design? At all?

  5. alwaysinthebackrow Avatar
    alwaysinthebackrow

    Fish in the bathroom. How tranquil. I suppose that they had those tall clogs on their feet in order to keep the feet dry from all of the water on the bathroom floor, caused by the shower spraying all over the place. We ran into a shower over the toilet in Italy. I hope you don't find wet toilets there, as well.

  6. Jenn @ Juggling Life Avatar
    Jenn @ Juggling Life

    I do believe this is the most I've ever considered bathroom design. I think I may just kiss my double sinks tonight.

    Though those heated floors do sound divine.

  7. secret agent woman Avatar
    secret agent woman

    I like most things about that bathroom – especially the earthen feel of it.

    Pelvic needs. Ha.

  8. monica Avatar
    monica

    cleaning attitudes – neat to have a place for that :o)
    and so cool to have a hamam all to yourselves..
    personally I would be totally huggin' the st Bernard on my way over there…

  9. Green Girl in Wisconsin Avatar
    Green Girl in Wisconsin

    Who knew you'd have to travel half a world to find the perfect bathroom? But what luxury! What balance of heat and cool, dry and wet, clean and convenient!

  10. Chantal Avatar
    Chantal

    this is all so interesting

  11. Mother Theresa Avatar
    Mother Theresa

    So, instead of reading you stare at the fish? Clever. And Italy, a consolation trip? If you were here right now, I'd bop you on the head with one of those rolls of toilet paper…you lucky duck, you. Okay, I admit, missing out on Egypt sucks, but ah, Italy!

  12. tattytiara Avatar
    tattytiara

    Wow, that is just so cool. I've been fascinated with bathrooms ever since I watched that Greenaway short film on them.

  13. geewits Avatar
    geewits

    Okay. So where is the toilet paper in all the regular bathrooms where the shower sprays the toilet? How does it stay dry? I have to know.

    My word verification is "caingeni" Does caingeni keep the toilet paper dry? What is happening?

  14. Pearl Avatar
    Pearl

    Every day, I love you more.

    I have less and less an urge to go to Turkey, but I'm very VERY glad that you've gone and are describing it. Fantastic.

    Pearl

  15. lime Avatar
    lime

    i believe i could take some hamam time. if it can handle the stress of travel plans interrupted by revolt maybe it can handle my stress too.

    word veri: haplort. i dunno seems somehow fitting

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