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Day 42: One of our most memorable Turkish experiences will have to live without the aid of a single photograph: our first visit to a Turkish hamam.

Not quite knowing what to expect we opted for the Cemberlitas Hamam, one of Istanbul’s oldest public bathhouses, just up the tramline from Sultanahmet and as tourist-friendly as they come.

Many hamams open for men and women on different days; at Cemberlitas we were both able to visit together as the bath offered separate areas for men and women.

I was given a very sudsy scrub by a large, gruff middle-aged male attendant, while lying on a hot raised marble platform, and then a half hour massage which was one of the best I’d had (nothing like the painful memories of my ayurvedic treatment following our ascent of Sri Lanka’s Adam’s Peak some years ago which left me unable to walk freely for a couple of days).

It was also a very aural experience with the sounds of the bathhouse echoing around the central chamber as I waited my turn in the queue for the scrub.