Arasan Spa, Almaty: A naked, awkward, and surprisingly great cultural experience

I stand – naked except for the thin towel around my middle and a pair of flip-flops – in a big, round, domed room with windows up high on the dome and a round white marble platform in the center of the floor. Around the sides, I see human-sized marble-topped tables and rows of showers, with a few rounded alcoves off the main circle. I recognize it as a hammam.

I’m in Almaty, Kazakhstan, for a blogger conference called TBEX, and I’ve come to Arasan after hearing enthusiastic reports from other bloggers, saying how good they feel after a visit. Now, standing here, I’m not at all sure this was a good idea.

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Part 1 of my story: Naked awkwardness

The room feels warm and damp, loud and echoey. Elderly women sit, naked, on the edges of the central platform, chatting. A few more women shower and soap themselves in the open stalls along the side, while others run water from faucets to fill buckets.

The preliminaries

The attendant is, I’d guess, in her thirties. Dressed in black form-fitting shorts and tank top, she’s on the short side, stocky and muscular. For the purpose of this story, I’ll call her The Scrubber. Once she’s finished cleaning one of the marble-topped tables, she orders me onto it. She speaks no English; I speak no Kazakh or Russian. When I say she orders me, it involves mere pointing and glaring.

Obediently, I remove my towel, dump it onto the central platform, kick off my flip-flops, and climb awkwardly onto the table. The Scrubber, again using hand gestures, tells me to lie on my stomach, and unceremoniously slathers me all over with some kind of wet lotion. When she’s done, she orders me to turn over onto my back – not an easy task on such a narrow table when you’re slimy with lotion – and quickly slathers some more.

Abruptly, The Scrubber stops and points across the room. I have no idea what I’m meant to do, but I lower myself off the table and circle the central platform to the other side of the room, next to the row of shower stalls. I have to walk slowly and carefully because this lotion is slippery, and I slide around in my flip-flops with each step.

I stop once I’ve reached the far side of the room, uncertain what to do. Another woman – I don’t know if she is a guest or works there, but she’s naked and busy scrubbing another woman’s back – points me to a door in the wall. Inside, I find a steam room. It’s hot, but not uncomfortable. Again, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, so I follow the lead of the other women I can see dimly through the steam, and l lie down on a bench and wait.

I can’t see her, but it turns out that one of the other bloggers I came to the spa with is there too, and she tells me she’s been told to stay for 10 minutes. I guess her attendant can speak at least a little English, unlike The Scrubber. So after she leaves, I wait a few minutes and go out into the hammam again. Someone points me to a shower, and I rinse the slippery stuff off.

Arasan bathhouse

Arasan Spa is a well-known landmark in Almaty. It’s listed in every tourist brochure I looked at, and gets most of a page in Lonely Planet’s Central Asia guidebook.

I’ve been to spas before; I’ve written about the Great Spa Towns of Europe UNESCO site on my World Heritage Travel website. I’ve enjoyed a few spas in Germany: Bad Ems, Wiesbaden and Baden Baden. In Greece I reviewed the Euphoria Retreat Wellness Resort. And I’ve been to several in the Netherlands, where I live.

Arasan, though, offers a completely different experience. I’d venture to say it’s a kind of cultural immersion you’re unlikely to get anywhere else.

Most spas I’ve visited have things like pools of various temperatures and whirlpools as well. These are generally spaces where both women and men can bathe, and they wear swimsuits. Then there’s often a separate section with saunas and steam rooms and such, at an extra cost. While most people are naked in this section, wearing only a towel or bathrobe, it’s usually optional to be naked. No one will object if you wear your swimsuit, but you have to be prepared to see a lot of naked flesh.

At the Arasan bathhouse, everyone is naked. In theory, it’s not required. You can wear your swimsuit, but no one does. Fortunately for my general discomfort with nakedness, women and men are kept strictly in separate sections. While I was still uncomfortable, I agreed to go with a group of other bloggers. If it’s only women, I figured, it won’t make me quite as tense as the one and only time I, without meaning to, ended up in an entirely naked and co-ed spa – but that’s another story altogether.

I was right. Once I relaxed into being there, I realized that the women were all minding their own business and generally on the older side, so their bodies were no closer to perfect than mine is.

Treatments at Arasan

At the reception desk inside the entrance, before you go to the women’s or men’s sections, you can see a list of the treatments they offer, but you don’t book them there. Instead, you go find where the treatment is offered inside and make your appointment. You pay for the more general facilities by the hour: the pool, the three types of sauna/steambaths (Finnish, “Eastern,” and Russian), the cold water dumps, locker use and showers. If you take a treatment, you get the facilities time for free. When you leave the spa, you settle up on whatever charges you’ve accrued.

The list of treatments is long: lots of different types of massages, facials, peelings, hair removal and such. Compared to the spas I’ve visited elsewhere, they were quite inexpensive.

At the reception, you might decide what treatments you want, if any, but the receptionist’s job is mostly just to give you an armband – which is used to add up charges as you go along – and to rent you your flip-flops and towel, if you haven’t brought your own. If you plan on dunking in the pool, you’ll need a bathing or shower cap too. Passing through turnstiles, women turn left, men right. You pick up your flip-flops and towels at another desk, scanning your wristband first.

Inside the Arasan bathhouse complex

Inside, the first step is to find your assigned locker, where you’ll leave your clothes, shoes, phone, etc. It unlocks by scanning your armband. (Apparently there’s a more secure locker somewhere where you can keep your valuables, but I just used the locker.)

Facilities

The rest of the place is a maze of rooms. Some facilities are part of the basic package of the bath complex:

Sauna and steam rooms: Three rooms open off a single central room: a Finnish sauna with dry heat at 100-110°C; an “eastern steam room,” which is very steamy and feels must warmer than its 45-50°C; and a Russian steam room at 80-100°C, which feels even hotter because it’s also very steamy. The Russian one extends over two levels and you’ll find that it’s distinctly hotter upstairs. This is where you’ll see people beating themselves with bundles of leaves. Other less-extremely-hot steam rooms are off the hammam.

Cold water tubs: The central room has, on one side, a row of open showers and, on the other, three wooden buckets mounted high up on the wall. Coming out of a sauna or steam room, you can stand under one of them, pull on a rope, and the bucket dumps cold water on you.

Pool: The pool (24-26°C) is round and so is the room it’s in, much like the hammam, with windows high in a dome. It cools you down very pleasantly after a sauna or steam room, if a cold-water bucket seems too extreme for you.

Additional (paid) services

• Peelings: I saw peeling tables/morgue slabs in two places. A large shower room had two tables at each end that were marked as peeling areas, but I didn’t see anyone doing any peelings there. The others were where I got my peeling: in the hammam.
• Massages: These happen in a long room with a row of massage tables. You don’t get any privacy to speak of; there are screens between the tables, but people walk up and down along the row freely.
• Cosmetic treatments like facials, manicures, pedicures, depilation, etc.: I only peeked into this room, where I saw two people getting facials or waxing or something. Again, they were lying on tables, stark naked, and anyone could walk in.
• Steaming master services is something I read about in a guidebook: you can pay a person to beat you in the Russian sauna with a birch stick. It’s supposed to be good for your circulation.

The men’s section is similar, according to my husband, who spent a bit of time there, but it has more saunas or steam rooms over two floors. Like in the women’s section, a range of treatments are available: massages, peelings, manicures and pedicures, depilation, and facial treatments, plus the “steaming master services” in the Russian sauna.

Part 2 of my story: Chocolate burrito

The “menu” of the bathhouse offers several different kinds of wrap, but, cowed by The Scrubber and the whole experience so far, when she asks “Chocola?” I simply nod. To be fair, it’s probably the one I would have chosen.

I stand waiting, naked and wet, while she arranges a big square cloth out on the floor of one of the tiled side alcoves around the hammam. On top of the cloth, she spreads a big square of plastic. Next, she points me, in that unchallengeable way she has, to stand in the center of the plastic, and proceeds to spread what looks and smells like slightly watered-down chocolate sauce all over my body.

Once she has slathered me to her satisfaction, she orders me to lie down, placing a foam block under my head. Pulling the plastic sheet up and around me, she fits it tightly to my body, and does the same with the cloth underneath. The final flourish is adding a second cloth on top of me, tucking it snugly around my legs and feet. 

So there I am, lying on the tile floor, looking up at the curved tile ceiling of the alcove: a human burrito smelling of chocolate. Oddly, I am happier with this predicament than any of the rest: at least I’m no longer stark naked. And I love the smell of chocolate.

One other woman lies nearby, having received the same slathering of chocolate and the burrito wrapping. Fortunately, she is, I learn, also one of the blogger group, so we chat as we lie there, chocolate-smelling burritos, complaining about itches we can’t scratch, with no idea when we’ll be freed from our packaging.

Eventually The Scrubber and the other attendant return and help us unwrap and stand up. The Scrubber again points imperiously at a shower, and showering is all I want to do at this moment anyway, now that I’ve been released. I no longer feel uncomfortable taking a shower with random strangers walking or sitting nearby, and I want very much to remove all the chocolate. The ordeal is finally at its end.

The “Wellness and Spa”

What I’ve described so far is the “classic bathhouse.” Inside the building, but with a different entrance, is a separate part that just does treatments. It offers a much wider variety of treatments from all over the world: Thai massage, Spanish chiromassage, aromatherapy, masks, peelings, wraps, hydrotherapy, and lots more.

Getting a facial at Wellness and Spa

I went there a few days after my sandpaper and burrito experience at the bathhouse, partly just to see the difference for this article, but also to get a facial, in the hope that my face would feel as smooth as the rest of me did.

The experience of this spa was, for me, much less stressful than the bathhouse. There’s somewhat more privacy, for one thing. Despite the fact that I was only there for a facial, the attendants expected to strip down and shower first. But at least here I was given a bathrobe, disposable panties, and slippers at no extra charge.

The changing room was small, with only a few other women, and blessedly quiet compared to the echoey noise of the bathhouse. The showers were not private either, but there were only four of them in a small room.

Entering the spa itself, a woman escorted me to a room with a door that closed – completely private this time – and settled me on a cushioned table. She expected me to remove the robe, but then she covered me in a sheet. The facial was pretty standard: some peeling – much gentler this time, thank goodness – a mask, and some lotion, with some facial massaging mixed in. Typical spa music played in the background: the kind with the sounds of rainfall and birds and pan flutes.

The treatment rooms here all seem to be private; they have doors that are kept shut if a treatment is in progress. The lounge, however, where I sat in a comfy armchair after my facial with a cup of tea the attendant brought me, is co-ed, so both men and women, bathrobe-clad, passed as they went to their treatment rooms. This was a bit awkward for me, since my bathrobe barely fit around my rather large body.

Treatments at Wellness and Spa

You can order various treatments à la carte, or sign up for a package. So for example if you signed up for a “Royal Spa,” you’d get a 140-minute treatment made up of a massage with aromatic oil, a steaming in a cedar barrel, a peeling, a head massage and a leg massage.

The Wellness and Spa also has some packages that seem to involve a bit more privacy in that you rent a room just for you and your group:

• Exclusive Bath Ceremonies: You can rent a room for up to four people for one of two treatment packages that both include massages and peeling.
• Russian-Finnish Luxe rooms: These rooms, for up to six people, include both a Russian steam room and Finnish sauna, as well as a small plunge pool.
• Turkish Hammam: This one accommodates up to eight people. It includes a steam room, a marble göbek taşı (the platform in the center) (45°C), and a cold plunge. It even includes karaoke!
• Japanese Luxe: For up to four people, this room has a steam room, a hydromassage pool and a cold pool.
• Russian Luxe: This is the biggest one and can accommodate up to ten people. There’s a cold pool and a Russian steam room.

Should you visit Arasan Spa in Almaty?

In the tourism industry, we use the terms “cultural experience” and “authenticity” a lot. Usually we’re referring to things like sampling local cuisine, listening to local music, attending traditional festivals or religious rituals, or learning about traditional crafts.

Most of these experiences, though, are pretty superficial – not for the local people, but for the tourist. I mean, as a visitor, we generally see the culture from the outside. Things like, for example, food tours, help add some real understanding of the food, but as tourists we’re pretty much always on the outside looking in. You’d have to move to a place, learn the language and stay for a while to really experience a culture in an immersive way.

Visiting this bathhouse seemed to me a much deeper form of cultural experience: closer to real cultural immersion. It was confusing and at times overwhelming, but, above all, it was real. Besides our small group of bloggers, in town for a conference, my impression was that the rest of the people there were locals. It’s part of their culture, and we blundered in clumsily, experiencing it even when we didn’t understand it. It was a bit scary, certainly uncomfortable and awkward at first, but, in the end, illuminating.

What I’m getting at is: don’t let my story discourage you from going to Arasan, but be more prepared for the experience. Never having had a peeling before, I didn’t realize how rough, almost violent, it is. Now I do, and I think I might even do one again some day, given the opportunity. My skin is softer than it’s been in many years. And I think that next time I’ll manage it a lot more gracefully and respectfully.

You won’t have your phone with you; they’re not allowed past the lockers, for obvious reasons. That means no translation app. But you’ll manage, even if that means obediently following an imperious staff member’s orders. And I don’t think you’ll regret it.

The Wellness and Spa has different offerings from the bathhouse, and it’s certainly the easier option, but in my view, you’ll be missing the best part of the experience if you only go there. Go to the bathhouse. Skip the peeling if you want, but go.

Tips for visiting Arasan

If you go to the Wellness and Spa rather than the bathhouse, you’ll have to pay additionally by the hour to enjoy the saunas and pool at the bathhouse. If you get a treatment at the bathhouse, the time in the pool and saunas is included.

Things to bring to the bathhouse:

• If you can, bring a towel. Theirs are thin and not very big, and they charge to rent them.
• A bathrobe would help too if you are self-conscious, but it’s not necessary. You get used to being naked quickly, and the women there cover the full range of shapes and sizes.
• Bring a bottle of water. You’ll need to rehydrate.
• If you have flip-flops, bring them too, or you’ll have to rent them.
• The same goes for a bathing cap or shower cap. What they gave me was the kind of disposable shower cap you get in hotels, so just bring that, if your hotel provides them.

When you first enter, find the people doing the treatments you want and ask to book them.

It’s not immediately obvious, but in the women’s section of the bath complex, you need to walk through a café in order to reach the “eastern” part of the bathhouse, where the hammam is. Don’t worry, it’s only open to women inside the bathhouse. While I didn’t eat or drink anything there and I can’t comment on the quality, I can tell you that people just wrap themselves in their towels to enjoy the café. I assume there’s a similar café on the men’s side.

There’s also a café in the lobby, but that’s only for before or after your visit because it’s outside the turnstiles.

Right outside the main entrance to the bathhouse is a very small store that sells items for use in the baths. In particular, they carry a range of funny-looking felt hats. Apparently – and rather counterintuitively – wearing a felt hat in the Russian steam room stops your head from feeling too hot. I didn’t try this – I can’t deal with wool – but one of my blogger friends did, and she said it made a distinct difference. So did my husband when he bought one before his visit a few days later.

The little store also sells bundles of small branches and leaves for beating yourself with in the Russian steam room, in case that’s something you’d like to try. You are not allowed to do this in the Finnish sauna or the Eastern steam room. Before you use your bundle, soak it in a bucket of water for ten minutes or so. You’ll find buckets in the central room where the sauna and steam rooms are.

If you go to the Wellness and Spa and you’re large like me, bring a bathrobe that fits. Otherwise, you don’t need anything; slippers, a towel and a robe are included in the prices.

The spa’s address is 78 Tolebaev Street, bordering the west side of Panfilov Park. The main entrance to the bathhouse isn’t on the street, though; it’s in the middle of a block-long pedestrian park-like strip. The entrance to the Wellness and Spa is around the corner of the building; to the right as you face the main entrance.

The nearest metro stop is Zhibek Zholy (Жибек жолы), or take a Yandex Go, the local version of Uber.

Check prices for various treatments here. The bath complex is less busy in the mornings on weekdays, so if you want to get treatments, that’s when you should go. There doesn’t seem to be a way to reserve a treatment ahead of time, so your chances are best at the less crowded times.

Is this something you’d do if you visited Almaty? Add a comment below!