Herbal Steam Bath

For months I've been reading about these herbal steam baths and have been dying to try one out. From what I've read they used to be in every tribal village as a means for health and to cure illnesses before the rise of modern medicine. One of the most interesting things is that Mother's and their newborn babies would spend a month after giving birth, in a "birth room" which consisted of herbal steam to nourish and heal the Mother, especially her vaginal canal (they would sit over steam bowls) as well as to help her to increase milk production. From what I understand the newborn would be with the Mother as well, I'm guessing to help strengthen their immune, nervous and circulatory systems. It sounds a bit crazy and I will need to investigate further but from what I understand this is a traditional part of midwifery and something that is still (although modified slightly) practiced in Thailand today.

I asked around and found an herbal steam bath within the inner city, there don't seem to be too many of them around. After school I went with 3 other classmates and we went on a little adventure together to the steam bath. It was a little hard to find but the directions I got were good. It's on the 4th floor of a Massage centre, open to the elements (but with a roof) with wooden slats to absorb the moisture. We were given a towel, a piece of cloth to use as a robe and a locker to put our stuff. There were several individual shower size steam rooms with benches as well as two showers. The place certainly wasn't fancy but that's ok, we were looking for a more authentic experience and never expected it to be a 5 star resort type spa.

After standing around for some time the guy finally realized we weren't just socializing and actually had no idea what to do! He showed us how to use each steam room - you turn it on yourself by turning a lever 45 degrees. Basically how it works is there is a steam valve with a cotton cloth wrapped around it that was filled with different herbs. I'm not sure how fresh they were or if they keep the same herbs in there for days or weeks but there was definitely an aroma to it. On the wall there was a list of the herbs used and their medicinal uses.

We were instructed to shower and then sit in the steam for 10-15 minutes, have a cold shower again and then finish in the steam room for another 10-15 minutes, wait a few minutes before rinsing off and then rest. Tea and water was on the table for us but the bottles were not sealed so we decided against it, the water here is not safe to drink from the tap, at least for us foreigners. The steam kept going off but I think that was because there were so many of us and they were running out of water. I talked to another customer who goes there regularly who said that has never happened to her before.

Part way through the gentleman handed us a little dish with something that resembled cookie dough and instructed us to scrub our bodies with it. I asked him what was in it and he said it was a combination of honey, yogurt and some kind of tree ground down. I tried to find out the name of the tree but wasn't able to communicate very well with him, he eventually just showed me a stick and that was that. I will have to figure out exactly what it was that was in there. It didn't feel like a scrub but once it mixed with the steam it felt exfoliating. We left it on for a little bit and then rinsed it off, our skin felt soft and supple. Definitely an interesting and positive experience and I think I'll be going back again a few times. It was cheap too, at 120 baht (roughly $4) you can't go wrong!