Scrub-a-dub-dub

For a relaxing last day, we went to a super fancy spa and enjoyed a refreshing dip in their pool followed by a hammam and scrub down with Savon Noir.

Savon Noir is quite literally black soap, a similar consistency to tar and smells like eucalyptus and mace. They ladel buckets of hot water over you and then leave you for 15 minutes to get nice and sweaty. When they come back in, they lather you up with the slimy black gloop and then leave you to sweat some more. Finally, they come and give you a good ole scrub down with a loofa mit until you think you surely have no skin left at all! By the time they're done with you, you can see all the grey dead skin on the surface. Gross, am I really that mucky? Once you've showered it all off, they oil you up with sweet smelling orange blossom oil so that you are all silky smooth and glowing when you venture back out into the sunshine.

After the spa we went for a not very nice meal in what felt like the slums of Bombay. There were flies everywhere and so many cats it felt like a scene out of Batman - I kept expecting Catwoman to leap out onto the table! I ordered chicken cous cous - I got a big mound of flavourless dry cous cous with a joint of meat which had less chicken on it than an anorexic stick insect! The restaurants only saving grace was that the waiter stopped me from knocking myself out on a big metal girder as I stood up!

Anyway, all was made well again by a generous dollop of ice cream from Ice Legend on the way back to the hotel.