Ticklish Experience at SS15

Small Talk: Special thanks to Loosan for the ‘belated birthday call’. She called after someone else did. And thanks to Yen Yen for the only birthday e-card I received this year.

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I should have posted this one many days ago. Due to work commitment, family commitment and friends commitment yada yada, I procrastinate again and again. Almost a week ago, I posted about my day one and day two of my late November trip to KL (Sunway, to be exact).

And I ended that post with the above image, asking you to make a smart guess of what was I doing. I was actually trying something new. Something which is starting to be a trend but have yet to break into Terengganu’s market.

You know I don’t mean Pasar Payang. (It’s the main market in Terengganu, that sells almost everything you need to cook.)

It’s so popular that many have tried it and their first experience was always ticklish ‘till wanna die’. Like Jason. Seriously, I was giggling like a sick moron when I first tried it. Ticklish at first, but a little comfortable later.

Comfortable maybe because of the cold water =.=

 

So ticklish, it got me hugging and squeezing the pillow like a baby.

Yes, I tried fish spa. There’s a new fish spa opened at SS15 and my friends and I went for a try since one of us know the staff there and they’re offering opening promotion – only RM20 for 30 minutes. But since we’re like friends of friends, of course we made full use of that fine connection to sit there as long as we wanted.

It felt fun when the fishes nibbled on my feet and when we were done, it felt like the skin on my feet are smoother than ever. Miracle, huh?

However, only until I did plenty of research on the Internet about these Doctor Fish. Apparently, there are fish spa centres operating with fake Doctor Fish. See, there are two types of fishes being used for fish spa business. The cheaper one is called the Chin Chin fish. It costs about RM0.80 each while the real Garra Rufa fish (aka Doctor Fish) is about RM30 each, according to Sampuoton Spa.

 
Photo credit

And what Chin Chin fishes do is that when you insert your legs into the aquarium, they’ll just start nibbling your feet for whatever-dead-or-alive skin. When they’re full, they leave your feet alone. When they’re not, they might as well tear off your skin.

No kidding, those bigger Chin Chin fishes have teeth sharp enough to make a wound on your feet even though they don’t use Colgate or Darlie. On the other hand, talking about the genuine Doctor Fish – the Garra Rufa fish, it’s a species of ‘freshwater fish used for treatment of skin diseases’, according to Wikipedia.

‘The fish are like combfishes in that they only consume the affected and dead areas of the skin, leaving the healthy skin to grow, with the outdoor location of the treatment bringing beneficial effects.’

Not my legs – Garra Rufa, or not?

To me, that sounds like Garra Rufa fishes know what they’re nibbling and they never go tear people’s skin, like what some adult Chin Chin fishes do, which is awful. Chung was there too and his wound got bitten by the Doctor Fish (I don’t know whether it’s Chin Chin or Garra Rufa) and tiny wound started to bleed.

I know, I know, something this incredible and this miraculous and this fun yet ticklish shouldn’t be that terribly awful, right? Oh well, I don’t know about you because I was just trying. After reading all those things people have experienced, I decided that it was the first and the last time I’d ever visit a fish spa, or to let my feet be nibbled some fishes I tak kenal.

If you haven’t try fish spa before, maybe you should try it once. Just once. For related facts and precautions, go read Pink Elle’s review and the comparison table made by Sampuoton Spa. Do research before you visit any fish spa centres because you don’t wanna get infected by feet fungus or whatever infections or diseases.

By the way, this fish pedicures thingy (they don’t call it fish spa, I guess) was being banned in New Hampshire recently.

Now where on Earth is New Hampshire, you ask? I pun tak tau until I googled it – it’s somewhere in the region of north-eastern USA. And you know what?? The largest city in New Hampshire is called Manchester! But that’s not home of Old Trafford.

My left foot and the so-called Doctor Fish. Do they look like Chin Chin to you? I don’t know.

Final say is yours.