This is one day I wouldn’t forget in a quite a while. In fact, some friends and I had been planning to do this for quite sometime now and we finally dug up the courage to actually do it. This is the day I went for my first ‘Fish Spa Session’ hahahaah. In fact this is no big deal la, I wanted to do it for a looong time liao but didn’t get the right people to go with. I actually tried calling a few people to join in but some chickened out (especially SL. Hmmmpphh!!) and some had other things to do. In the end, only TK and I offered our precious legs to be devoured by hundreds of hunger-induced fishes of various sizes, ranging from tiny to goddamn big. The thing is, the task looks simple. Dig in your feet, relax, and enjoy the ambiance of a spa environment right? WRONG. My first experience was SUPER geli, so tingling and ticklish until me and TK just can’t stop laughing, I actually had stomach cramps from the laughing. I think it was only after 15 minutes or half way through the spa session that we finally got used to the ticklish sensation. Here are some photos (WARNING: contains graphic images of HAIRY LEGS. Be warned!!):
ARRGGHHHH!!!! Actually there's no pain, only ticklish, like big gigantic ants crawling all over your legsss!!!
Just imagine these fishes had teeth. Now THAT would be scaryyyy!!!
Just look at the size of that bugger!!!!
Just me and the fishes. Okla, i'm a camwhore. Bite me.
It’s an experience that I’ll really never forget. But here’s the down part. I was told by a friend that the fish we experienced was NOT the proper fish that is supposed to give us those healing and cleaning properties. In other words, those fishes you saw in my photos above are PIRATED fishes. Yes, pirated. Even fishes get copied. Okla, not cloned but the spa we went to provided us the wrong type of fish. The proper fish is supposed to be the ‘Garra Rufa’ fish that are tiny, blackish in color and non-aggressive. Other names they have are “nibble fish” or the “reddish log sucker” (important word here: sucker, not biter). They originated from Turkey where they primarily consume on the dead areas of the skin, thus allowing the opportunity for new, healthier skin to replace the dead ones.
The ones we experienced were probably cheap replacements. A quick check online and I found out that there are indeed a different version called the ‘Chin Chin fish’ originated from China. Now I’m not saying this China version is dangerous or does not do the job of cleaning your feet. The ones we experienced were probably of the China variety and I’ve noticed that they did NOT bite or were NOT aggressive. But here’s the problem with these China variety: these fishes are however were pretty big in size and therefore had pretty big mouths. Fish being fish, they could have bitten more than they could chew and once they bite through skin, our skin could bleed and bacteria from the dirty aquarium water could have entered our body and God knows what diseases we could have suffered. And if you think I’m exaggerating here, this situation was actually brought to my attention from a family friend working as a Doctor in an established hospital. So there you go, if you really want to do a fish spa, be careful of the type of fish they are offering, don’t mess with your life are a measly 30 minutes of fun and laughter (watch Jim Carrey movies instead!!).
So the fish spa that we went to is called ‘Foot Master’ located at 1st Floor Subang Parade (also in Sunway Pyramid). With the many fish spa mushrooming all over Malaysia, it's best that everyone be careful and choose the right type of fish just in case!!!
Anyway, the results after our spa session? No bleeding or anything of that sort. In fact, my legs felt a bit smoother. And I noticed my leg was less hairy…I guess the fishes will have some indigestion issues to attend to….
After the spa, it was dinner time and I had to treat my family with a nice dinner for all the ‘Mother’s Day’, ‘Father’s Day’, birthdays, etc etc etc that I’ve missed because I was in Labuan. SL joined in, and we suggested a nice restaurant in KL but it was getting late and I bet they didn’t like jams so we headed off to ‘Wendy’s Bistro’ in Sunway Mentari (highly recommended place for its ribs and stuff. Yummy!!) but unfortunately it was closed. So we ended up in ‘Eden Restaurant’ in Subang Parade instead (back to Parade haha). They had this ‘Executive Set’ promo and it looks pretty good so all of us whacked it. For RM34.90 per person it had loads of dishes to choose from, but here’s what I ordered for the set:
Soup/Appetizer: French Onion Soup. You can never go wrong with Onion Soup!!! Yum yumm!!
Main Course: ‘BLT Steak on Olio Pasta’. A slice of juicy steak topped onto ribbons of Olio Pasta that had hints of spiciness and cheese. A rather delicious combo actually!!
Dessert: ‘Bread & Butter Pudding with Vanilla Sauce’. Not my usual choice of dessert but I felt abit brave that day and chose this over the usual ‘Tiramisu’ and all that. Abit too sweet but interesting dessert nonetheless!!!
Coffee or Tea: Coffee, Tea…or me? Hahaha
Tuesday, 2nd September 2008.
It’s the day for my return to Labuan. But my flight was 6:00pm so there is still a small window of opportunity to enjoy further. So we headed off to Mid Valley early in the morning, at around 10am haha (I’m constantly ending up in either MV or Parade in this trip. I wonder why…?) SL really wanted to see ‘Wall*E’ so we did just that, and again I have to say that ‘Wall*E’ is the CUTEST thing in 3-D form ever (doggies are still the cutest thing EVER). We got the ‘early-bird’ promo at RM7 a ticket (nice) but the cinema was quite empty and it was SUPER cold (*ahem*)….
After the movie it was lunch time and SL always loved Vietnamese noodles so we headed off to ‘Little Vietnam’ and stuffed ourselves silly. We had noodles but for me, the highlight of any Vietnamese restaurant visits is not the food, but the COFFEE. I don’t know about you guys, but if you like coffee you just have to try out their style of coffee. Vietnamese coffee or ‘Ca phe sua da’ is brewed with a small metal drip filter (with Vietnamese coffee powder in it) and is placed on top of a cup containing condensed milk. Hot water is poured into the filter and just let it drip down to the cup and viola!!! Stir it and drink the best coffee that you will ever taste in your life. Okla, I’m exaggerating but it’s a very excellent substitute to the usual bore of ‘Starbucks’ and ‘Coffee Bean’.
And with that sip of coffee heaven, we headed back to my place and duly headed off for the airport for my plane ride back to Labuan. That’s it for the Merdeka break holiday which consisted of sushi, Baskin Robbins, Fireman BBQ, Merdeka fireworks, a very bad Vin Diesel movie, shopping, a TK beef burger overindulgence, yamcha, a fish spa session, Eden steaks and Vietnamese coffee. Satisfied? Definitely.
See you all again in KL on this 19th September people!!!!!!!
