I took a trip to Bangkok this weekend to get my health insurance sorted out. The plan I had with the school expired, and I had options to change providers, so I decided to get one with better coverage.
Teay helped me find the offices of the new company, and we did some good shopping and eating as usual for a Bangkok trip, including my first bagel with cream cheese since coming to Thailand. Also saw the new Harry Potter movie, which I enjoyed -- I thought it captured the characters personalities from the books as I see them better than in most of the previous movies.We also had a fun experience walking through Siam Square, a shop area close to the Siam Paragon and MBK. As we were walking by shops, we got to a glass shopfront and saw a foreign guy sitting with his feet dangling into a big aquarium-type thing with lots of fish in it. All fairly small, sucker-mouth type fish, swarming his feet and cleaning/nibbling away. He gave us the thumbs up and seemed to be enjoying it. The following day, we were walking through the same area again, so I decided that we should go and check it out.
Fifteen minutes of fish treatment cost 200 baht, or 30 minutes for 300 baht. I wondered if Teay and I could split time and do 7.5 minutes each for 200, but she was a bit chicken to test it out and just wanted to watch me. So, I requested the 15 minutes and they gave my feet a quick wash before taking me over to the tank. Teay gave the receptionist some extra longan fruit that we had with us, also.
I didn't quite know what to expect the fish would feel like. It felt pretty weird, but not at all painful. The massive numbers of fish all swarming around at once sort of overloaded the limited number of foot nerves, I guess. Quite comfortable once I got used to it -- I guess I would compare the sensation to scrubbing feet with a loofa sponge.
And, just as Teay and I had done the day before, lots of people stopped to look in and gauge my reaction or give me "you're crazy!" looks. I gave lots of people the thumbs up, so maybe I encouraged some future customers also. I wasn't keeping track of the time, and when they said I was done Teay mentioned that it had been about 34 minutes for the 15 minute price -- not sure if Teay's fruit bribe or my interaction with foot traffic outside through the window got me the extra time free!After it was done my feet felt quite good, and relaxed like after a Thai foot massage. Definitely worth the 200 baht to test it out! :)
Photos HERE.
