I heard about this when I last visited Turkey in 1998 but I simply thought it was silly to go for such treatment to rid of dead skins by fish known as Garra Rufa or nibble fish or Kangal fish. The idea of these fish eating on my dead skins simply invoked the image of piranhas frenzily feeding on my flesh. Anyway, these fish are freshwater fish (and so are the piranhas but apparently these Kangal fish don't have teeth - thank God!) that are used for treatment of skin diseases such as psoriasis, notably from the Kangal district in Turkey (Source from Wikipedia)
A decade later, the idea of the fish doctor cropped up again after a friendly conversation with my brother about this new place he read in the newspaper. The place is called Kenko Reflexology & Fish Spa located on the fifth floor at Pavillion Kuala Lumpur, a new shopping mall located in the famous Golden triangle. However, this time I decided to experience 'fish reflexology' for real. I went there with my son after having dinner at TGIF. A 30-minute session of fish spa therapy for adult costs RM38 and for my son is RM19 (50% off). If your kids are below 4 years of age, the therapy will be free.
After signing up, the lady asked us to go and get our feet cleaned before we can proceed to dip our feet in the 'aquarium' filled with these feet-nibbling fish. The reason for washing is to ensure that our feet are cleaned from any chemical products such as lotion or medication ointment etc. Once we were done scrubbing our feet, we were off to the treatment area. Grabbing ourselves a pair of towels (small size) and square cushions, we both sat down away from the curious onlookers. For those who are brave and have nice looking feet, there is a the option to sit directly in front of the entrance where customers or simply those who are curious can look through the aquarium and see the fish nibbling on your feet. For me and my son, we prefer the KLCC view. Heh! Heh!
Standing next to the water, we can see that the fish were already congregating near us waiting to pounce on our feet the moment we dipped our feet in the water. I started first by dipping one foot in the water first because my son was simply overwhelmed by the number of fish near him. I started to laugh as it was ticklish. The number of fish is also increasing. Damn! I must have a lot of dead skins. My son, upon seeing me laughed, also put his foot in and he started to giggle uncontrollably. It was fun to think of it - the idea of spending 30 minutes of quality time with my son and having my dead skins removed was simply exhiliarating. Anyway, imagine trying to explain to my son why he can't jump into the water to play with the fish and also why the fish were nibbling away the dead skins and not chomping on our flesh and most importantly, why I had more fish swarming around my feet compared to him and many more questions that I would prefer to keep to myself. Ahh! The joy of fatherhood.
There is nothing provocative about this but I enjoyed this experience very much and will definitely recommend this to others. In fact, I will go back for one more session before I fly back to Austria. I hope the fish will still be alive after my session today. He! He!
By the way, for anyone who is interested, Kenko is planning to open another branch somewhere in Sunway that offers the fish spa that caters not only for the feet and calf but the entire body (of course, the head has to be outside of the water)
Enjoy having your dead skins removed from your legs!
