The fish spa of Borneo

We’d heard about the Borneo fish spa.  Apparently the fish like to nibble dead skin and whilst it tickles somewhat, it does actually do you some good.

Duly intrigued, we paid our money, put on our swimming costumes and headed for the river where this ritual takes place.  You can choose between a foot massage - where the fish nibble your toes and ankles - and a full body massage, where you actually lie down in the water.  I thought I should lead by example (no-one else was volunteering) so I gingerly dipped my foot in the water.  The fish - and we are talking 12-18” fish here, not your average tiddler - gathered in a frenzied assault on my submerged foot, rather like piranhas did in the old Tarzan movies.   Tickle?  not exactly.  Scratch? Yes, that’s closer.  Still, having made my choice, and paid for, the full body version, there was no going back now.  

OK thats close enough!

We had bought a couple of tiny packets of special fish food pellets, and were instructed to keep these tightly in our fists.  As I slowly lay down in the river, it was as if the fish instantly sensed the food and immediately called for reinforcements.  Shoals of fish started advancing from the outer reaches of the river.  You could see the rivulets in the water as they approached from all directions.  I was torn (a not entirely inappropriate metaphor) between trying to show Jules and the boys that it was fine, and admitting that it was very scratchy  - OK painful.  I wondered if my skin may have been more sensitive because I’d just been recovering from an allergic reaction to sea lice - (a sort of invisible jellyfish that brought out a mild chicken pox like reaction all over my body). Still I figured I could put up with it for 15 minutes.  

Frankie started naming the fish......but ran out of names

Pretending they cannot feel a thing

It took a while for Jules and I to encourage the boys to come in, Frankie first, then, Louis. I reminded them to keep their fists tightly bunched, because on one occasion when I didn’t, one of the fish seemed to swallow my entire little finger!  

By the time we left, I reasoned that it had done me some good because the red spots on my arms didn’t look so prominent, although Jules pointed out that this was probably because all the flesh in between the spots was now red too!

Oops!  Maybe I stayed in a little too long!