Overcoming my fear of Fish Spas!

By intlnabers On October 18, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Asia, Malaysia, Travels

OK, its confession time here on the International Nabers blog……

I have a ridiculously huge fear of fish. I mean H.U.G.E. fear of fish. Its so random to me, even I can’t understand why. I mean, I’ve been scuba-diving (ok- well, one time 15 years ago but still), I snorkel on a regular basis, I jump off cliffs and boats into the water just for the fun of it, I grew up jet-skiing, water-skiing & wake-boarding on lakes. I swim in pools, lakes & oceans. I’ve caught fish- big & small up in the waters off Alaska. I’ve swam with stingrays and dolphins. I’ve eaten and pretty much like 80% of the fish out there, and we have a koi pond full of fish in our backyard…..so what in the heck is my problem?!

I have no answer for you except to say that they scare the holy crap out of me!! Even when my husband and I snorkel, I get leery of their proximity. David loves to feed fish when we snorkel and it scares me so much because they swarm all around us nibbling on the bread, and some may “accidentally” nibble on my leg- freaks me out!! I would much rather watch them from a few yards out. Whether I am in a swimming pool, a lake, or an ocean, I have a fear that something is going to come up from below and bite me. What respectable 30-something year old has this fear?!?! I mean honestly Kimbra, pull it together.

Maybe its due to all those “JAWS” movies I watched as a kid, maybe its been all these years watching “Shark week” on the Discovery Channel, maybe its my older brothers teasing me and feeding me lies on our beach vacations….who knows? Whatever the trigger(s) was- I simply cannot seem to shake it loose.

So when we moved to SE Asia, I sure was in for a treat with all of the “Fish Spas” around town! David tried it with his hand when we were in Bali for our honeymoon in 2010 but I was still too “chicken” to try it out. Well, here we are now living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia…..where there are fish spas a-plenty….and his parents are in town visiting…..and they wanted to do it…..so how could I back out now?!

You may be asking right about now- “What is a Fish Spa”? Well I’ll tell you. Its a glass “tub” filled with water & a huge amount of a variety of fish called Garra rufa which are native to Jordan, Syria and Turkey swimming around in it. According to the legend told, the pedicuring habits of these fish were first discovered in the waters of a hot spring called Kangal in Turkey. Basically, they are very special fish that give you an underwater pedicure. Sounds fun right? Only if you are NOT me. The fish can range from the likes of a very small goldfish up to a medium size one. They don’t have any teeth and use their mouths like a suction cup to your skin and “eat” all the dead skin from your body. YUCK. And the hilarious thing is that I LOVE getting pedicures…..but by human hands please :).

A word of caution- these fish spas can carry bacteria in the less-than-sterile/clean ones out there. We just “happened upon” a nice one in the Bukit Bintang area of Kuala Lumpur. Please do check to look at the water and make sure its clear, and check to make sure the employees wash the feet of the patrons before putting them in the spas. After that- you are on your own….& don’t say I didn’t warn you!!

So, here are pictures of David and his parents enjoying their “fish spa” pedicures…and me crying, freaking out, and finally succeeding in mine….for about 10 seconds. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, but I still didn’t enjoy it at all. It feels like a bunch of tiny electrical shocks all over your feet and can get very ticklish. 🙂