During a visit to Chiang Mai this weekend I came across this interesting stall in the lower floor of Kad Suan Kaow shopping Plaza. Foot therapy in the manner of letting lots of little fish feed on your dead skin.
I decided to try it out, even at 99 baht for just 15 minutes. As it was, the girl on the stall told me that a special promotion meant that I would get 30 minutes for the same price.
After first washing my feet, I took my place, dangling my feet into one of the several large tanks on display. It wasn’t long before the tiny fish started munching, and I have to say that this therapy was not as pleasant as I’d hoped.
It felt like lots of mini-electric shocks as the fish enjoyed a banquet of dead foot skin. I’m also not sure of the hygeine factor as I would imagine that, with many different feet going into these tanks, the water ought to be changed each time. This didn’t happen. I watched for a while and it was simply a scooping out of floating dead skin between customers.
As for the after effects. Immediately after my feet were quite sore, although only similar to after a skin stripping pedicure. But the day after I developed a deep crack in the skin of my big toe, where most of the fish had been feeding.Coincidence maybe, as i do suffer such ailment occassionally in this climate, but I don’t think I’ll be trying this therapy again for a long while.
