Fish spa!
On Saturday, our second day of sightseeing in Singapore, we had a relaxed start to the day before venturing out for lunch, a wander past the iconic Raffles Hotel, an MRT ride across the country to visit the Qian Hu Fish Farm to experience a fish spa, and dinner at a hawker centre in Chinatown.
We'll do separate posts for the food, Raffles and Chinatown, but we'll start by letting the boys tell you about the fish spa in their own words (I interviewed them). Visiting a fish spa was a suggestion we'd seen in a Lonely Planet Kids guide to Singapore, and F had set his heart on doing it. It was the highlight of everyone's day!
Whose idea was it to go to a fish spa?
F: Mine.
What was it like there?
F: Awesome. The weird tickly feeling on your feet felt like tiny vacuums slooping* at your feet.
*made-up word
J: Weird. Strange. It also smelled fishy.
What did the fish do when you put your feet into the water?
J: Eat them.
F: They kind of circle around your feet for a bit, and then one or two of them darts down and has a little sloop on your feet and then zooms away when you flinch — because you always flinch the first time — and then the fish swims back to the rest and tells them, "hey, it's delicious!" and then you get swarmed by tiny vacuums.
How big were the fish?
F: There were three different areas of fish. The big circle one with algae coating the bottom had billions of these 3cm-long fish and you get swarmed by 700 at a time.
J: No, not 700. There were four sizes of fish. There's the itsy bitsy tiny ones that go, "mmm, feet". Then there are the medium ones that I've only gotten eaten by one before — it was a quick dart and back. There are the large ones that I did not get eaten by. Then there are the giant ones that are a human-foot-and-a-bit long.
F: Yeah, the giant ones were about that long. But they wouldn't bite me, not even when I put my foot right in front of their face or kicked the water all around them. They just lounged on the floor of the fish spa.
How long did you keep your feet in the water?
F: A minute max at a time.
J: I don't know.
How long did you stay for?
J: 30 minutes.
What else did you see there?
F: Turtle feeding, fish catching, koi feeding.
J: We didn't do those though.
F: There was also an area where you could buy fish and another shop where you can buy tanks for your fish, and decorations.
J: And there was food. Very yummy food.
Thanks boys!
PS. It was quite hard to find a fish spa to go to — apparently they are becoming increasingly unpopular and/or have been banned in some places due to health risks. We'll let you know if our feet fall off!