Dr. Fish Coffee Shop

Imagine fish nibbling at your toes...for real! Dr. Fish Coffee Shop is not like other coffee shops. It is certainly not Starbucks.  They serve coffee and deserts like many other coffee institutions but they offer a special well being service.  Foot care!  

I made my first visit to Dr. Fish Coffee with some students from Olivet Nazarene University. They too are teaching at KNU's camp. After hearing stories about this place I finally got up the nerve to try it. One of the ONU students had already been this week. She's new in the country yet she showed me how to get there! We laughed at that irony. 

After sharing dessert we followed our waiter to the fish tanks.  We washed our feet in a sink and then sat at the edge of the fish tank debating if we really wanted to do this.  We had already paid the two dollar fee.  It seems so counter intuitive to place feet in a pool full of feet eating fish. I thought to myself, "How many times have I swam in a lake and feared the off chance of a fish bite? And now I'm paying for it!" As I dropped my feet into the tank I couldn't look. I screamed when they fish dived into my feet for food.  

 There were three of us sharing the tank full of fish and for some reason the fish really loved me. Perhaps my wearing flip flops in S.E. Asia prepared my feet well.   When I couldn't stand the fish biting between my toes I'd take my feet out.  "Put your feet back in", the other girls pleaded.  As soon as I took my feet out the fish chomped in to the other girls. I returned my feet only to be swarmed again by feet eating fish.  They have some kind of dead skin radar! Their feasting tickled.  It felt like little suction cups working on my skin. I'm not sure how good this is for "well-being" but it was fun.   This is one of the more weirder things I've done in a while!