P- Where are you going?
Ansen- To swim.
G- Where?
Ansen – Don't know yet. Maybe at the big hotel down the street.
P- Sounds good. What are you going to do, just walk in like you belong there and get into the pool?
Ansen – Yes. (Freshman smiled.)
G- Ok, good plan. Good luck and let us know how well it works. Maybe we'll want to go swimming too.
We worked on blogs for a while.............
G- I'm hungry. What are we going to eat today?
G- A roast beef po-boy from Short Stop.
P- Yeah, me too. What do you feel like eating that we can get?
G- Blech! I don't want anything from around here, just go to the lunch vendor and see what he wants to give us today. I don't care what it is. This lunch is purely utilitarian, and just to make my stomach stop growling.
P- I agree. Ok, let me see what he wants to feed us today.
Phyl returned with pork fried rice and chicken curry.
G- Ah, I see we get to have chicken today. This is very good.
G- Ok. I think it's going to tickle too much for me to stand it, but I'm willing to try it.
As we were heading off to the Fish Spa, Ansen & Freshman returned.
G- How'd it go at the pool?
Ansen – Good. We walked in, jumped in the pool, swam for a while, then left.
P- No one said anything to you?
Freshman – No.
P- That's good to know. What are y'all doing tonight? You want to go Karaoke?
Ansen – No, we are already going to the buffet with the Australian boys.
We carried a bag of laundry across the street. It was exciting to have our clothes washed in a machine and have them smell so nice when we put them on, and we were enjoying this luxury. The laundry was weighed, 1.5 kilograms; it would cost 75 Baht (about $2.30). Hell, we have such few clothes, even if we washed everything at the same time, which we couldn't because we'd have to be naked, it would still cost less than $8.00. Having our laundry washed here, by someone else, was cheaper than washing it ourselves at the coin operated machines in Singapore.
The Fish Spa that we selected was 2 blocks away. Actually, there is a fish spa on almost every corner, but this one looked nice, seemed very clean, and had a lot of fish in the tank. It was a good day to do it because we thought the fish would be hungrier since there were so few people around, and likely not many, if any, customers so far this day. We selected the 15 minutes for 150 Baht ($5.00), removed our shoes and changed into their flip flops, then followed the woman to an area where they washed our feet. Phyl & I made faces and laughed over the ladies' heads as they tickled our feet by scrubbing them with a pumice stone.
P- I hope it works too because my heels are so calloused
G- I hear ya, Gladys. Have you felt how scratchy my heels are? You know it's freaking me out since I love to have my feet creamed and in socks. My poor feet. They may never be the same again.
P- They'll be fine, Agnes. I'm sure you'll go back to your fanatical feet creaming ritual as soon as we get home. I don't like the callous on my heel, but worse yet, I feel like my feet will never be clean again from all this walking around barefoot.
G- You know I don't like that either. And you can call my feet creaming fanatical, but I'm the unlucky one getting my feet, ankles, & legs cut up by your nasty, scratchy feet. You're lucky that I have such soft feet.
G- Hmmmmm.
We were lead into a room with cushioned benches along 2 walls. In front of the benches were 3 very large fish tanks full of little fish. The lady directed us to sit wherever we wanted, so we sat near each other, but put our feet into different tanks so we could make the most of the munching. Phyl put her feet in first.
P- Hahahahahahahhahahaha! Oh my gawd! It tickles so much I'm not sure I can stand it for 15 minutes.
G- (I put my feet in and started cracking up!) It's almost taking my breath away. It's like being held down and tickled when you were a kid.
P- It feels like more of a vibration than a tickle.
G- Maybe you're right. I'm just breathing deeply. Hahahahahahahahah!!!!!
P- Hahahahahahahahah!!!!
This went on for what seemed like a long time, but was probably a minute or less, then the tickling sensation stopped and it just felt like a mild vibration. It was kind've freaky to watch the fish attached to your feet up to the water line and chomping away. Every now and then when one of the bigger ones would relocate, it would tickle, but we quickly got use to it. The lady was watching a show that looked like Asian Star Search for young kids and we sat watching & laughing with her while small fish chewed on our feet. It was quite the experience. Maybe because we were the only people in the place or because we were bonding over Asian Star Search, but she let us go for 25 minutes and charged us for the 15 minutes we had requested. When finished, it did seem like our heels were less calloused, or maybe it was just mind over matter. Whatever, we had another fun, unusual experience on our trek around the world!
