Singapore Day 1 - Paging Doctor Fish, And Meeting An Old Friend

After lunch, we wandered around the Flyer complex which had a selection of shops and activities.

We came across one particular location that had Abby's interest. She had read about it before, and had to try it and dared us to come along, so we all did so, especially as our Flyer tickets gave us a discount.

Yes, it's not a spa for fish, in Singapore, it's a place where the fish spa you.

We went to get fish pedicures. Abby stated we would all do it and double dared us, and since it was a dare, I could hardly shirk my fatherly image of being unafraid of the strange and unusual as this certainly was both strange and unusual.

The Doctor fish eats dead skin off your feet leaving them smooth and uncalloused.

So we went in, paid, and after taking off our shoes and washing our feet sat down on a comfy wooden platform and put our feet into a pool swarming with Doctor Fish.

Since I never have had a pedicure in my entire life, when the fish saw my feet they went:

"Holy Carp! We got a live one here! Everybody to the Buffet!"

Yep, I got mobbed by Doctor Fish.

This was extremely ticklish and was rather weird to realize there were fish eating my feet, you could feel them attach and nibble but it didn't hurt at all as they only ate the dead skin, but none of us could stop laughing due to the constant tickling. Certainly not something you experience everyday, that's for sure.

After feeding the fish and with now smoother feet, we headed back to our Singapore home and after the obligatory change of clothes due to the heat, a friend of mine who has been living in Singapore for the past 17 years dropped by to visit. I last had seen John when we were at University together so it was great to meet up with him again.

We had a great time catching up and he's now an accomplished journalist in Singapore. After socializing a bit he took us on a mini-tour of the Little India area of Singapore and we had a nice Mediterranean dinner at a restaurant he liked, and then we went to Mustafa Center - a huge supermarket in Little India. The Center offers pretty decent budget prices on foodstuffs and necessities and it was full of workers doing their shopping.

Not just full, it was packed to the gills with people doing their shopping and combined with narrow aisles led to the need to literally push through the crowd to get anywhere.

Yes, personal space was at a premium and measured in microns and people were puzzled when we said "excuse me" or "pardon me" as we pushed past - the etiquette is simply to push your way through to where you want to go without so much as a by-your-leave, and try to not get separated in the crush of the crowd.

We purchased some necessities and then waited in line for a cashier, who closed before we could get to the till. We went to another line and the process repeated itself. Finally, we got to a cashier that stayed open long enough to check us out and interestingly zip-tied each plastic bag shut - a rather interesting comment on both the center's customer service and how it viewed the honesty of its customers.

After that, the jet lag and excitement of the day really started to take hold so we called it a night and made arrangements to meet up with John later.

That was a very long, exciting and full day indeed.