23 April, 2010
Beauty

A Tale of Two Fish Spas

23 April, 2010
We are all about the fishies this week! We checked out two fish spa’s with the help of our Guest Blogger Kate. Kate ventured to TST to try out Kiss Kiss Fish Spa and Natalie and I headed up to The Peak for a visit to Wonderfish! Spa.

Kate’s review of Kiss Kiss Fish Spa

I first heard about the ‘fish spa’ idea from a friend who has seen one in Singapore a few years back and, to be honest, I wasn’t convinced. I mean, having a load of mini-piranhas cannibalising your toes doesn’t really sound too appealing and I’m extremely ticklish, so I naturally assumed she was a bit crazy and thought nothing more about it.

Situated on the 6th floor of a very typical, shabby looking commercial building on Cameron Rd in Tsim Sha Tsui is Kiss Kiss Fish Spa, the setting is certainly pretty incongruous for a ‘brand new beauty therapy experience’, as Mrs Ko had explained it to me over the phone earlier that day. Hmm. Still, the spa itself looked promising, with fresh blue tiles, rows of floor-level, square fish tanks, wooden benches and orange cushions emblazoned with the spa’s cute logo.

Now for the interesting part.. ‘Are you ticklish?’ she asks. ‘Extremely’ I say, which produces a lot of giggling. Very gingerly, I lower one foot into the water, and almost immediately bolt it straight back out again, squealing like a 4 year old and producing more giggles from Mrs Ko who has clearly seen this all before. ‘Keep going’ she urges me, and I give it another go. This time I manage to get both feet in the water and sit there chewing on my lip to stop myself from shrieking as the whole tank (around 30 fish) get busy on my feet. ‘It gets better’ I’m reliably informed, and this is true; after a couple of minutes the sensation changes from ticklish to…well, this is where it’s hard to describe. I have honestly never encountered a feeling like it. I suppose the best way to describe it would be like a series of small electric shocks, but completely painless and quite pleasant. I know, I’ll never get a job in advertising, eh?,

It’s not going to give you the same smooth result as a Shanghai pedicure, but at only $98 a session, and with free membership that offers you additional benefits like free sessions in your birthday month and rewards for introducing friends, it seemed worthwhile to me. And much more fun!

Sassy’s Review of Wonderfish! Spa

We have heard so much hype about the whole fish spa experience that we jumped at the chance when Valupedia asked us to review Wonderfish! Spa’s Buy One Get One free deal. Wonderfish! is located on the 2nd floor of The Peak Galleria so we took advantage of the sunny Monday we just had and ventured up to The Peak to enjoy the beautiful day, some frozen yogurt (Berry Good just opened there!) and most importantly a visit to the fishie spa for some beauty R&R (although we ended up doing more laughing then relaxing!).

Going into it we really had no idea what to expect. We did know enough not to bring Hester with us as she is terribly afraid of being near fish and we anticipated that this was probably more then her nerves could handle. The spa is very clean and it is decorated in a calm blue and white theme. There are two spa pools that reminded me of a big hot tub and the treatments are communal. From what we saw they try to keep it so you are only in the pool with the group you came with.

Before we let the fish loose on our feet (they help get rid of hard and dry skin) we went through a thorough check to make sure we did not have any open wounds or infection as that is a big no no for the spa. Also, make sure you do not shave your legs 12-24 hours prior to going as your skin will be very sensitive and the fish may end up irritating it!

Our actual experience is not much different then Kate’s but instead of 30 Chin Chin fish we had 1,500 of the genuine and original Garra Rufa fish in our tank! There was some initial screaming and hysterical laughing from both of us and if you are ticklish be prepared to make a fool of yourself in front of others. The good thing is that everyone is in the same boat and one of our favourite things to do while we were there was seeing everyone’s reactions the first time they put their feet in the water. A big portion of Wonderfish!’s clientele are tourists and I am still laughing when I think of one Australian guy screaming like a little girl when he first stuck his foot in. It was such a fun experience and we totally recommend trying it at least once. They also do parties and you can BYOB so perhaps there is a Sassy Fish Spa night in the cards someday soon!

We took a video of our experience and we have to warn you…it is not the most pleasant thing to watch. As we mentioned there were 1,500 fish on us and they are not shy about sucking away at our dead skin!

So now, the moment of truth – were our feet any better off than before or was this just going to be another strange HK tale to tell everyone back home? Well, actually yes, for all three of us they did feel considerably softer, and refreshed, in a similar way to how you feel after a foot reflexology session.

Kiss Kiss Fish Spa
Address: 6/F, On Lee Commercial Building, 37 Cameron Road, TST
Phone: 2316 7999
Price: $98 for 30 minutes

Wonderfish! Spa
Address: Shop 25, Level 2, The Peak Galleria
Phone: 2849 2477 or 9743 1745
Price: $140/20 minutes, $180/30 minutes, $300/60 minutes (Valupedia deal = Buy One get One free until the end of May)

P.S. Another important thing to note….we found both spas to be extremely clean and they clean and sterilize the spas after each use.

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