Today, I had a piranha pedicure

... and I didn't like it. Not a bit. Yet I kept putting my feet back in the water. I wanted to be able to say that I'd done it. Fish therapy, that is. You see fish spas all around Indonesia. Some are fancy and you pay $6 for an hour of therapy. The one where my friends and I went was $2 for 30 minutes. And the ponds were in the hallway of one of the local malls.

I've often walked by these ponds, looked at the locals sitting there totally relaxed, as if there really aren't about a million little fish stuck to their feet and legs. OK. Not a million. But those suckers know how to vie for a piece of property.

Like I said, I just couldn't keep my feet in the water. I tried. I may have kept them in for 15 seconds at the most. But the constant nibbling sensation was just eerie. (It's actually sucking, not nibbling, really. Those suckers don't have teeth.) An hour after the therapy, it still felt like I had fish nibbling/sucking at my skin.

I kid you not.

It was an impromptu decision to do it as a treat for one of my colleagues' birthdays. We've all been curious about it, but no-one wanted to do it alone. Had we planned to go, I would've taken my camera. I'd go back with friends simply to take photos, not to put my feet back in the water.

Granted, they're not piranhas. They're garra rufa, or "red log suckers." Or doctor fish. Call them what you may, having them suck at my skin gave me the heebie-jeebies!