Central Market, Petaling Street Dodgems and Flesh Eating Fish

I spend most of the afternoon in the Lake Gardens and then hail a cab to Central Market. The driver quotes me 15RM (£3) as a flat price, and I asked him to use the meter instead: he refused, and I was really annoyed (probably because he thought I was tourist). Though the fare was pretty cheap, it was probably triple what it would have been had he used the meter... He said something about it being Hari Raya and no taxis would be on the meter today.


Anyway, I cant be bothered to argue and take the cab and he takes me on my way. I reluctantly part with my cash (no tip) and I wander about the various stalls in the pastel blue Art Deco Central Market (selling mostly overpriced stuff to tourists). Supposedly this market was revamped to rival Covent Garden. I can't see it myself - except if you count the stalls selling London teeshirts.

An hour or so later, I stumble across a crowd of people sitting around these large paddling pools with their feet dangling in: the Fish Therapy Pools. I’d read about these in the guidebook: you stick your feet into a tank of fish that live off dead skin. Sounds absolutely horrendous, but after watching for a while I thought that my feet were tired and hot enough to warrant a nibbling fish massage and so I paid my 5RM.


I was smiling to myself thinking that as soon as I put my feet in, all the fish would float to the top, dead, but I plunged them in nevertheless. The feeling was really weird – the fish swarmed towards my horrible flat, dead skin covered feet and seemed to be having a feast down there: it was a weird sensation, but they don’t actually bite with teeth, more suck / kiss your feet! I did have to keep moving my ankle out of the water as one particular therapist seemed to like sucking the open mosquito bite that I had there, which wasn’t very nice. I also imagined that this one would get too greedy and I'd end up with a stump instead of a foot.


10 minutes later, and grisly imaginations aside, I was done and I left there with lovely smooth feet!


From there, I walked to Petaling Street and have to dodge the street market traders trying to lure me into their stalls to buy their fake Gucci, Paul Smith or Rolex! It’s a bit like a computer game – as you avoid a seller on one side of the street, another one pops up in your way reaching out for your arms (and money) on the other.

After a while I am exhausted after the efforts, so was really happy to get lured into a Chinese food stall serving Tiger beer and dim sum.


Mmmmm.