Two weeks ago Christina took me on a little adventure to the Dr. Fish Cafe'. I touched briefly on what Dr Fish is in my Coex Aquarium post. Dr.Fish is basically this particular kind of fish that eat the dead skin cells off for you. The Dr Fish Cafe experience is a big thing here, that many people do. I have been wanting to go for quite a while but didn't know where exactly to find it. It's only called Dr Fish by us foreigners, the name of the place is actually the Rest Tree Cafe'.
I have had mini experiences on my fingers while at both the Coex Aquarium and the 63 City building Aquarium. I can now say having a bunch of fish nibble your fingers for a few minutes is nothing when you have a swarm of them nibbling your feet for a full half hour, but we will get to that...
So with Christina as my tour guide we headed to the subway and to Banpo. Now I really found Banpo to be a very nice area. They had some really nice upper end stores on their main street as well as a Krispy Kreme! We decided to find the cafe' first and check the hours and then head off to find a place to eat. Turns out like most places in Korea they were open late, til 23:00 or 11pm. And compared to many other things in the city that's actually pretty early! So then we went into the streets behind the buildings lining the main road and found almost an entirely different world. Restaurants everywhere, gobs of people, bars, cafe's, candy stores, street vendors and of course Korean style Karaoke. ( Korean style karaoke is basically where you and your pals get a private little room where you sing and drink to your hearts content! They are all over the city, and something I have yet to experience. That should provide some interesting material for a post someday!)
Not sure at all what the "man in the box" is all about, but its another of the many things in Korea that makes a great picture!
Inside the restaurant.
Christina, she is so lovely!
I love Korean Pepsi! Yes it is different, smaller serving size and made with real sugar!
My very pretty dinner, it was a shrimp statue and this thing was kinda like fried uncooked spaghetti.
We decided to eat at a place with a huge Lucky Cat on the outside. I think it was a Japanese restaurant. Dining in Korea is awesome. Each table in the place was equipped with its own call bell, so you just buzz when you need something. This is so nice because you never have the annoying waitress come when you have a mouth full of food or when you are in the middle of a conversation. It also means they come when you need them without having to flag them down. The other bonus is no tipping here. The food of this place was great, the atmosphere was very interesting with a definite Asian flare the downside was it allowed smoking. That was OK until some girls sat at the table next to us and I had smoke being blown right in my face as I was eating.
A view of the street from behind the cafe'. At the very top of the picture are some windows, that is a karaoke place.
Another zoomed out view. At the bottom of the picture is a flatbed truck where the guy was only selling candy!
After dinner we went over to Dr. Fish. It is a Cafe' just like any other except there is a small platform by the window with two tanks of fish recessed into it. The deal is you go to the counter and order your beverage and for 2,000 won extra you get 30mins with the fish. Christina and I got our coffee and waffle and consumed that while enjoying some non child related or interrupted conversation. Then we decided we were ready for the fish! We told the assistant we were ready and he brought us over to the platform where we removed our shoes. Then we stuck our feet into a center tub where he washed them off. At last we were ready, and so were the fish! They were big suckers! Like 3 to 5 inches. The ones at the aquariums looked like sardines, so that was a shocker! Then they were all at the surface with their big sucker faces just waiting for our flesh!!!
My Caramel waffle, they are so good!!!!
Our very fancy coffee.
The inside of the cafe'. The fish are over under the large window to the left.
All the fish waiting...
My initial reaction!
Whoa!!! What a weird feeling that initial feet in the water was. I can not begin to tell you what maybe 100 or more fish attacking your feet at one moment feels like. All I know is that for the most part, in a very strange way, I liked it!!! Christina had done this before and was hesitating putting her feet in, then finally she did. She was ok with it until she started thinking that they were fish chewing on her feet! It was really funny and fun and weird. The worst was when they would get the very front of my toes, that made me jump.
Christina's reaction
Trying very hard not to think about the fact they are fish!
Sitting in the fish bath was really nice since it gave a great view of the street below us. Seoul is so beautiful at night with all the lights and billboards. There are always people somewhere. It's always a party full of bright lights, food and something to buy! At exactly 30 minutes the guy came back and told us our time was up. He washed our feet again in the center tub and we were on our way.
The view of the street from the cafe' window. Nice billboard, yes?!
Looking down at my feet.
Dr. Fish Zone!
Gotta love the English Translation on the directions!
We had some nightlife exploring to do! While walking around earlier deciding where to eat we saw a sign for creating your own stickers. We decided this was a cool thing to do so why not. Well we got in the place and there were like 8 or 10 of these booths where you walk in and make funny faces and they print on stickers. Let me tell you they were all full and there were people waiting in line for almost all of them. So we decided on one that looked extra Korean Quirky! The entire thing was obviously in Hangul so we weren't certain on what we were doing but we went with the flow and had a great time. It might sound cheesy but making funny faces to crazy backgrounds like a rabid bear is quite entertaining. When you are all done the machine spits out two little photo albums and your pictures. Then you follow directions written in Hangul and assisted with a few pictures to fold all your pictures into a tiny album. Mine is currently attached to my wallet where I get to laugh at us every day.
Sticker booth.
Another one...just for example.
Christina with our complete book and extra photos!
Me and my book. Sorry you don't get to see the actual photos!!!!
After that great bit of fun we went to Krispy Kreme and bought a few doughnuts. That was interesting because the girl at the counter couldn't speak any English and we don't speak any Hangul. Usually the point method works pretty well but she wasn't getting it. I managed to buy half a dozen even though I only wanted 4 and Christina got 1 because she finally just gave up trying to communicate with the girl. We also grabbed a little street food snack of a doughnut like puff filled with a nutty bean paste. Those things are so good when warm, no matter how full you are there is always room for some of them! After that we headed home. I bought some crazy socks in the subway, pirates and hippies. Korea is famous for its crazy socks, and they even make them here, so its extra cool. I will have to buy a ton and ship them to everyone for Christmas! It was a really great night. Christina was so proud she got to show me something for a change, I usually end up being the tour guide...LOL!
One more picture of something very random and Korean, The Kinki Robot... Hmmmm!!
