An Evening In Geylang

Just to bring everyone up to speed. I have finished my law degree at NUS and am now in the throes of the PLC (Practical Law Course) one of several things one has to go through to qualify as a lawyer in Singapore. The course is mostly painful ('cos seriously - studying and exams again?!! after one has graduated!) but it has several interesting elements...

A few days ago, one of those elements found me on the streets of Geylang. Aiyah relakslah. I know I keep threatening to change my calling in life and all that but really I was there on "work". Honest! See we have to do this pro bono (provide free legal advice) session as a part of PLC. Mine just happened to be at Geylang :-p. (For those not-in-the-know, Geylang is Singapore's very own Red Light District).

Anyways, there were four of us and we decided to do dinner and durians after pro-bonoing. Ken
was all Mr. Cool. I guess all Singaporean boys have seen these things from their army days so it's no big shock to them. Michelle did not seem too surprised either. Poor Jean, the "dipshit" (and future DPP) though was utterly freaked out. Me? I was just really surprised that it was so blatant. I mean we all knew that prostitution is legalised here and all but I guess we assumed that everything was done discreetly, behind closed doors etc.

At 6pm, when we first arrived for our pro bono session, the streets of Geylang seemed like any other street in Singapore but at7.30 when we were done, the scene had completely changed. Jean grabbed my arm and refused to walk alone lest she be mistaken for one of "them". Girls lined the streets and despite the stricture against soliciting, accosted male passersby. We braved the barrage of girls and proceeded on to dinner and durians. Oh my God the durians! Thou of the most succulent flesh, Thou King of fruits...(I proceed on to Ode-ify the durian..you get the picture :-).

Amidst Jean's OHMYGODs and Ken's insistence on giving us a driving tour of the "lorongs", I was struck by how really pretty and normal-looking the girls were. Not really vamps at all. Take away the bored expressions and the Bahasa Indonesia, they were girls at "A"(a certain club in Singapore that shall remain nameless :-). Doesn't say much for Singaporean girls or girls at "A" for that matter.

Of course it was really sad. The circumstances that would put you in the position of accosting a toothless,leering, disgusting old bastard. I think that freaked me out the most. But for the love of God, that could have been me.

We saw a lot of indonesian and "thigh" girls. Pretty little PRC girls and quite a few really hot Bapoks . I saw not a single Indian girl but then again this wasn't Desker Road. Also the dark alleys filled with Bangladeshis were just too dark to make out the skin colour of the girls. Their customers, meanwhile, ran the gamut- horny old Chinese men, horny old Angmoh men, horny young Chinese men, horny young Angmoh men....

Jean was really scared she would be mistaken for one of the "girls" and did a mini freak about how we were being checked out while we were busy watching Michelle exit her car (really badly!) from the parking space. Ken was all - well you were standing there arm-in-arm with one hand each on your hips, a checking out is pretty mild, all things considered. Statuesque, alabaster-skinned Jean merely freaked out somemore. I was just mildly insulted I didn't get propositioned. I mean seriously what 's there not to like :-p.

Epilogue : Seems Ken and Jean and a few others did a return visit the next day. The idea it seems was to garner a reaction of sorts from straight-laced Vikram. Unfortunately, this was not to be. Seems the streets were pristine. Surreal. Many theories were put forward. A raid? A whore strike? An extremely lucky night for all parties concerned?

Who knows? Perhaps it was a show just for the 4 of us. For one night we were stuck in the Twilight Zone of whore-land.