Since I wrote my research paper on Singaporean sex work, it was only natural to pay a visit to their red light districts. I went with one of my white male friends, so it was also only natural that the men thought he was my client. Oh... the things I do for sociology. Love it.
The district was what you'd expect a redlight district to look like. Dim, sketchy, and skillfully hidden away from the general view. One has to duck into small alleyways, observe a little closer, and it is like a whole underworld opens up. From one view, the street looks like any busy street filled with coffee shops and outdoor restaurants with people. However, take a closer look... the women standing on the street would occasionally pull a male passerby close to her and whisper ($90?yes?), in the coffee shops you could see that a group consists of a group of old men and one young female, in front of what looks like regular condos are numbers painted red (signifying they are indeed brothels). After awhile you could distringuish who were the guys out for sex, and those who were selling the sex to the guys.
Taxi drivers are worth dedicating an entire paper, as many night shift actually are the pimps of the brothels!
We visited two of the districts, though there are more. The first one catered to the wealthier classes, while the second clearly was for the lower classes as one could tell by the deteriorating architecture, and the men that were there.
We also discovered the hang out night spot for the migrant malay workers that night as well, coincidentally (or not?) located right next to the red light district.
You would think that a country that historically banned gum and so many other things would ban sex work. Nope. Maybe it's banned in the law books, but the enforced policy is one of containment, and not of abolishment.
Overall though, this is 10 times tamer than what I saw at Patong Beach, Thailand.
