Musings from Singapore: Red Light Special

Another interesting thing about my ‘hood: it has been brought to my attention that my neighborhood in Singapore is fairly near the “red light district”. And by “near”, of course I mean, “smack in the middle of.”

One night as The BF and I were wandering through the neighborhood, we walked down a street and realized that on either side of the sidewalk, there were beautiful women, dressed in short, tight, shiny dresses, wearing high heels, sparkly jewelry and lots of make up. They weren’t talking to each other. They weren’t really doing anything but standing there staring at people walking by. As we approached the end of the block, I leaned over to The BF and said “we just walked through a passel of prostitutes, didn’t we?”

Yep.

Since then, I’ve been paying more attention to the presence of prostitutes. They are more prevalent at the west end of my neighborhood (I live in the east end) and they are more prevalent on the streets on the south side of the main drag (I live on the north side). So I don’t see a ton of hookers in my everyday comings and goings. But they’re there.

The more western streets on the south side of the main drag are even numbered streets. One time, The BF was taking a taxi to my apt and the taxi driver got confused about my address and took The BF to a brothel. (I live at #10, Lorong 31. The taxi driver took The BF to Lorong 10. An even numbered street on the southwest end of the ‘hood.) As The BF was telling him “no…this isn’t the right place”, the taxi driver starts explaining the area: that the prostitutes you can get on the street are “Freelance” whereas the ones in the brothel are contract and more “high class”. You can tell if a building is a brothel (and open for business) when the address numbers are lit up red.

And this is where I’m living for the duration of my time in Singapore. A far cry from Lower Queen Anne. 

I'll try to get some pictures of women walking the sidewalk and we can take a vote on whether she's "Working or Not Working".