Sometimes we stray, or Raymond visits Geylang.

Yesterday evening, I decided to go to Geylang. It was something that I've been meaning to do for a while now, but I was always putting it off. With most of my excuses used up, and a camera in hand, I decided that yesterday night would be the night. At about 9 in the evening, I set off to the great mystery that is Geylang. I've heard many things about the place, but it wasn't enough to prepare me for what I saw - what I saw was worse, and frightening, but it's a part of life, just as how we have to take a dump in the morning, every morning.

I took the train down to Aljunied and proceeded on foot from there. It felt different, the moment I stepped out of the station. The place was bustling and the lights were blinding. Chatter in unfamiliar languages reached my ears. I suddenly became very conscious of the camera which I'd hung around my neck. I wandered around, and was struck by the number of eateries in the immediate vicinity of the station. There were lots, and they all seemed busy. It didn't look seedy - at least, not yet.

I soldiered on into the heart of Geylang, jaywalking across roads and jostling through crowds. The crowd consisted mostly of males above the age of 30s, I'm guessing. There were lots of uncles and foreigners in the area. It's crowded, like town, but the demographic is completely different. It was incredibly disorienting, but a part of me liked getting lost in the crowd. Walking along the main road, I noticed a lot of eateries, random lighting shops and stores catering to foreign workers, because they're quarters are in the area. There were a smattering of...ladies (for lack of a better word), but not as many as I though there would be.

All this while, I was taking photos, but not very openly. I'm not much of a street-photographer (yet), and I don't really know the etiquette.

Busy, even though it's a Thursday.

Then, I turned into one of the even-numbered lorongs.

Pop-up shop, Geylang-style.

Wait, before that, let me talk a little bit about how Geylang is organized. There are three main roads which cut through Geylang; Sims Avenue, Geylang Road and Guilemard Road (see image below). These roads are where most cars and buses pass when going towards town or Bedok. In between these three roads are two stretches of blocks, and they're separated by 'lorongs', which is a Malay word for...something which escapes me at the moment. At the first stretch of blocks are the odd-numbered lorongs and on the other are the even-numbered ones.



Geylang is an odd piece of land, but it's quite nicely-segmented. The eating places are mostly at the odd-numbered lorongs, the condos are at the higher-numbered condos. The dirty places are the even-numbered lorongs in the teens and twenties.

These lorongs are less crowded. It's a very dark and scary place. I walked through alone and with a camera around my neck, feeling very much like a sore thumb. Men slinked through the lorongs in small group. Women stood at intervals, speaking whispers into the ears of anyone who passed by. They were made-up and dressed-up. Some of them looked quite seductive. I tried to avoid them.

There were shophouses on either side of the lorong. The shophouses were brightly lit, like one of those houses you see in movies during Christmas. They said things like "WELCOME", or "MASSAGE", or "COME IN" in gaudy colours, flashing, throbbing. Outside the houses were usually a man, just seated there. Sometimes, he is accompanied by women. I think these men are possibly the pimps. What really struck me about the houses is how they had no names - all they had was the unit number. 12, 15, 38, 32...yet, each one of them were unique and distinct.

Mysterious shophouses.

It's not CNY yet, right?

I wasn't able to take better pictures of the shophouses because me standing there for an extended period of time with a camera would attract unwanted attention - but I hope that the pictures above gives you enough of an idea.

After walking through one lorong, I walked through another, and was greeted by the same sight - houses with no names, only numbers. The decorations could be quite elaborate though - and it was enough to give you a rough idea of what to expect inside. I suspect (and in fact, have heard) that each lorong specialized in something, and that you can get anything you want in Geylang as long as you know where to go. There was one lorong where I walked past (and was tried to be picked up by, gulp) a few trannies, so yeah.

You can't see what's going on inside. Not a damn thing.

Rainbow Club. Okay. Got it. Rainbows aren't straight.

The lorongs had the shophouses, which I guess are brothels, or fishtanks of sorts. Who knew what lay inside. As I walked past one, the guy outside asked me whether I wanted to come in. I politely said no, as if I was turning away someone giving me a flyer I didn't want. Each lorong also had at least three hotels; with at least two of them being Hotel 81s. So, yeah, the lorongs had shophouses and hotels...but the lorongs had girls who just stood around too, accosting passers-by. The lorongs in their teens had more of this, from what I observed.

Transaction in progress.

There was this particular lorong where the ladies were exceptionally large in their numbers. I swear, there were at least 30 standing along the lorong, and as I walked past, they said stuff to me, about having a good time, and what not, but I politely declined, with the emphasis on politely. They called me "abang" because I looked Malay, I guess. One such lady got particularly aggressive with me - she blocked my way, and tried to hug me, and grabbed at my bag when I wouldn't say 'yes' to her. She did it in a playful way of course, and again, I politely turned her down. There was also this guy who called out to me from the other side of the street and made suggestive hand-gesture. I made a polite hand-gesture to decline.

Again, just as with the shophouses, each lorong had a unique character - ladies of a particular nationality or race seemed to be concentrated at different lorongs. Perhaps they were territorial about it.

They're just standing there waiting.

Still, I was really aghast by their sheer numbers. There were so many! Some of them looked quite young too! And of course there were old ones, and like...questionable looking ones. I even saw one in what looked like those Japanese school uniform. I saw her from the back; when she turned around, I thought to myself how I would prefer that she had not.

I was also taken aback by how forward they were about what they were doing, and how open everything was at the heart of Geylang. I never suspected that it was going to be quite so...laid bare and...in a way, straightforward. I take a bus to school, and the bus would pass by the main roads of Geylang - never in a million years would I have suspected just quite how things actually are in there.

It was like being in a whole other country, in a whole other place, where nobody cared about who you were - as long as you had the money, you're going to get what you want. I walked, and I walked, and I saw a whole new side of Singapore. All in all, I covered about 6 such even-numbered lorongs, was approached by at least 10 ladies, and had a handful of photos in hand. I noticed that I was sweating even though the evening was a cool one, probably because of how I walked faster than usual just to get out.

Looking back, I'm not sure what I was hoping to achieve with this endeavor  I guess I just wanted to know what it's like over there. I was curious. It's interesting to see a side of life which is so far detached from your own. This may be old news to some people, but it sure isn't for me. I was well and truly...exposed, unprepared for what I saw. And while I don't approve of paying for sex, the fact that it happens exists, and it persists, and even as I'm typing now, those anonymous shophouses will still be there, and those anonymous men and women would still be there, and the world will continue to spin and spin and spin.

More pictures:

Walls.

A rare quiet alley.

Geylang - Singapore as you've never seen it.

Alright, that's it for me. Seeyou tomorrow, same time, same place.