Life Is Truly Exceptional

Imagine this

You're walking down a dimly lit street where many shophouses are aligned to each other. Your only guide are the neon lights, illuminating in an assortment of bright colors, mainly pink and red. You can't help but allow yourself to be drawn in by them, curious as to what are behind the doors as you start to read the words on them. You smell incense sticks burning and notice a buddha shrine is set at the doorstep of almost every shophouse.

Some gentlemen passed you quickly and go through the entrance. You catch their expressions. Initially flushed with eager and ecstasy, their grinning faces are quickly withdrawn once they stepped inside. They thank the owner curtly and leave in a hurry. You enter the interior and the uncle welcomes you warmly, giving you a tight squeeze on the shoulder.

Your eyes are diverted to the girls behind the glass windows. The three girls are seated on a long, sofa couch in what seems like a waiting area and the brightness in that room is almost blinding. They are on their cell phones, texting or playing you do not know. You focus on their cleavages, but not really. What you are really looking at are the numbers hung between those two perky breasts. You shift your eyes back to their faces and it just so happens that two of them are starting to get impatient and they look up at you. One of them smiles and the uncle says in his language, "Do you want it? It's $150 per hour! They also do services like bathing too!" Waving your hand you said, "no, thanks," and head out.

This is what a (whore)shophouse in Geylang Lorong would look like. But then again, all the shophouses has a distinct design to set it different from each other.

Having never stepped into the red light district of Geylang, this virgin experience is wholly remarkable and unforgettable. I could describe it all to you in great detail, but it'll prove futile, for something this uncompromising is something you have to see for yourself. But here I am, blogging it down, processing everything I've seen at the same time.

To me, Geylang Lorong is a collective of misfits, filled with shophouses, restaurants, condominiums, banks and whatnot, bustling with life behind every corner, nook and cranny. A suburb shunned away from government and despised by society, because of the 'dirty' trades it conduct. It's a place where people come to relax and enjoy, to vent their frustrations without a care in the world. A place to make some quick cash illegally and then fuck off from the scene. The streets are made for the lonely hearts, by the lonely hearts.

Out on the main road and you'll see huge billboards and a sea of people of different ethnicity. The roar of traffic drowns out the conversations. Some are looking for things to buy, while some loiters around at side shops looking at viagra pills. And trust me, you'll just get lost in there if you haven't got any idea of where you wanna go. They have budget shops if you're into snacks and drinks. Clothes are being sold cheaply (Oh man I really need new clothes...) And food can be found almost anywhere, like prostitutes. Just need to locate the right place, which is pretty easy when you have a guide.

Coffee shops are opened into the wee hours of the night. And behind these coffee shops, illegal gambling activities conducted with people placing bets on "big" and "small". Women standing in dark alleys and their pimps smoking away. Men walking with a woman in their arms walk into a hotel. And I glimpsed up the windows of the high rise hotels and hope for a window with curtains drawn, but to no avail. Later on, in one of the deserted roads hidden behind some shophouses, I asked one of them girls where she is from.

"Si Chuan, Cheng Du. Handsome, come on, you wanna have a go?"

"Uh no thank you. Haven't got any money."

"Haiya, then you still ask where I'm from. Hmph won't go with you.", and she saunters away from me, in a slight haughty and flirty mood. Obviously the night is still young. I am sure she found someone willing after a while I left.

My friends and I walked back the same path and now the gambling crowd had gone. In its place, two policemen were handcuffing a man. He was strangely calm. Perhaps he knew this is it. I can safely make the guess that he was either selling pirated DVDs or hosting the illegitimate den. It is quite a sight, really, to see the police in action. I didn't feel proud for them, neither disrespect for the arrested man. It was... Life.

Yes, being there in the heart of Geylang Lorong has brought me some fresh perspective and shed some light on what I already have theorized. And I love it there. It is so amazing for my senses and my thoughts. I was out of my comfort zone that my parents and society has placed me in. To protect me from harm and making mistakes that I'll regret. This is a late accomplishment on my side. I should have gone there when I hit the age of 18. I feel like I've missed out a lot on life.

The FACT of the MATTER is, being in Geylang proves my point:

There is no right or wrong.

No black or white.

No one is truly evil, and no one is really benign too.

The world is such a complicated place. Yes, like there's a glamorous, squeaky clean side to Singapore, but also there are places like Geylang, where the proletariat struggle to thrive under difficult circumstances. 

I used to slightly despise sex workers and people who do illegal trade, and question why do they do it. Now I understand more after this night trip. And I feel sad for them, because of how society threw them away to the gutters and other various reasons. It wasn't their fault to begin with. The ones I truly despise are those who look down on others, and still have the cheek to lie, cheat and cause harm intentionally.

Afterall, we're all trying to make the world a better place. Let's all a step back and realize every single decision that we make has a ripple effect on our future. We're all connected!

"No matter what you do, it will never amount to anything

more than a single drop in a limitless ocean!

Yet, what is an ocean but a multitude of drops?"

- Haskell Moore & Adam Ewing's Last Words

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