Geylang 101

As tempted as I am to bitch about the bee-yoh-ches at my training school, I won't, because I'm a scaredy-cat, and also because the culture of this particular company is such that gossip travels faster than wildfire, i.e. faster than anywhere else. Bloody hell.

But the same cannot be said of my batch mates, who are the probably the most fun-loving, unassuming bunch that could congregate in a little room by virtue of little other fact than that called "Chance" (or some might term it "Fate").

In the two months or so we've been together as a class, we've taken a truck-load of photos already, but these shall be the first time some of these faces grace this here Ms Coddle's blog.

Yesterday, at the behest of Ms Kho, we traipsed down to:

(please allow me this vanity shot.)

for some gastronomical delights.

And on a sidenote, went on a little educational tour.

But as I was informed that they were many watching them, the only picture I took of the ladies working the street was this:

In any case, it wasn't the Night Safari I was at. It was a real eye-opener, though, honestly. Previously, I'd only gone down these streets behind the safety of four doors, which is a completely different experience from physically walking down the roads and past the hourly-rated hotels. And it was a good thing that we went in a large group, because the boys were variously teased and groped at (in the balls no less), while men kept giving me and Jac especially the once-over.

At one point, because we were standing too long at the end of a street waiting for some of the boys to withdraw cash (there was a long queue caused by the uncles who were buying services that came on a cash-only basis), an old bespectacled peh peh even came up to me. Despite wearing a white polo tee and bank pants, funeral-style, and in the midst of tying my hair auntie-style, I was approached. I didn't hear very much of what he had to say however - I simply dived straight into the semi-circular safety zone formed by two of my batch boys who were standing nearby.

Don't get me wrong though, people. I wasn't there to pass judgements at the people who drive the trade, whether on the demand or supply side. I was just there to sample a sociological phenomenon that I would not otherwise get to see in my daily life. As sleazy the feelings you get from being there, I can't help but feel that such deviation from our otherwise squeaky-clean image just makes things more real. It is easy to go home to our comfy lives and think that that is all there is to life, period. But we are not a homogeneous society. These people have their reasons for being there and doing what they do, and whatever those reasons are, it is not for me to put a value on.

I was just there to get an education.