Silicone Valley

Acknowledgment: Thanks for that ingenious title, Nick.

Nick couldn't believe that after 8 months of living in Singapore, I've never been to Orchard Towers, much less knew where it was. With its local rep of being the four floors full of whores, he decided to take me there so I can satiate my voyeuristic curiosity.

We went to a pub called Ipanema which appeared dowdy and sleazy from the outside, and even more so in the inside. Nick told me every girl in there was a 'working girl'. The place was full of Asian girls in skimpy and provocative outfits which barely concealed their ridiculously large breasts and tiny protruding asses. There were a handful of them whom I assume purposely forgot to put on a shirt and were running around in their bras, wishing such brazen tactic would catch the fancy of potential clients. Everywhere I turned I saw cleavage. I was overwhelmed with having to visually digest such inordinate amounts of silicone my head started to ache.

I noticed that all the girls made the first move by either tapping the guy's shoulder to get his attention or merely walking up to him to chat. It didn't even come as a surprise that most of the guys were old, balding, and fat.

After consuming a considerable amount of alcohol, going to the ladies room was inevitable. As with all ladies restroom, it was packed with women touching up their make-up and powdering their noses. Some half-accusingly stared at my modest chest, probably wondering why I didn't get a boob job.

We didn't stay long enough at Ipanema for me to find out how these seemingly innocuous chats turn into business transactions. We moved to another bar called Crazy Horse (or Whores) which was obviously the lady boys' territory. We took a peek and I was surprised to see a good number of customers canoodling with these lady boys. Nick told me I looked dazed...and I was! I've never been caught in the midst of such colorful perversions of the flesh trade! I was in a rabbit hole of debauchery, vulgar fetishes and profligacy. It was crazy and surreal.