Walked towards the Orchard Road area, taking in the sights along the way. This includes the historic colonial area of the city, the administrative centre built up by the British. Visited the National History Museum and learned all about William Farquhar (appointed by Sir Stamford Raffles, and who was later to become the First Resident of Singapore) and the development of modern Singapore. Then walked to the vast rich modern shopping centres along Orchard Road, consumerism at its most opulent.

Towards evening, feeling tired, I took a bus to the top of Serangoon Road, the Little India area, and walked back along the road. After the ultra-modern chic of the city centre, this area looked run-down. But it exudes the atmosphere of India, the smells, the signs on the shops, the clothing on the passers-by. Men were drifting out of an ancient mosque, dropping coins into the outstretched palms of one or two beggars seated on the pavement. The pungent odour of Indian spices wafted from a number of Indian restaurants. It smelled good--I would have a meal somewhere around here later on.

Past the mosque I saw a side-street containing a number of small Indian shops, and off it was a lane that had a couple of bars, the punters sitting at tables dotted around the narrow street. A refreshing site for the weary footsore traveller! I sat down and had a beer, a large bottle of Tiger. A peculiar and annoying custom that they have in these bars is that the bar-girls top up your glass every three minutes--and even if you ask them not to, they'll still do it the moment you turn your head. A few moments later a European sat down beside me, and I could tell from his accent that he was German, so I greeted him in German. His name was B. He'd been living in Indonesia for the past 12 years and is married to an Indonesian. A German ex-civil servant who suffered an accident at work, he lives off his pension and supplements this with occasional acting roles. His stories about Indonesia are not very encouraging--corruption and nepotism are rife, the economy is stagnant, inflation high, unemployment rising, the military edgy. He enjoys getting away to Singapore for a break.

He told me about a fraud involving Guinness that had come to light the previous week in Jakarta. A group had opened bottles of Guinness, mixed the contents with mineral water, and resealed the bottles. They could make up 3 bottles of their "Guinness" from 2 real bottles of the black stuff. They sold their own brew mainly to prostitutes, among whom Guinness is popular.

As we ordered another beer, a tall attractive-looking woman passed through the alleyway, disappearing out of sight around a corner. "Aqua", said B.
I assumed he was changing his drink to mineral water, but strangely enough he accepted the beer that the bar-girl brought. A little later another tall woman passed through, and B. again intoned "Aqua".
"Du willst Wasser?" I asked, wondering whether he wanted to mix water with his beer.
He looked at me strangely.
"Was meinst Du?" he said. "I don't want water!"
"But you said aqua..." I replied.
He laughed loudly, banging the table and almost knocking over his glass.
"mak nyah", he said slowly, after he managed to stop laughing.
I was baffled, and it obviously showed on my face. "I explain," said B. "It's not a real woman, they say here, lady-boy."
There were lots of them around here, he said. They would come out in the afternoons and again late at night. A few minutes later another one passed, and I took a closer look--I could not have told him/her from a woman. Then B. told me there was a long-established red-light area nearby, Desker Road. The area had been going for a long time. Although there were thousands of hookers in Singapore, any who ended up there were reaching the end of the line. He intimated that if I wanted to get a taste of old-time Singapore I should take a stroll up there--he would show me where to go. After another beer I did.

The route took me along a back-alley between two roads, lined by walls with entrances, which may have been back porches that were covered over. The whole area was dark, smelly, menacing. Lines of men walked slowly by--I didn't see anyone actually enter, or even take a close look at the women. The women, three or four per unit, sat around silently, looking hot and bored.

Little shops along the way sold cure-all lotions, virility oil, sex aids. Stalls sold videos and trinkets. Somewhere around here were supposed to be the "temple pythons", curled up in cages and guarding money that superstitious men toss to them, but I didn't spot them.

After B. departed to a dinner appointment, I returned to my seat at the bar, and started up a conversation with the only other European there. He was a photographer, also based in Indonesia, who photographs the tourists coming from the cruise-ships. We sat talking over another couple of beers, and when yet another tall "woman" passed by, I asked him about them. He told me they had a hang-out nearby, and said he would show me.

He took me around some of the more dubious streets in the neighbourhood. On one of them, facing a huge apartment block, ghostly figures emerged from the darkness as we passed by, to stand in the dim shadows of the porches. Their thin pale faces were just visible, their heavily made-up lips and eyes emphasising their ghostliness--when they pursed their lips in a sad imitation of a kiss they reminded me of the painting "The Scream". Behind this street was a narrower one, full of mak nyahs, healthier looking and fashionably, if skimpily, dressed (for a woman, that is). Many, with slim figures and hormone-induced breasts, could easily have passed as women. They crowded around us as we tried to pass through, attracting even more from nearby buildings until the whole centre of the street was full of them and I began to fear for our safety. We managed to force our way through, after which we had a "final" beer at the bar we had originally met in. The problem was that the proprietor kept re-opening the bar for every order that came along (there were about 2 others sitting outside besides ourselves), so we ended up there until about 3:00 AM, and we could have been there all night had we not decided to take another stroll around the area.