singapore - general discussion

[Analyst]

Yes please.

Tisswat,

I wrote a bit about one night at the infamous 4 floors...let me dig that out of my archive and post it up.....

[beast]

It sure does!

Man, I wish I could be drafted for the army.. too bad I'm not a teenager anymore.

You can always volunteer but I do not know whether after completion, you would be guaranteed citizenship.

[kpnv]

ok some quick club/pub reccomendos i gleaned off my mate's smses. i've added my own anecdotes but i must say i'm more a foodie than a raver.

Zouk

-its a fucking institution, if you come to singapore, don't go zouk, you haven't lived. every name worth dropping has played here. so good its even been faked in KL. they pretty much play anything and everything and always stay ahead of the curve.

Clarke Quay

-in recent times, its been revitalized quite a bit. its perfect for a dinner and a pub crawl. get some grub and hit wanna deez.

attica, kandi bar (hed kandi), crazy elephant, the clinic, barfly, fashionbar, forbidden city/cocoon and of course

MOS - the UK import.

Butter Factory

-robertson quay, hip-hop, electro, r&b. colorful graffiti-esque decor.

Raffles City area

Raffles Hotel Long Bar - cliched as it might be, this is where the Singapore Sling was invented by Ngiam Tong Boon and you can soak up that colonial steez. I always remember those tourist brochures where they say Somerset Maugham, Rudyard Kipling and Ava Gardner stayed there.

New Asia Bar - swissotel stamford, raffles city. basically this bitch is 70+ storeys up in the air.

Loof - rooftopbar @ odeon towers.

Sentosa

-this is the tourist island at the south of singapore, linked by a bridge. nowadays there's actually life on Sentosa after the sun sets. this is also home to Zoukout. come in the day, one of the chillax spots @ sunset, st. james power station @ night.

KM8, Cafe Del Mar

-chillout on the pleasure island.

St. James Power Station

-one of the newer places which is basically massive as the name suggests. its really 10 clubs in 1. the powerhouse is where its at basically. or you could always cheong (rave?) with the uncles @ dragonfly or wherever.

Holland V

-mentioned this place before, some ok pubs etc.

Wala Wala - live music, rock, pop etc.

One Rochester - not quite near holland but its worth hitting, whether for dinner or just drinks. or just go to Graze or Da Paolo's for din din.

Dempsey - again, not quite holland, well its off holland rd but there are a few very nice wine places here and a quite shitty balinese place.

try ps cafe, wine company, wine network.

Sexytime

-as staid as we might appear on the surface, we actually have institutions of the red lighted persuasion. the 4 floors of whores i mentioned to in my earlier post is actually orchard towers. if you're so inclined, you can head there to check out the latest chinese imports. or try these places.

-angeles @ duxton rd

-club kabuki @ cairnhill place

-orchard ktv @ orchard towers

-geylang, really better for the food than anything else. try some durians, frog's leg porridge etc etc and then feed your other appetite. in fact, nowadays, if you say "go geylang", people understand you're going to jiak ba ba (eat), not piao ji (whoring). which sounds like a good coverup.

-yangtze (chinatown), ok this is basically where "horny old men in trenchcoats" go to spank the monkey, its the only cinema in singapore that has the latest in crappy r rated movies.

-random carparks, basically singaporeans are too cheap to get a room, which means its always the car. east coast is quite popular, although there are any number of obscure spots ranging from lim chu kang cemetery to the top of bishan block 235.

[kpnv]

^ haha i wanna hear that too analyst!

[fashiontard]

one thing abt the clubs:

i was back for winter break and i must say its disappointing.

zouk: everyone who goes there is a tween.. and the waiting to get inside is a major turnoff.. ratio of male/female is about 8 to 1

butter factory: popular hangout for university students but they play really shitty music

st james power station: too many old people (maybe in their 40s/50s?) and too many wannabe-eurotrash-but-too-poor-topman/shop-worshipping kids

gotham penthouse: only nice place for chicks but they were all there only for the free drinks.. ons-only-and-nothing-more-quality

[uparmoured]

Head over the causeway to Malaysia for food...

Cultural irrelevance warning ahead to Non-Singaporean/Non-Malaysian people...

HbaGPhqphLQ

[jws]

was in sg for parts of dec. Definately ratio problems in sg clubs, went to mos for newyears what a wang fest, zouk on wednesday is a must go with the retro music however stay away from there hiphop section basically impossible to move.

[suntorytime]

i remember being in sg for new years over 06. i was with my cousin who lives there with her family, we went walking around and she met up with her group of friends whom were off to the convention center for the new years club party, it was supposed to be 'massive' and the cover charge wasn't exactly cheap either. I tagged along cause some of her friends were pretty hot. When i got there, the kids were dancing like para para style, and they were all in sync doing the same moves. I thought nu-rave kids danced fucked up, but that was a new low. needless to say, i've never been clubbing again in sg because of that horrifying experience.

[jsn]

^I believe that is the legendary Mambo Night

[Cordwinder]

the last I heard about Zouk was its under a different ownership after the drug bust in '94 I think. Is this true? Something about the Shaw (??) group taking over the place.

My info on Singapore nightlife is soooo stale. I was there last year but I was busy all day and was exhausted at night.

Thanks for the great information everyone!!

[defiance]

^I believe that is the legendary Mambo Night

hahahahaha fond memories indeed.

organizers screwed up so bad.

[Tisswat]

I visited Zouk in 2004. For "a fucking institution" it's pretty disappointing. The let me cut the queues so that I didn't have to wait in line. The Velvet part had an okay crowd but I couldn't help thinking I was in a hotel lounge. The rest was totally generic. Shitty music (the crowds were wooing when they played Nina Sky), I remember that one R&B room was too crowded and the male/female ratio was indeed terrible. It's quite surprising to me that so many people still call it one of the best clubs in (SE) Asia.

There was another club called Liquid Room which I found more interesting. At least the DJ that night (a local guy) was awesome. Is it still around/any good? Lots of girls there without their army of brothers/cousins/bodyguards like in Zouk. Friendly staff. Hooked up up with some Japanese exchange student. When it closed, a group of Singaporeans took me and some friends out to this excellent but dodgy restaurant for nasi ayam or whatever. Good times.

I remember stumbling upon a club/bar named RAV, where they were doing some kind of beauty pageant. I think I was the only foreigner in there. To say the locals didn't like my presence there is an understatement.

Also went to New Asia Bar - nice for an afternoon cocktail and a cool view over the city, but it filled up with expat bankers in suits later on - not my favourite crowd. I think this is where I would bring my parents for drinks.

Stopped by a few places on Clark Quay, but I don't really remember anything specific about it.

I don't do prostitutes, but please do share about those 4 floors of whores. It should make an interesting read at least.

[Tisswat]

Head over the causeway to Malaysia for food...

Ouch!! JB is nice, although food-wise JB ain't got nothing on Penang. Jom pi soru nasi kandaq.

Any good mamak restaurants in SG?

[defiance]

I don't do prostitutes, but please do share about those 4 floors of whores. It should make an interesting read at least.

more like four floors of trannies, actually.

[appleisblack]

sincerely i think MOS is much better then Zouk here.

[hellogoodbye]

forrealz?

if you think the crowd at zouk is bad stay faaaaar away from MOS

[kpnv]

well, sorry you don't think its an institution. i prefer to play it up rather than down. it has its history, that's for sure. must be nostalgia on my part

[janneh]

going to be in singapore from the 9th-12th feb, Then KL for the next few days is there likely to be any sales on at all?

[Joel_l]

MOS is still ok..... at least i can expect much better house music from them...

zouk's crowd is totally off... apart from the badly dressed boys and girls... they take mambo night too seriously?? and get over it!! come on... how long can u listen to the 80's 90's and 60's every week??

it gonna sound like madonna after bananarama then kylie all the same... gosh...

[styleofmind]

Mmmm...

Personally, I think MoS is far better than Zouk.

Zouk is nice and all but... it strikes me as too rigid and tries too hard, without any real substance. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really get a great vibe there. I think it's considered an 'institution' in Singapore simply because it doesn't have anything else.

Especially when you consider what the clubs in Thailand etc, are like.

What IS good about Singapore though would be the drink specials. Gotta love 1-4-1 drinks.

*

And I agree about the armada of men protecting their women. But then again, try standing by the side of the dancefloor and look out for a group of ONLY girls. Within a minute, similar to vulture, gangs of acne-covered boys come around and stand around them, dancing behind them and trying to cop a feel.

It's kinda disgusting.

[Cordwinder]

Mmmm...

Personally, I think MoS is far better than Zouk.

Zouk is nice and all but... it strikes me as too rigid and tries too hard, without any real substance. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really get a great vibe there. I think it's considered an 'institution' in Singapore simply because it doesn't have anything else.

Especially when you consider what the clubs in Thailand etc, are like.

What IS good about Singapore though would be the drink specials. Gotta love 1-4-1 drinks.

*

And I agree about the armada of men protecting their women. But then again, try standing by the side of the dancefloor and look out for a group of ONLY girls. Within a minute, similar to vulture, gangs of acne-covered boys come around and stand around them, dancing behind them and trying to cop a feel.

It's kinda disgusting.

carry oxy for protection...

[DJ_Flame]

Friday nights (bookout day!) at MOS/Zouk/whatever big name clubs are the worse! They are choked by hordes of NSFs with shitty clothes and hair, and the drinks in vogue are always frute swagg gay stuff. Deadbeat.

Mambo night is ok...at least the ratio is decent...although I wish local girls were easier...

[styleofmind]

Friday nights (bookout day!) at MOS/Zouk/whatever big name clubs are the worse! They are choked by hordes of NSFs with shitty clothes and hair, and the drinks in vogue are always frute swagg gay stuff. Deadbeat.

Mambo night is ok...at least the ratio is decent...although I wish local girls were easier...

Can't blame NSF's when they're paid barely enough above the poverty line. How anyone survives on a coupla hundred bucks a month, I'll never know. And I believe their hair's due to regimentation over anything else. Not to mention it's hard to justify spending a pretty penny on clothing you'll wear maybe once a week.

I do agree though, but when there are only 2 actual clubs in a city of nearly 5 million [right?] people, things would get a little cramped.

And local girls don't seem to be that much harder than girls anywhere around the world.

[DJ_Flame]

Agreed, but its a little depressing, not to mention amusing to see places cramped with them from my perspective, since I spend 5 days a week as an NSF...pretty much sucks to see the same faces again.

As to girls, I found our Malaysian neighbours more approachable...

[Analyst]

Tisswat,

I wrote a bit about one night at the infamous 4 floors...let me dig that out of my archive and post it up.....

Wrote this back in late 2005....after a quick trip to Singapore...

Just got back to BKK after a two day visit to one of the most modern cities in SE Asia. I didn't initially know what to expect from Singapore, but it left quite an impression on me. Amid the humidity and tropical trees and plants you'd expect to find in SE Asia lies a city as clean as Charlotte, NC and brim with US stores like Borders Books and Music, Starbucks, and Toys R Us. Globalization in all of its glory. The sidewalks lining Orchard Road, Singapore's main shopping promenade, are filled with faces from Malaysia, Thailand, Australia, USA, Mainland China, Japan, and other countries around the world. Actually the city reminded me a lot of DC with so many ethnicities milling together in one big salad bowl.

During my one night in Singapore, I met two American executives working for a US-based contact lens manufacturer. They had taken the 40 min boat ride from Bhutan, Indonesia, where they operate one of the firm's business units. One of the expats, Tim, in his mid-forties, had made numerous excursions to Singapore for the last 10 years. The other expat, Carl, recently arrived in Asia during the last month. Tim explained that the Singapore's "nightlife of ill-repute" centered on a random building officially known as Orchard Towers that sat right on the main strip. Unofficially, the building was also known as the "Four Floors of Whores."

By day, Orchard Towers houses numerous overcrowded electronic stores hocking digital cameras, laptops, plasma screens, and DVD players. As a side note, these shops are more along the lines of the Ali's Electronics you'd find on West 34th Street (NYC) rather than the Bang and Olufsson or the Bose Boutique in Tyson's Corner(DC). Among the other drug stores, cheap clothing shops, and phone card kiosks in the Tower, you'll also find several bars with names like Country Road, Crazy Horse, and Ipanema. During daylight hours, each bar looks deserted with extinguished neon tubes aligning the windows. At dusk once the sheet metal screens come down over the store entrances, the Tower turns into quite a unregulated night spot in a very regulated city.

A steady stream of Western men simultaneously enter and exit the infamous Tower, according to Tim, until 4am. Until then most enter in groups and then later leave paired with female in hand. Apparently, the quality of women (and $$$ to play) increases with each floor level. We decide to make a round robin walkthru of a few bars on each floor. On the second floor we hit Country Road which sports the obvious and cliched Western theme strangely popular in Asia. We make a quick walk through the mostly empty bar and rodeo competition on a plasma screen and exit into the next bar: Ipanema.

This cavernous den on the third floor boomed with activity. Inside women of all nationalities immediately make eye contact with you. All of them are on two to three week tourist visas from Malaysia, Thailand, Russia, Portugal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bulgaria, or Romania and all are vying for a share of expat dollars flowing through the greater Singapore economy. The price is $200SG or about $110US for all night back at your hotel. Walking through Ipanema with Tim and Carl, I am approached by a pretty Vietnamese girl. Her name is May and she arrived two days ago. May latches on like a vise and is determined to find her bed for the evening. I quickly motion that I'm with my friends and try to nicely disengage her as she finally leaves me alone. Tim erupts in laughter and tells me to be careful. Sunday is a slow night and the women start to get ultra competitive.

Next stop is Crazy Horse on the Fourth Floor. As soon we enter I realize what type of establishment have walked into. Unlike Carl, who has never been to Asia and represents the cliched-middle age-balding-nearsighted-cheaply dressed-overweight-American middle manager, I have seen plenty of ladyboys in BKK.

On first glance, the women are all tall and skinny and beautiful. But on closer examination something seems very unnatural. Their faces look almost plastic. Too plastic. Too pretty. They bodies are hairless and slender with large breasts and no Adam's apple. For some you have to look at their hands or feet to tell that they were formerly male. Unless you talk to them, their gender can be somtimes ambiguous. I've seen many drunk Westerners wandering off from Silom Road in BKK with ladyboys and I've often wondered if they were aware that the "hot" girl on their arm used to be fully equiped downstairs! As a guy, you take for granted your ability to differentiate between male and female. In the US, it's easy and often too ridiculously obvious of the tranny or transgender person working behind the counter. In Asia, sometimes it takes a few seconds or minutes to tell if that girl is really female or male (genetically).

Asia has a very tolerant attitude toward gays and transgender folks. This is further complicated by the fact that Asian men often are very thin and have androgynous features. It fucks with your head especially if on first glance you do a double take on what you thought was an attractive girl, only to realize that its a ladyboy. In some ways, you begin to question your own sexuality (also something you can take for granted). You ask yourself, "How can I be attracted to that? I'm straight." But looks can be deceiving. It's a girl but it's also not a girl. What does gender really mean? Does gender matter only genetically? Or does it matter only on a physical level. Genotype versus phenotype.

We stay in Crazy Horse for about a minute before quickly departing and entering the creme-de la creme spot, Top Ten. Inside we grab a few drinks as Tim approaches a blond Russian girl. I talk to a light-skinned Asian girl dancing to the live band covering Outkast's Hey Ya. She's Thai and from Bangkok and reminds me that she's here looking for work (as if it wasn't already painfully obvious). Sensing a lack of interest from my part on taking her back to my hotel, she moves on to a pack of Australian rugby players all sporting FBI t-shirts (with Female Body Inspector in large script). By now I realize I'd rather sleeping than wondering through Singapore's underground at 2:30 am and decide to call it a night. Tim and Carl, still wearing his wedding ring, are determined to find the "perfect" girls for the evening. I bid them farewell and make my way to the door.

[styleofmind]

Agreed, but its a little depressing, not to mention amusing to see places cramped with them from my perspective, since I spend 5 days a week as an NSF...pretty much sucks to see the same faces again.

As to girls, I found our Malaysian neighbours more approachable...

I realized that not many Singaporeans actually go clubbing on a regular basis. For most people there, it seems to be a once a month or two month type of thing. Could be wrong, but strikes me as being that way.

Being an NSF ey? Hehe. Enjoy it. Time will fly.

And as to girls, while the Malaysian ladies may be easier to approach, Singapore girls enjoy a level of sophistication and class that most Malaysian girls can't seem to emulate. Trade off I guess. It's a little bit more effort, but I think it's more than worth it

[Joel_l]

Mmmm...

Personally, I think MoS is far better than Zouk.

Zouk is nice and all but... it strikes me as too rigid and tries too hard, without any real substance. Maybe it's just me, but I don't really get a great vibe there. I think it's considered an 'institution' in Singapore simply because it doesn't have anything else.

Especially when you consider what the clubs in Thailand etc, are like.

What IS good about Singapore though would be the drink specials. Gotta love 1-4-1 drinks.

*

And I agree about the armada of men protecting their women. But then again, try standing by the side of the dancefloor and look out for a group of ONLY girls. Within a minute, similar to vulture, gangs of acne-covered boys come around and stand around them, dancing behind them and trying to cop a feel.

It's kinda disgusting.

hey not everyone has good skin.. i for one don have...

but why so desperate... i mean seriously... if i m in ns i would stay away from clubs on weekends...

rather go cafe del mar or lounge and chill out.. or even at home..

up the volume with a red wine and some air con and norah jones or renaissance ibiza... and u r doing well...

[PHAT HEAD CAMEL TOEZ]

Zouk is gay. MOS is even gayer. Full of people who think they're "all that" when they really aren't. Don't even get me started on the Malay podium dancers at Zouk. The only club I remotely like in Singapore has to be Home club by the Riverwalk. But even that is over run by tourists and their glowsticks at the best of times.

[suntorytime]

And as to girls, while the Malaysian ladies may be easier to approach, Singapore girls enjoy a level of sophistication and class that most Malaysian girls can't seem to emulate. Trade off I guess. It's a little bit more effort, but I think it's more than worth it

whilst the sg chicks are 'sophisticated' (probably due to their 24/7 study regimes and government educational grants), too many of them are dull, brainwashed, and uptight about shit.

I was with my mate smoking some pot, his sg gf called and interrogated to what he was up to. he actually told her (dumbass) wtf we were doing and she threatened to break up with him on the spot. being a good friend, i grabbed his phone and told her to fuck off back to her books. fast fwd to now, they're still together getting his balls whipped. and i feel like kicking his ass everytime i see'em together.

[plongin]

= fast fwd to now, they're still together getting his balls whipped. and i feel like kicking his ass everytime i see'em together.

DOMINATED: "the singaporean girl experience"