So off I go, to foreign lands again. I’ve been here before, but not to live! I didn’t know what to expect. I loved the warm weather, shorts and a singlet mate, jandals. I was to be a warehouse hand helping with the maintenance of underwater remote controlled submarines. It sounded daunting. I didn’t get paid a lot, $10US an hour, but I got $60NZ a day for food and beverage allowance. All of this was paid monthly and I enjoyed it. The work was pretty easy, the hours long. There was a great canteen across from work, with cheap food from all over Asia. It was awesome! Singapore’s food is off the chart. The booze cost an arm and a leg though. $15 for a bottle of beer in most places. It was cheaper to buy a whole bottle of liquor, usually for around $180. It was good if you had a few of you, but I brought them all for myself. You could leave them behind the bar for up to a month with your name on it. Things were certainly different. It was a good change. I needed change. The excitement of a new place took my mind off things. I laid low until my first pay check, then I decided to hit town. The clubs were huge! The whole place was huge! I was like a fish out of water. Still, I tried to blend in, chatting to randoms, trying to make a connection. I get talking to this one guy and his mate, they were thinking of taking me to this place called The Orchard Towers. They thought I’d love it. I’d never heard of it. They take off for home, so I finished my drink, jumped in a cab, and headed for the towers. It was only a fifteen minute walk from my house, and little did I know, I would spend a lot of time here.

 

Right on the main drag of Singapore, the famous Orchard Towers, AKA, “The Four Floors of Whores”. Why did they call it that? Well because the first four levels of the skyscaper were clubs and they were full of girls, some working girls, others fluffers, and of course there were the lady boy bars. I stayed away from those ones. I entered the main bar Ipanema, and was shocked. The amount of women everywhere was insane. I was in heaven! I got myself a drink and mingled with the crowd, chatting up girls. I found one I liked and took her to a hotel room. I liked how easy it was to get sex, and with hot chicks! We agreed on $150 for a night, I thought it was fair. I even brought her breakfast in the morning, she was pretty happy, she thought I was cute. So that started my affair with the towers. It was my regular. 

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There were epic nights. A few of the guys from work would often drink at the towers. I eventually settled down a bit and started drinking on the second floor directly above and connected to the main bar. There were girls who danced, and they would drink and flirt with you. They were Thailand girls. They were fun! They made their money by you buying them drinks and them getting commission. I got talking to the regular band. I would get up on stage and sing Pink Floyd and Metallica songs. The mic wasn’t turned up that loud, I had a blast though. Then a new girl started. I thought she was pretty. She looked young and sexual. We got to talking and her working name was Guitar. I thought that was pretty cool. I slept with her that night. I didn’t have to give her any money. She seemed into me. I thought she was really hot, and that I was a pretty lucky guy. The hotel room had mirrors on the side of it. It made for a hot steamy night. We had breakfast the next morning and exchanged numbers.

 

It was lust, on both sides. She’d never been with a Caucasian man before. She worked twenty nine days out of the month, so I would have to go see her at work. It was rough. Her job was to flirt with guys and get drunk with them. She would give me lots of attention though, but she had to make her money. There was lot of jealousy. There were a few close blows, mostly when I was pissed. She didn’t sleep with people for money, never had. She would often come home with me and stay at my parent’s place. They got used to her. They liked her cooking. She was always cooking, something about Asian women and their cooking aye. Her real name was Uangdoi. She was from a small town in North Thailand. She was a small cute thing. I was happy. I needed a rebound girlfriend. We ate out a lot, and I took her shopping. I should have been saving money, but I found things to spend it on. It was different not getting stoned. I was drinking a lot. I could go through a bottle a night on my own. It was in the making for some trouble.
 

One night I’ve got Guitar on my shoulders in the club, another guy picks a girl up and puts her on his shoulders. The bouncer tells us not to. I’m pretty pissed and I get angry, I go up to him and tell him she’s my fucking girlfriend and not to tell me what to do. He just whacks me in the face, giving me a solid black eye. The bar owner talked to me outside, gave me a new tee shirt, and fired the bouncer. Things were pretty good. I had a balanced life. The relationship was hard though, with the different working hours. Then she had to move back to Thailand as her six month visa was over. I was gutted, she was too. We talked on the phone a lot. I would have to make do. It was time to quieten down a bit. And so I did. I saved a bit of money. I would still drink often. Then the word came she was coming back. I was stoked.
 

The money was good for her in Singapore. She worked for a month or so but was found to be working illegally. She was sent home. It hurt a lot. It didn’t matter, my stay in Singapore was practically up. I finished at work, packed my bags, and went to Phuket, Thailand, too see my girl for the last time. She was really happy to see me again, and me her. We got drunk, toured around, did what animals do. We went to Beijing for a week and ate a lot of food, did some shopping. The traffic was awful. Who could live there? A lot of people apparently. It was good seeing her again, but I had to go. There were a lot of hugs at the airport. She cried. She was a very passionate woman, full of love. I tried to get her to move to New Zealand but she thought it would be too cold for her. On with the next.