Geylang has a reputation for being Singapore's secret center of sin. It's one of the few places in the buttoned-up city-state where sex work , illegal drugs , and crime are commonplace. While Geylang covers an area of 10 square kilometers around 3. I first visited the red-light district to stay in Singapore's most notorious hotel chain. But then I decided I wanted to learn more about the inner workings of the district, so I returned to the neighborhood earlier this week to join a tour hosted by Geylang resident Cai Yinzhou.
Cai has been conducting tours in the enclave for eight years. During the day, it's difficult to tell which houses are brothels. The neighborhood is eerily quiet, with barely anyone on the streets. At night, it's not much different. While Geylang's main road is teeming with life, the red-light lorongs are still mostly slumbering. Singapore shut down nightlife — including clubs, KTVs, and brothels — in April and only allowed businesses to resume early last month.
Brothels, however, have not been allowed to reopen, Cai said. Though more than brothels can be found in terrace-style homes in the district, most establishments remained dormant the night I visited. In Singapore, brothels must be licensed and are regulated by the government.
The brothels, which are located on the streets between Lorong 4 and Lorong 20, are regulated by three local government agencies: the Ministry of Manpower, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Home Affairs, Cai said. In these fish-tank brothels, customers choose whose services they want to pay for by selecting a sex worker lined up behind a glass panel. A video from SET News shows the district's busy streets.
But "closed" signs were plastered outside many of the brothels when I visited pictured above. In order to be granted a license for sex work, you must be "legally recognized as female" and be from one of five countries — China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, or Singapore.
