Bugis Street in the 80's

Like I have promised you, 

I have unearthed my collection of 

Bugis Street photos

and I give them to you here.

This is the real Bugis Street,

not the sanitised and rubbishy Bugis Street now,

(maybe that is why I called it Bugis Square,

to me this IS BUGIS STREET)

My then boyfriend from Singapore brought me here, and I

remembered all of us, gawking locals and Mat Sallehs,

waiting at the end of the street.

Then at the magical hour of 6 oclock,

 all the "Ah Quas" as they were called then (from the word 'queer'

suddenly came out to buy their dinner

before they solicited their services.

They were more beautiful and immaculately

made up than some girls

they really wore colourful wigs

and had skin like alabaster

(I overheard one sailor next to me say
 "Cor, she has skin like monumental alabaster!)

One of them must be the grandmother of Kumar,

the gay who confessed recently in the singapore press

I Bought this whole lot of photos from the roadside vendor!

At that time, they were closet gays and tranvestites, and

they are not as accepted as today,

and to see them with their feminine mannerisms while they

ordered food from the stalls was a TOURIST ATTRACTION!!!!!

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.

.

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Then

all the streets were demolished, the stalls relocated

and THEY LEFT.

see my post on the present day Bugis Street here