CONFESSIONS OF A GEYLANG MAMA SHOP MAN
TARTY WOMEN COME AND GO AT THE STORE IN THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT. WHEN BUSINESS IS SLOW IN THE AFTERNOONS, SOME OF THEM EVEN OFFER HIM SERVICES AT TEMPTING RATES
By Joyce Lim
IS this the best job in the world, or the hardest?
This store attendant, who only wants to be known as Mr Chai, works in a mamashop right in the middle of Geylang's red light district.
The 72-year-old told The New Paper on Sunday that he faces a daily battle with temptation as he sees prostitutes go in and out of the convenience store.
He works for one of the two mamashop stores along Westerhout Road, and the majority of his customers are pimps and prostitutes who work in the area. They go to his store to stock up on condoms, cigarettes and drinks.
Some prostitutes - 'young, beautiful and dressed up glamorously like celebrities' in his words - try to make another sort of business deal with Mr Chai while they're there.
The bachelor confessed that he has had young beautiful prostitutes offering him a good deal at $30 for a session.
'They like to wear short skirts to the store, some of them try to start a conversation with me,' said Mr Chai in Mandarin.
'They told me that I can play with them slowly. But I'll usually tell them nicely that I am not interested.
'These offers usually come in the afternoons when there are not many customers around.'
The persistent ones wait for the frail old man to knock off at 10pm and approach him again with their offers.
'Once there was a prostitute who offered me sex with her in exchange for cigarettes and drinks. I told her no because I am not the boss,' recalled Mr Chai, shaking his head.
But the real reason why Mr Chai rejected these prostitutes repeatedly is because he is afraid of contracting sexual diseases from them.
'There are many who do not have the proper licences to work as prostitutes and I don't know if they also go for regular health checkups,' said Mr Chai who earns $26 a day for his work.
'So even though I'm a bachelor, I don't pay to have sex with them. I won't know who has the licence to operate and who does not.
'My salary of $26 is also not enough to pay them. They charge a minimum of $30, of which $5 goes to rental for the room.'
However Mr Chai admitted that many times he has had to fight hard with himself to resist the temptation.
He added that he has noticed many decent-looking, well-dressed young men going to Geylang for prostitutes. It is no longer old haggard-looking prostitutes serving old men.
He tries to fight the temptation by not talking to the prostitutes for too long when they go to his store, and he has a rule of strictly no physical contact.
Mr Chai has been working at the convenience store, owned by an Indian couple, for close to four years.
Every day, he takes a bus from his home in Serangoon Road to work.
His working hours are from noon to 10pm.
Police raids
According to Mr Chai, business has been bad lately as the authorities conduct regular raids in the area.
'Sometimes the police come in the day and night,' said Mr Chai who has witnessed countless police raids and catfights among the working girls.
'During raids, those illegal prostitutes would run like it was life and death for them. A few of them had even dashed into the store to take cover before.
'In the past, I didn't know what to do when they dashed into the store. Now, I chase them out as my boss said we could get into trouble,' added Mr Chai.
As he talked, a long-haired prostitute, who looked like she was in her late 20s, walked into the store in an oversized tanktop with her huge and braless breasts almost spilling out.
Mr Chai sold her a pack of cigarettes and stole a few glimpses at her chest.
When she left, he grinned: 'Look only, no need to pay.'
Source: NP
