Red Light District

Me luv you long time.

The term red light district usual connotes a district or neighborhood where prostitution runs rampant.  The origin of the term is not completely agreed upon.  Some think that it is an old railroad term, while others claim other explainations.  Whatever the explanation it is pretty much certain that around the world the color red connotes prostitution, drugs, or both.  As I have traveled around the world, both on my own and in groups, I have had a lot of varied experiences.  Some have been recorded here, but most of them are known only to me and a few others.

If you know me in person or you have been reading about some of my random encounters on this site, then you probably know that I am a magnet for the weird and random.  I once had dinner with a drug dealer in the Czech Republic, been offered Heroin in Chicago, Hamburg, Scotland, and in Iraq.  I have also had discussions, and sometimes a few drinks, with prostitutes in Munich, Australia, Mexico, Singapore, and Hamburg.  These are just some of the experience I have had that have educated me about the seedier side of life, and have provided me with some great stories.  So what’s my point?  I’ll get to my point shortly, but I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what happens in the underground lifestyles of the world.  Dostoevsky spent tons of time hanging out with alcoholics, prostitutes, criminals, and addicts so that he could write about them with realistically.  You don’t have to partake in a lifestyle to know it, you just have to observe it learn the traits, and then when you see if you will know it.  My own varied experiences have led me to have many encounter with these shady characters, and because of that I trust my gut instincts.  I have, at times, had to navigate some precarious situations, in varied random foreign countries, without any help.  I have come through these situations mostly unscathed, and with plenty of experience and a total trust in my instincts.  Which brings me to my point.

When I was in Singapore the whorehouses were all in regular ass neighborhoods.  They looked just like any other house in the neighborhood except for one tiny detail.  At night when the front lights came on the house number instead of glowing white, glowed red.  Now I have lived in my neighborhood here for a year, and when I first moved in I noticed that one house in my neighborhood had red numbers out front.  It struck me as odd in this neighborhood, because of the high police presence and school security officials.  From day one I have had it in the back of my head that this house could be a whorehouse.  I have rarely if ever seen anyone ever coming in or out of the house (the few I have seen are women, and I believe Asian women, but it is usually dark), and the shades are always drawn closed.  The last few months, however, I have had more time on my hands, and I have been walking around the neighborhood a lot more late at night.  (Sometimes when I have been writing too long, and I am stuck and don’t know what to write next, I go outside for a walk to clear my head.)  I have been observing the house more and more and still the shades are drawn shut, and there is very little traffic coming in and out of the house.  I have also noticed lately that often there is a car that sits outside the house with the engine running, and last night I saw one Asian girl go up to the house and knock on the door.  She stood there for a bit and then from around the corner an NYPD van came rolling up–with three people inside of it–it stopped in front of the house, and they shined a spotlight on the girl.  She knocked frantically, and as soon as the door opened scurried inside.  The NYPD van rolled out, and the parked car in front of the house took off in the other direction.  So I’m thinking that the police are either finally wise to the house or have almost enough evidence to make some kind of bust.  I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure I’m right.  If I am right then I think there will be some kind of drama going down in the neighborhood soon.  I’m going to keep taking my late night strolls to check out the hood, and I will keep you all posted if anything goes down.

~ by Perpetual Memory Loss on August 21, 2008.