The REd Lantern Tour with enthusiastic Singaporean guide Helena was absolutely fascinating. Helena guided us up and down a myriad of streets and lanes in Chinatown providing a colourful history of early Singapore and the role played by the working girls of Singapore.
Red is a colour the world has always associated with blood, passion and China. It is also the colour most revered and feared by photographers. One theory of the 'Red Light District' is that railway workers would leave their rail lamp outside a girls room to show that she was busy.
The tour took us to Chinese medicinal shops where strange aphrodisiacs were on display including geckos and deer's penis. It made the mind boggle a little.
We traversed several laneways in Chinatown where brothels were still operating. The old buildings originally had small 'doors' where the 'honey buckets' were left out. The 'honey buckets' were the toilet buckets and were collected and transported to the sewrage plant. The last of the honey buckets only ceased in the 1980s.
The symbol of a brothel was a numeral in red on a white background. The numeral 8 was a lucky number.
But Chinatown was much more than brothels - its a vibrant mix of restaurants, cafes, stores and traders. WE visted a specialist store that produced sweet smoked meats the traditional way. The fires are still lit daily and large circular disks are covered in thinly sliced meat and smoked before being barbecued. It was similar to beef jerky but better.
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