The 2nd Floor

Singapore never ceases to amuse me. It seems like there's something new to observe every time I'm there. There was once I was checking in late night into a budget hotel and the receptionist told me..


"Sorry... we don't have any rooms left, except on the second floor." he said to me.


"So? What's wrong with the second floor?" I answered, totally missing the point.

"Its........ a bit noisy." he said rather funnily.

It took a while before it sank it for me.

"Aaaaaah. Right. I see." I finally replied, finally understanding.

You see... the second floor is 'for fucking only'. All the men who pick up prostitues or GROs or whatever from the nearby bar or pub will come here. They charge about SGD15~20 for the room for about an hour. And since over the course of the night, quite a number of these 'couples' will be coming in and out, the second floor is kept for such a purpose. So everyone considers hotels like this to be fuck joints. But in truth, there are a lot of legitimate travelers looking for a place to stay... and the hotel tries to put them on the higher floors for their comfort.

Anyway, yes I did end up staying in the second floor. Yes, it was noisy. The sound insulation left a lot to be desired. It's like listening to porn instead of watching it. You hear them come into to the room. You hear the shower turn on when they wash up, you sometimes hear the rhythmic vibrations of the bed, then you hear the shower turn on again as they clean up, and you hear them walk out the door. 15 minutes later, you hear the whole thing repeat itself. I don't know how anyone's ever supposed to fall asleep with the full knowledge that there are people fucking, right there, right now just over this wall. It doesn't help one bit when you yourself have not got laid in quite some time. The only thing that helped was that I was too tired to feel horny.

Here's the fun part... after they are done, I could actually go up to my own door and see how they look like through the peep hole, which I did a few times, out of sheer curiosity and 'busybody-ness' (at least I'm honest k). Some were thin, some were fat, some were tall, some were short... and that's just the men I'm talking about. Hahaha....

But the novelty kind of wears out pretty quickly..... and by morning, with eye bags deeply set in due to the lack of quality sleep.....I swore never to sleep on the 2nd floor again.