Am I a Rice Queen?

Greetings All!

 

Thursday night, we had our first clubbing experience in South East Asia.  Since Friday was a public holiday, the bars and clubs were as busy as a weekend night.  And even though homosexuality (or sodomy, rather) is still technically illegal, there are a few "gay" bars here in Singapore, mostly concentrated around the Chinatown area.  We have a few friends who have spent time in Singapore and some of them were nice enough to give us some useful information on where to go.  Many thanks to Oreste for the wealth of great info he provided, not just about bars, but about sights and the city in general.  The Sportsmen Asia store he recommended we check out was definitely worth the visit. 

 

We had a slight challenge trying to hail a taxi from our hostel.  Even though well over a dozen taxis drove by us with their lights on indicating they were available, all of them kept passing us by, many of them without even a looking, but some of them actually waving us away from approaching them at a stop light.  We didn't remember reading anything about having to pick up a taxi in designated areas, as is the case in some countries, and it's not like we were in a bad area (like our first experience in Cape Town) where taxis are afraid to pick people up out of fear of being robbed.  We were on a main street with plenty of room for the taxis to pull over so we couldn't figure out what we were doing wrong.  Finally, we started to walk back towards the hostel where we saw a number of taxis dropping people off at the nearby bars, but we passed a few police officers on the way and Sean decided to ask them for help.  The police officer was really nice in explaining that no, there was no reason why they shouldn't stop and pick us up unless they were on shift change, in which case their green "available" lights should be off.  He told us that if a taxi had it's light on and didn't stop for us, we should take down their license plate numbers and call to report them.  Well, good to know there wasn't some secret method we weren't aware of, but it obviously wasn't serious enough to go reporting.  We just wanted to get to the bar.  Luckily, after a few more taxis passed us by, we were able to hail one of the Executive Taxi's (slightly more expensive), and even he was reluctant to pull over at first. 

 

We finally arrived at the bar, Taboo, and were early enough to check the place out and have a drink before it got really crowded about an hour later.  The main floor had a long bar along one wall with a standing area separating it from the dance floor.  There were a couple of tables and chairs in one corner next to the dance floor, but otherwise the place was pretty small.  There was an upstairs lounge area with a small bar, plus an additional loft area above that with a small seating area.  The crowd was mostly Chinese, with a handful of Indians and a few White guys thrown in.  From what I've read, most of the bars and clubs are pretty segregated with the Chinese, Indians and Expats hanging out in different spots.  The crowd was pretty young overall, probably because students didn't have to pay cover; whereas, everyone else had to pay $15 ($10 USD).  The music was mostly Happy Fag with a little bit of electronic music mixed in here and there.  The cover charge included one free drink, which was nice considering a pint of crappy beer or a mixed drink with barely a full shot cost $11 SGD ($7.50 USD).   

 

There was a surprisingly high number of really attractive guys there.  While Sean is always being teased back home for the number of Asian guys he hooks up with, I can't even remember the last time I hooked up with an Asian guy.  Not that I don't find Asian guys attractive; anyone who knows me knows I don't give a shit about race.  My taste generally has more to do with body type than anything else.  I am usually most attracted to taller guys with bigger builds than my own.  I don't really go for the short and skinny types, which is what I typically find among Asians back home in San Diego.    Here, on the other hand, it seemed like half the guys were within a couple inches of my height, with some being taller than me and a fair number of them a hell of a lot bigger and more muscular.  It's been a while since I've been to a bar or club and found so many guys attractive... I mean, HOT!  I told Sean, I think I'm becoming a Rice Queen!  For those of you unfamiliar with gay lingo, a Rice Queen is a gay guy who is (usually exclusively) into Asian guys.  There are also Snow Queens (into White guys) and Bean Queens (into Mexicans).  Neither Sean or I could recall there being a name for guys who exclusively are into Black guys; I think those guys are just called Bottoms.  But while we were trying to figure out the various other names the following night, I think I even coined a new term, Curry Queen, which of course, is a guy who is into Indian guys.   

 

Nevertheless, there were a lot of guys at Taboo I would have had no problem going home with.  We went out again Friday night to a couple more bars; first to Backstage and then to Tantric, but even though neither charged a cover to get in, the crowds were not as good.  Backstage only had about ten people there.  Tantric was quite busy, but it was an older crowd and full of White guys and Asian Snow Queens.  We mostly had to entertain ourselves as we tried to avoid the British guy who was after Sean.  Eventually, we ended up at Taboo again and had a good time.  I even met a really hot Filipino guy from Sydney who was here on holiday as well.  Yeah, just call me a Rice Queen, because if the guys in the rest of South East Asia are as good looking as the guys here in Singapore, I think I'll have more fun here than I originally thought. 

 

Cheers,

Ozell