Karaoke World Tour – Singapore

August 2nd, 2009

Singapore girl!I spent a couple of hours in a karaoke bar in Singapore and didn’t buy a drink. Or sing a song. But that was because one drink cost more than some Air Asia flights and I had to escape from mini-skirt wearing girls trying to pick me up before I got a chance to sing. It’s Chapter Eight of Brian’s Karaoke World Tour and although I was in Singapore doing research for my new book I couldn’t pass up a chance to add another country to my list. There was a whole line of Karaoke bars near my hotel and I picked the largest one with the biggest crowd – although the room was so dark it took my eyes a while to adjust before I could actually see the crowd. I was escorted to a table and given a drinks menu. It was then that I almost fell off my stool – a small glass of beer was $13! ‘I’ll wait a bit,’ I said to the waiter.

Picking a song was very hi-tech. Around the room were computer screens where you simply scrolled through the song list on the touch-screen and picked your song and put in your table number. When your table number flashed up on the TV screens, the waiter handed you a microphone. I did get a little confused with the song list, but a very friendly local girl in a very tiny mini-skirt helped me (very friendly in fact – she put her hand on my knee while she helped me).

On the way back to my seat I noticed lots of very friendly local girls in tiny mini skirts with their hands on mens knees. Men who were probably double their age. Ah, I was in a hostess bar. These girls were flirting with these men and laughing at their bad jokes, so the men would buy them very expensive drinks (and the girls took a cut from the bar).

I left after an hour. I waited to sing, but my song was way down the list. Plus the waiter was getting a bit pissed off with me saying that I hadn’t made up my mind about what drink I wanted. And, worst of all, my ears couldn’t take the men singing soppy wailing Mandarin love songs to their ‘dates’ any longer.

Next week on Brian’s Karaoke World Tour: Moscow

2 Responses to “Karaoke World Tour – Singapore”

  • On August 5th, 2009 Morty said:

    Wow, that’s all kinds of sleaze! Sorry you didn’t even get to sing, mate. Try Kikagowa in Minneapolis for the exact opposite Asian-flavored karaoke experience….though I make no promises about the drink prices…

  • On August 5th, 2009 allrite said:

    I believe that there is a connection between the Asian love of karaoke and the wailing of Chinese opera. A little known fact is that Chinese Opera is the same as Chinese Water Torture, only without the water. Similarly, bad karaoke singing is also a form of torture. How you have managed to survive so far must be testament to the healing powers of alcohol (or beer ears).

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