Flashback to Singapore

Last Saturday night, instead of staying home to sleep, we went to Kuta beach. No, we were not moon-tanning. Rather, it was my first clubbing night in Bali. We went to Paparazzi Lounge where DJ Small, resident of Attica in Singapore, was spinning as part of the Double 6 presents Wonderland event, with vocals by Hanna Hais.

Small rocked the place with his good mix: from his second track onwards, the dance floor remained crowded despite the constant flux of customers at the club. I enjoyed dancing to his tunes; deja vu, if you know what I mean.

But before the music took over and brought me to the dance floor, I scanned the lounge. About 90 per-cent of the customers were non-locals. There were those who are fair-skinned, some boasted golden brown tans, and others were naturally dark brown or coffee. The few locals present were either friends of the promoter, or girls looking to get lucky.

This last group of customers brought me back to the kind of clientele that some clubs in Singapore have: local girls on a night out, hoping to hook a foreigner for a boyfriend. The guy can be old, fat, ugly or absolutely rude, by his own country's standards. But to these girls, all they see is money and possibly a way out of the country. Sounds familiar, does it not?

Some of these girls were staring daggers at me when I was dancing. I do not know whether they were jealous that guys were checking me out, or that I had a buley (literally means 'albino' but here it refers to white people) guy with me, or that I was enjoying myself dancing.

But I had to laugh at it because this proved how some things are universal, wherever you go in the world. I guess there are some things in the world that you cannot possible hope to get away from. And this is one of them.