Orchard Towers

Just my opinion – The future of Orchard Towers

By Warren Carter

April 14, 2006

For as long as I can remember Orchard Towers and the clubs there have always been around. It seem everyone both men and women know of the action that happen on the flour floor for clubs and in Singapore it has become acceptable for it’s locations. In some ways it’s own landmark. People from all over the world got to OT for both pleasure and just to see if the stories are true. Top Ten Disco which was the biggest place moved out of OT in Dec 2005 and relocated to a new location. Many wondered why this happen since the disco always did well and wasn’t hurting for business.

In my day I spent a lot of time in the towers visiting the clubs and the girls and had many a great night there either alone (which wasn’t for long) or in the company of some friendly lady or ladies. OT is one of those places you feel will always be around.

Well maybe it will be or maybe not! The other day I was wondering why Top Ten moved? There was no need to move, they had a strong following and many would return to the Disco when they returned to Singapore, so why move and have to be found all over again.  It just didn’t make sense to me.

Then I thought some more about what is going on in Singapore and it started to make a bit more sense to me. Being located on the main shopping road in the country has never been a problem. But now with 2 big casinos coming in could there be a plan to clean up the towers and make it more on line with the other malls on the road. Could this be the reason Top Ten move early? I don’t know but let us look at it a bit closer.

With casinos the country will see a large influx of tourist over and above current yearly numbers. It is estimated that 25% more will be the number, in 2005 7 million visited Singapore with a population of only 4 million.

When you have big money in town, it will draw the working girl to the area to make they killing on the high rollers.

As it is planned now   Singaporeans will have to pay a yearly or daily fee to enter the casinos. This was put in place so people would not spend their life earning or be come addicted to going the casinos since the daily rate is 100 dollars to enter.

But for visitors that is not the case, although plans are being set in place to keep out the so called “unwanted working girls.”

So here we have two high class Resort Casinos in a small country and located fairly close to each other  which is  not a problem but what of all the guys coming in with all this hard cash they plan to spend and the families too? There is only so much you can do at a resort so people will be getting out and site seeing and Orchard Road is one place where many will go.  OT is located close to 3 main hotels, the Hilton, Orchard Hotel and the Orchard Parade Hotel, across the street is Hard Rock Café and down the street is Thai Embassy wow what a location, right! All of these locations are not more than a 5 minute walk away.

If you have ever passed by OT between 11pm to 4am you found what seemed to be every taxi in the country parked there waiting for customers and even some offering you girls too. When the towers start to close; you’ll find the girl out side trying to get that last customer to be with along with the He-She doing the same. Drunk men staggering back home or to their hotels with or with out some one and even some getting in to fights. If you’re a good looking lady passing by the chances of some guy approaching you and asking you for a date is also very high, so not to appealing to the ladies that are in the country for vacation returning from a night club like Bar None or China Black which are within walking distance of the above mentioned hotels.

Do I think this is the image the Singapore government what to give the world of its country? I dot think so!! What I think is going to happen over the next 2 to 3 years is the gradually closing of the kind of clubs that are there in O T now until it is a place that you would be proud to take you mother in.

Will the hookers be gone? No, they will just be spread out over a large area so they don’t stand out so much. Singapore knows you can not get ride of the hookers. You just can’t do it and to try would not be cost effective. But can they break them up, sure they can. By doing this it solves several problems for the government. First it make Orchard Road a much more respectable place and safer for the women walking on the street in the area. Second it gives the impression that Singapore is a decent place to be and people will want to return more often. And third, there will be no place for the girls to centralize their activities making it easy for the guys to find them in large numbers. So now mister money bags can not go walking in to the resort with 4 girls and upset the guest or the hotel.

This is why I fear the end of Orchard Towers as we now know it. It’s a matter of time either way you look at it.

So how would they close the clubs in O T? A lost more raids, Vice being in the clubs busting the girls and the guys. Over time the girls will move on to safer clubs to work out of so business will drop, rent will go up and they will be forced to close or at least   change the way they do business.

It’s a sad story I know but in time everything good get fucked up some how and soon it will be the towers turn to fall in inline with the other malls and become a decent mall to  visit in Singapore!

But this is just my opinion, hope I’m wrong!