there is now a massive new glitzy mall around the area. It's very chic and chichy.

As for the transvestites, or Lady-boys as they are called: there are still some lurking around, but most have gravitated to the Geylang area and also on the other side of town to Orchard Towers, otherwise known as "Four Floors of Whores." Apparently, the top floor is for Lady-boys. But I live stones throw from Bugis at Beach and Leang Seah St, which in older days was the heart of a rather seedy district. It still has remnants of it, and I like the kind of mixed-middle class, lower class values of the area. Very tolerant, and everyone is phenonenally kind.

^{“Is not our first thought to go on the road? The road is our source, our vault of treasures, our wealth. Only on the road does the ‘traveller’ feel like himself, at home.”
Ryszard Kapuscinski}