http://in.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idINIndia-42646920090923?sp=true
Reuters India, 23 Sep 2009
By Nopporn Wong-Anan
SINGAPORE (Reuters Life!) - Singapore's Formula One race may be
beset by last year's match-fixing and lower ticket sales, but many
female escorts have flown into the city-state especially for the
event, eyeing wealthy customers.
As bars and clubs prepare for this weekend's race, sex workers from neighbours such as Thailand
and Vietnam, as well as from further afield including Russia and
Colombia, say they are looking forward to well-heeled race
fans.
"I timed my visit to
Singapore a few days ahead of the F1 since I think it should bring
me good business," said Jenny, a Chinese Russian in her mid-20s who
said she is a university student and works as a part-time escort
girl in Hong Kong.
Jenny was among dozens of scantily-clad women looking for customers
in a bar underneath a five-star global hotel chain on Singapore's
shopping strip Orchard Road.
"As a business student,
coming to Singapore is like killing two birds with one stone --
making money and finding business opportunities,"
said Jenny, who asks for S$250 ($177) for an hour of her services
and who declined to give her full name.
In the same bar, Anna, a 26-year-old Vietnamese woman from Ho Chi
Minh City, said business had been very slow in the past few weeks,
adding that she hoped the F1 would speed up revenues.
"Money in Vietnam is not good so I come here. But money here is not
so good yet," Anna said.
Tickets for F1 practice runs and the race have yet to sell out,
with the buzz from the sport's first ever night street race in
Singapore in 2008 not evident this time, though the event is
attracting attention from a scandal over last year's result that
may put some fans off.
The bars for Western expatriates
remain bustling, but the traditional red-light district of Geylang,
which mainly sees locals and foreign male labourers, has been
cleaned up in the past few weeks by the police, witnesses
say.
"No girls mean no business for us," a beer seller at a bar told her
customers, when asked if their business has been affected by the
police raids on Geylang streets.
Prostitution is legal in Singapore, but the law bans soliciting of
sex and penalises those who live on the earnings of
prostitutes.
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New video added:
1. Peter Schiff's Vlog (22 Sep 2009)
.
