Wednesday Night is Ladies Night

SIDEBAR:  I should tell you a little bit about who these people are and who "we" is.  There are a number of Canadians and a few Americans on exchange at the law school that have bonded together through our mutual desire to have a good time all the time!  "We" often refers to some or all of the following people: Tracy (Dal), Kerry (Dal), Heather (UVic - working in Vancouver), Sameena (Queens), Lauren (Boston), Anne (Osgoode), Zahra (Osgoode), George (Georgetown), Vishal (McGill), Ryan (UVic - working in Vancouver), Scott (UVic), Leah (Western), and a few others...
 

Singaporeans excel in the "having a good time" department.  Evidence: the insane number of night clubs in this relatively small city, which offer every style of music and atmosphere you could ever want on any night of the week.  You can dance and drink to your hearts content at clubs like Clinic Bar (one of the 10 Strangest Bars in the world) where you drink out of an IV bag, Helipad - a rooftop bar with amazing views of the city, YelloJello Retrobar - a retro funk disco themed bar where you can relive Beatles mania all night long, or the world famous Zouk, a superclub located in a converted three-story warehouse that hosts premier DJ's every week.

The only downside to Singapore's vibrant clubbing scene is awesome dent left in your wallet after a night on the town.  The average cover charge is $25S (or $19Cdn), which, if you're lucky, gets you one or two drinks on arrival.  Once in the bar, drink prices range from totally reasonable ($12 for a 5oz jug) to prohibitively expensive ($12 for 1oz).  BUT not to fear, the good time crowd devised a solution to accommodate females on a student budget -- Wednesday night is ladies night!  At most clubs this means free cover and a all-night drink special for the ladies.  "Drink special" = free-flow drinks (including shots), or 5 free drink tickets, or free drinks until 1am, etc... Unfortunately, guys still have to pay cash at the door, but that's all I know about that.

 

Tracy & Kerry

August 5th & 12, 2009 -- LADIES NIGHT @ DblO

My first and second ladies nights in Singapore were spent at DblO where the DJ spun wicked house music (with a few top 40 hits thrown in for good measure) until the lights came up at 3am.  There is one bar "reserved" for the ladies.  But one warning about the ladies bar: if you ask the bartender for a double, a drink for your friend, a drink for the girl standing immediately next to you (that the bartender can see) or two drinks in close succession, you will make enemies with said bartender.  If you make any of the aforementioned errors more than once in the same evening you might be sprayed with water from the fountain pourer -- just ask Tracy.  Unfortunately, Heather and I were the ones who erred earlier in the evening and Tracy was innocent.  Wrong place, wrong time.  At least DblO offers a reasonable alternative to waiting 20 min in line for a drink -- $12 ($9cdn) / 5oz jugs.

Zahra, Mo, Heather & Anne

Both evenings were followed up with a trip to Newton Hawker's Center, which some have dubbed a real life "food orgy."  If you're a foodie I suggest you take a look at this person's description (Here) - I couldn't describe it any better.  On my second visit to Newton we also had front row seats to a brawl between some Singaporeans in their mid-40's who appeared to have been at Newton for far too long and who consumed one too many Tiger Beer with their meals.

 George enjoys shrimp-mein soup at Newton

August 26, 2009 --  LADIES NIGHT @ BUTTER FACTORY

After two DblO excursions, we decided to mix it up a little.  Yesterday, Sameena, Tracy, Heather, Lauren and I got all dolled up after class (yes, we had class until 9:30pm, but that wasn't going to stop us from enjoying the free party) and hopped in a cab to Butter Factory.  This club came highly recommended and we were not disappointed.  There were five very long lines out the door when we arrived: reentry, VIP, guest list, paying and ladies.  Seeing the throng of people, we headed straight for the front of the ladies line, cozied up with a few girls on exchange from England, and were in the door in under 10 minutes -- no cover!!! This bar is also popular with the guys on Wednesday because they offer free house pours to both sexes before 1am.  So, after getting into the club, our next hurdle was making it through the massive drinks line.  After our success at the front door, successfully I made the executive decision to butt this line too.  Success -- and the bartenders serve you two drinks at once!!!

To put a cherry on the top of this cake, we discovered that Butter Factory offers the best of both worlds: a house music room and a top-forty/hip-hop room, both of which are decked out in funky artwork (I think the featured artist changes each week)!!!  Needless to say, we danced up a storm and had an absolute blast.  After three solid nights of dancing I've come to the conclusion that Singapore breads exceptional dancers. Although I'm hesitant to say it, the guys here would put Ed W. to shame.  So, hopefully my skills will improve of the next few months -- I'm here for "school" right?