This appeared in march but it still makes good reading so decided to post it here.
What you guys think when worldwide statistics say we are undersexed huh? How many here have mistresses from China and Bintan ...... SAY!!
Heartland sugar daddies Posted on March 28, 2004 at 09:59:33 AM by Sunday TimesHE'S a taxi driver in his 50s. She's a young lounge hostess from China. As they walk to the kopitiam near the Joo Chiat Road lounge where she works, they do look like a couple, though his T-shirt and comfy slippers appear a generation removed from her tank top, low-slung jeans and kitten heels.
For taxi driver, hawker, bus driver, crane driver, labourer, salesman or small business owner. These are the heartland sugar daddies who show that one doesn't have to be a rich towkay these days to have a foreign mistress or two, usually a hostess from China picked up in a karaoke lounge.
That is why tracking down straying heartland husbands is such booming business, say private investigators.
The 30 hawkers and cabbies interviewed by The Sunday Times said that their friends - never themselves - are known to splurge at the lounges in Joo Chiat Road, Jalan Sultan, or in Geylang, where the women 'open bottles' of expensive liquor for clients. Sometimes they frequent bars that play Chinese music, like Beyond 97 in Cairnhill Place, on ladies' night, when women get drinks on the house all night.
In place of posh dinners, there's supper and beer at late-night porridge eateries in Chinatown, coffee shops in the East Coast Road area, Jalan Bukit Merah and Simpang Bedok, after the women finish work. For privacy, they may go to Marina South or a quiet carpark in East Coast Park or at Changi Airport, though some may check into budget hotels.
What these men said about their straying friends held such depth of detail that one wondered if they were actually talking about themselves.
Mr S.M. Jegan, a private investigator (PI) in his 50s, says that in more than 60 per cent of the 50 to 60 cases his firm, Kokusai Security, deals with each month, the client is an estranged heartland wife. Only three years ago, such cases would have been rare. At Worldwide Investigation & Protection, former police officer 'Ah Tan' says they used to get four enquiries a week from heartland wives, but now it's 10 to 12 a week.
Asia Investigation PI Andy says such cases have gone up by at least half in the last two years. He said: 'Ten years ago it was the Taiwanese women, then it was Malaysians, then there were the Filipinas, now it's mainly China women.'
Often, there is money up for grabs for the women, who are here on social, tourist or student visas. Charlie (not his real name), a taxi driver in his early 50s who is married, said: 'When China girls come to Singapore, they have to pay the passage, so they owe money. So they'll do anything for more money. As long as you can pay, they will do.'
With visa regulations eased, more girls from China have come to Singapore and China women between 28 and 40 have become more 'affordable', say some of the men, including Edmund, a noodle hawker in his 50s. Edmund, who is married, said in Mandarin: 'The young China girls at the lounge go with the rich towkays, and the older ones go with us, lah.
'To them, even a taxi driver or hawker who earns $2,000 is considered rich. Think how much it is in their money. China girls are also prettier and smarter. They know how to buy a man's heart. They call him handsome, tell him he is good in bed and they manage to catch the man. So they get money and the man gets what he wants.'
In return, they may get mobile phones, jewellery, even designer handbags, from the men. A cabby boyfriend also means free rides to and from work. Said Ah Tan: 'They drop the girls off, then go and meet their friends in a coffee shop or the petrol station, or go home and come out again and then around midnight or 1am, they just park and wait nearby.'
He said he was hired last month to tail a 55-year-old cabby who lives in the eastern part of Singapore, who had supposedly got himself a relief driver, so he could take on a second job at night. His 'night job' turned out to be a 23-year-old hostess from a Havelock Road lounge. 'He would shower and leave in the evening, pick up the girl from her two-room flat in the Tiong Bahru area and take her to the lounge, then park somewhere and wait for her,' said Ah Tan. When she gets off work at about 2am, the couple would have supper in Lavender Street or the Outram area. The cabby usually paid. Then they'd go back to her flat, or sometimes to a budget hotel, until the early hours of the morning when he went home. This went on almost every day for nearly five months.
Money always figures strongly in the relationship. Earlier this month, Kokusai's Mr Jegan was hired by a woman who had found intimate messages in fluent Mandarin on her cabby husband's mobile phone. The man, a grandfather in his mid-50s, was seeing a 22-year-old karaoke hostess here on a student pass. He ferried her to and from work every day and gave her about $200 a month for 'maintenance'. The wife even found the tenancy agreement he had signed for the woman's Housing Board flat, though it was unclear whether or not he was also paying the rent. 'He didn't have much money, but would take her to coffee shops in Jalan Besar, Thomson Road, Telok Ayer market,' the PI said. The wife had the PI tail the woman and found out she was stringing along at least two other sugar daddies on separate days.
'A few hundred from each man is big money, because these girls usually have a couple of guys,' Mr Jegan said. For exclusivity, especially if the man wants her to ditch her hostess job altogether, he has to be prepared to pay more.
One hawker said his pal, a 50-year-old hawker with two children, had been with a 21-year-old China hostess for the last year. They met at an Orchard Road karaoke lounge and he paid her for sex. Now, he's her 'ATM machine'. He drops her off at work and picks her up every night. Since he runs a late-night stall, his family isn't suspicious. Sometimes he brings her prawns and crabs, which she rarely ate in China. He meets her two or three times a week at the lounge or at her flat. They may have supper in Geylang or end up at a budget hotel when they can't go to the rented four-room Ang Mo Kio flat she shares with other hostesses. She gets more than $2,000 a month from him. It covers her rent, food and mobile phone bills. She still works at the lounge eight to 10 days a month and he has his friends check on her to make sure she's not straying.
Some men say the women ask them for a few hundred to a few thousand dollars each time to send home to their families. 'They have no choice but to give the money. Otherwise they will not see the girl anymore,' said one cabby.
Asia Investigation said it's becoming more common for cheating husbands to have their China mistresses tailed to see if they are cheating on them. Recently, a 55-year-old crane driver who had his girlfriend of six years tailed found out that the 32-year-old China woman had another sugar daddy.
Unlike the men who head for Batam and Bintan, these heartland strayers are usually younger, 40 to 55, still working, married and live in HDB flats, says PI 'Keegan', 35. Many of these relationships begin as one-night stands, but may last as long as the women's visas allow. Said Edmund the noodle hawker: 'You know they have to leave after a few months, so it's not really love. But if you treat the girl very well, maybe if she comes back from China she will come and look for you again, or recommend you to her friends.'