fort road 3 - characters 1

there are a few people that stood out amongst all those who frequent fort road surrounding areas and i will spend some time to write about them. but no, i am not going to do a kiss-and-tell all post here. instead, i will capture here some interesting observations about these people. and in this post, i will write about interesting characters that hanged out around the fort road toilet area.

• guy with towel around his face. this particular guy would wrap a white towel around his face to hide his identity. he is a famous local celebrity now and with his popularity, it is not uncommon to see him openly flaunting and cruising at public pools now. anyway, in the mid-90s, he would drive his car to the toilet car park, park his car there and walk around the area. if he appears in the evening, he would walk around the canal area and cruise (yes, with a towel covering his face). and if he drives there in the daytime, he would walk openly to the fort road circle where he will then wrap his face with his white towel before entering into the reclaim land and make his way to the beach.

• celebrity guy with dog. there is a relatively famous local singer (back then) who would take his weekly evening walks along the east coach park. he would bring along his dog (lets not talk about the breed or you'll know who i am talking about). he's a friendly guy and would smile and acknowledge people when people wave at him. at times, he would walk with another guy, presumably his partner.

• guy and friends tending the toilet. tending the toilet is a group of friends who would look gossip and bitch about people who frequented the place. the group was a rather loud one and the primary guy who tended the toilet used to be a dancer. i was kinda surprised one day when someone i met and whom i had a chat with told me that the toilet "people" told him a military regular who drives a metallic green car jogs at the area frequently and that this person is gay. i half-suspected he was talking about me as, apart from me, there were no other military officer who fit that description. whatever the case, it hit me that these people were really observant and gossipy. learning from this incident, i avoided these people as much as i could.

• guy who went on to be a famous professor. as i mentioned i frequented the place back in the 90s, not just for runs but also to cruise and to pick people up. and naturally, there were frequent sightings members of the famous family of gay persons living close by. one of the brothers frequented there too and i often see him being picked up by people. then again, that's what we go there for right? he went on to become a famous professor and no longer goes there now.

• guy who now hosts a lot of tv shows. yup, a peranakan guy who now appears frequently in local chinese tv shows. very nice guy but might come across as aloft if you do not know him. he used to blade on weekends at east coast park with his other half and group of friends.

i can go on... but yup, as i said, back in to 90s, this place was frequented by who's who in the scene. but i shall not write further. we have all grown up and matured with time. we are all now established in our respective fields. we have, at some point in time, crossed paths and this occurred at fort road. and as i have reflected previously, if you are singaporean and gay in the 90s, you would probably have visited the place.

in my next post, i will write about the interesting people that goes into the fort road beach.

• fort road 5 - characters 3
• fort road 4 - characters 2
• fort road 3 - characters 1
• fort road 2 - evolution
• fort road 1 - the location