"Bugis Street"

Old Bugis Street was quite a sight

With acetylene lamps burning bright

Tables and chairs from end to end

Where you could meet and greet a friend

And order food from any stall

Those cooks all at your beck and call

Sharks Fin Soup, Thousand Year Eggs

And strange things done to chicken legs

Nasi Goreng, satay, saffron rice

Octopus and Tiger Prawns so nice

Tiger beer and Anchor too

San Miguel, now there's a brew

So when all the bars of Singapore

Switched off their lights and locked the door

You could still eat and drink all night

And Bugis Street set my heart alight

There were Lady-boys and Chinese Whores

And sailors in from foreign shores

Bush pilots resting from their flights

And soldiers resting from their fights

Rubber tappers from Malaya way

Tin miners down in town to stay

And spotless children playing tic-tac-toe

And winning - watch your money go

There'd be smugglers resting from the sea

And traders in from far Araby

Ginseng dealers trading fair

You'd find all sorts of commerce there

Gun runners just in from the isles

Soldiers from the rank and files

Young ladies from the Embassies

Doing just about what they please

Pirates, pimps and taxi drivers

Royal Marines and pearl divers

All the flotsam of a great sea port

Gathered there to take their sport

Family and friends would come and meet

Right there in what was Bugis Street

Bulldozed now - and it don't seem right

For Bugis Street was my delight

Words Copyright © Res JFB 29th September 2012

Photographs borrowed from the web. If they offend any copyright

contact me and I shall remove them