lovers' haunts and peeping toms

some blogger friends were reminiscing their courting days and they went on to name the lovers' haunts that they frequented. i have come up with a list of the places favoured by lovers in the past. actually, any place that is dark, quiet and secluded can be a lovers' choice. however, if a place is too secluded, you run the risk of being robbed or harmed.

most of the old timers mentioned macritchie reservoir park, king george v park, queen elizabeth walk (also referred to as the esplanade), katong park, changi beach and botanic gardens as their 'pak tor' places.

the other popular spots - some of which are still popular - included mt faber, fort canning park, lower peirce reservoir, upper seletar reservoir, marine parade, bedok and kallang park. some not so well known haunts were grace park and woodleigh park. a few, like east coast park, upper tanah merah and west coast park came onto the scene in the 80s.

i must state that i was never a 'pak tor king'. so, do not have the idea that i have been to all these places for any tight or steamy encounters. nevertheless, i hope the mention of certain places will evoke wonderful memories for some people.

in those days, while the lovers were deeply engaged in their love-making, there would be interested people lurking and prowling in the bushes. these people chose to refer to what they were doing as 'catching monkeys'. i sometimes wondered who the monkeys were. were the victims or the culprits, the monkeys? i suppose by saying that they were 'catching monkeys', they were trying to get acceptance for what they were doing, which was actually intruding into the privacy of the couples.

these 'uncover' voyeurs did not just work under the cover of darkness. as long as there were couples engaged in intimate activities, they would be around. although most couples wait to do their things at night, there were some who could not wait for the sun to set. so, this gave the peeping toms a chance to catch some actions in the day.

these peeping toms operated either alone or in a small group. to avoid detection, they would wear dark, usually black, clothing and they would move silently in the woods, hiding behind trees and crawling on the ground. regardless of whether alone or with accomplices, these 'pests' (as the lovers called them) were quite a cooperative lot.

if one of them came across some couples in compromising positions or when heavy actions were going on, he would signal or gesture to his fellow voyeurs to direct them to where the shows were taking place. some unsuspecting couples might not be aware of the kind of attention they were all getting.

generally, the peeping toms were either middle-age men or teenagers. some of the older men were married. among the younger ones, the teenagers, there were some who had girlfriends. i suspect they were not only doing it for just the excitement but also to pick up some tips (on lovemaking).

chun see, one of my blogger friends, talked about his experiences at macritchie reservoir park. no, he did not go there to catch monkeys; he went there to catch spiders.

does it mean that there is no more such 'catch monkey' activities these days? so long as there is 'monkey business' in the parks, there are bound to be 'monkey catchers'. but the number of people engaged in such spying activities is nowhere compared to that in the past.