My only negative social experience in SE Asia in 3 weeks touring Singapore and Cambodia, and so disappointing that it was perpetrated by the employees of a gay bar: Purchased a bottle of beer, was told it was SG$12 (for crummy mass-market beer - first red flag), handed bartender $20. 10 minutes later, that bartender is washing glasses at the other end of the bar, and hasn't returned my $8 change. So I ask another bartender about it, she taps him on the shoulder, he looks down the bar at me, incredulously, and I gesture "where is my change?", he scowls and yells something to the other bartender and points to something sitting on the bar a good 20 feet from where I've been sitting the whole time. She grabs a change-tray off the bar and shoves it in front of me with hostile body language; I ask her, oh is this my change? why was it sitting at the end of the bar, what's that about? She and the now-dishwashing bartender, and a third bartender all look at me in the most hostile, faux-incomprehending way, as if _I'm_ the one who has a problem. The friend who accompanied me to this establishment said, oh yeah, this exact same scenario happened to him there a few weeks ago - they pretend that they don't realize you're still waiting for your change, thinking you're so drunk or stupid you'll forget about it. (Maybe this is the inevitable result of tips being included in the bill?) So they were all obviously in cahoots to perpetrate theft, and since it's happened before, and the entire attitude of the staff was to treat customers like pathetic cash-cows (within the first 5 minutes we arrived we were admonished to "buy a drink!" 5 times), it's clear they have marching orders to do whatever is necessary to separate new customers' money from their pockets. Where I come from, such an establishment would be closed down, maybe by the police, but most definitely by the target clientele. Bars (especially gay bars in a country where gay behavior is still illegal) are supposed to be havens of friendly hospitality, not venues for swindling hapless foreigners. This scenario reminded me of the bad-old days of gay bars in the West when everyone was just hustling everyone else because we were personas non grata to society.
Addenda: The listings say this is a dance club - it's not, it's just a bar with several different rooms and a few levels, all of them cramped. 95% of the clientele is under 25 (some cute; all clique-ish and full of lame foetal attitude). Hey Singapore kids: bitchy attitude is so over; it's just shows how repressed and lacking in self-esteem you are - give it up!
