Front Cover - Navigating the Bangkok Noir

My very first book of paintings, NAVIGATING THE BANGKOK NOIR.........

Renoir Club Soi 33

Christie's Club

Midnite Bar

Rainbow Two Bar

Late Night Rainbow Agogo

Party Time Voodoo Bar

Crazy Hour

Tall Blue Dancer

Midnight Patpong

Lazy Afternoon Lone Star Saloon

Happy Couple

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Renoir Club Soi 33

Renoir Club Soi 33, water color on paper, 5x7 inch  

Just off Sukhumvit Road is the quiet and cozy Soi 33, also known as the Dead Artists Street…..the home of Renoir Club along with many others, Goya, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Dali, Picasso.  About three thousand girls work on Soi 33, many of them in their late 20’s and early 30’s, most of them stylish and beautiful, either from Central Thailand or the Northeast, called Isan, where people are darker and more Lao. The Expat guys are regulars, old hands in Bangkok, and the ambiance is familiar, warm and conversational…

Christie's Club Soi 33

Christie’s Club Soi 33, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

On Soi 33, Christie’s is a relaxed and friendly place.  Every night the same group of regular guys shows up, has a few beers and laughs.  About twenty-five girls work there off and on, depending on the night, many of them in their late twenties and thirties, almost all divorced with one or two kids.  Most of them go with clients six or seven times a month, guys they kind of know, who have their mobile numbers and sometimes call ahead.  It’s like a singles club or dating service in California, only without the dinner, movie and database.

Monet Club Soi 33

                                         Monet Club Soi 33, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

The beautiful and elegant girls at Monet on Soi 33 wear a different dress every night. No one’s dancing on the bar.  Everybody’s acting nice.  But lurking beneath the conversation, smiles and laughter, the transactional nature of relations between men and women swims slowly in circles, waiting to surface.

Midnite Bar Soi Cowboy

Midnite Bar Soi Cowboy, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

One of the oldest bars on Soi Cowboy, Midnite’s friendly and funky with a raunchy over-lay. The beers cost two dollars and the girls, mostly Lao from the part of Thailand called Isan, are easy-going, always looking for an excuse to be outrageous and have some fun. The guys, mostly Expats, some Japanese, think they’re back in college, hanging out at a roadhouse bar for sex and rock ‘n roll, the problems of their adult lives forgotten…….

Expat Hangout

Expat Hangout, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Certain Soi Cowboy bars are hangouts for retired Expats, Old Hands in Bangkok, where they go to say hello to their friends. The girls are just there, in the background, available or not, no one cares.  Where’s so and so?   I just got back from the States, it ain’t the same.  When’s your next visa run?  I was over in Saigon last week.  You should go over and take a look.  If they lived in Arizona or Florida, they would all be playing golf.

Quiet Night

Quiet Night, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

A quiet night in April, Bangkok’s hottest month.  Outside, even at midnight, it’s a hundred degrees and a hundred percent humidity.  Inside the bar, the A/C is on full blast, the beer cold and everybody’s happy to go through the motions, thankful for the escape.

Re-incarnated German Sex Tourist Soi Dog at Soi Cowboy

Reincarnated German Sex Tourist Soi Dog at Soi Cowboy, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

There are many German tourists who come to Bangkok to chase the bargirls. Every night, night after night, they never have enough. Until their two weeks are up and they catch their flight. In Germany, they dream about their Bangkok girls, hoping to find a way to come back and never leave. Some say when the German guys are re-incarnated they come back as soi dogs and wander around Soi Cowboy to their heart's content...........

Deja Vu Bar

Déjà Vu Bar, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

Lots of girls and not too many guys, hundreds of lights, loud music and the smell of money and flesh…………..

Closing Time Soi Cowboy

Closing Time Soi Cowboy, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

The only customer’s a friend, the last song is from the northeast part of Thailand called Isan.  It’s a tale of endless hard work on dirt-poor farms, the sons and daughters all lost to Bangkok to learn the ways of the City.

Rainbow Two Bar

Rainbow Two Bar, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Unlike most of Nana’s bars, by ten o’clock, Rainbow Two is full.  The hundred or so girls are young and active, the guys old hands.  They grab a beer, look around and find the girl they want.  She comes over and orders a ladies drink.  They check each other out.  If everything’s OK and both are willing, a few minutes later they’re gone.  By eleven, the bar’s half empty.

G-Spot Agogo

G-Spot Agogo, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

On the second floor of this dense three story nest of gogo bars, G-Spot’s owned by an eccentric and wacky English guy named David.  About fifty dancers and another ten service girls.  Ten foot long Bose woofers blasting out the latest disco.  A sleazy mix of seasoned Expats and tourist guys from most of the Western world and Japan.  Not as easygoing as Soi Cowboy or as raw and nasty as Patpong, it is a hardened battleground for the ongoing transactional war between the sexes.

Late Night Rainbow Agogo

Late Night Rainbow Agogo, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

By one AM, Rainbow Agogo is blurry from loud music, blinding strobe lights and the ongoing river of man-woman interaction.  Too much beer, too much flesh and too many Expats out of control.

Party Time Voodoo Bar

Party Time Voodoo Bar, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Voodoo Bar is a mix of ladyboys and one hundred percent ladies, it is difficult to tell.  Some say Thai ladyboys are sometimes so perfectly feminine, only their hands can give them away.  With too many beers, multi-colored lights, pounding music and so many bodies moving, the only way to avoid a mistake for sure is to not go there at all.  On the other hand, for whatever reason, ignorance or desire, some guys do.

Hollywood Bar Nana

Hollywood Bar Nana, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

On a Friday or Saturday night, Hollywood Bar at Nana is usually rocking out, hundreds of Expats and girls, lots of beer and raunchy shows.  Except when the police close it down for showing too much.  Or not paying enough, no one’s ever sure.  Sometimes the police make the Expats and girls go pee pee in a little cup which is really hard when everyone’s been drinking so much, the cups are so small.  And the little cups always get all mixed up on the table where they’re doing the tests.  The poor police technicians try to keep track even though they know it’s only for show.  In the end, no one’s going to be arrested and no charges are going to be filed.  This is Hollywood, Thailand, not California, after all.

Closing Time Nana Plaza

Closing Time Nana Plaza, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

The end of another night at Nana Plaza, the Expats all regulars and the leftover girls drifting through a haze of indifference.

Upstairs Bar at Patpong

Upstairs Bar at Patpong, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Patpong is for the tourists who have never been in Bangkok before and who will never come again.  It’s a nightly show put on according to a European script, what they want and are desperate to see, acted out by Ladyboys, the girls shooting the darts and a of ten thousand pimps, bargirls and sellers of counterfeit goods.

Crazy Hour

Crazy Hour, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

During Crazy Hour at a Patpong gogo bar, the beers only cost fifty Baht, half their normal price.  Most of the girls haven’t showed up and there are only a few guys.  Things are pretty quiet, nothing’s crazy at all.

Thigh Bar

Thigh Bar, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Pom is the manager of Thigh Bar at the entrance to Patpong.  In the heart of tourist sleaze, surrounded by drunken Expats, desperate bargirls and wandering ladyboys, she somehow manages to stay friendly and relaxed.  If you have been there once in the last ten years, she will remember your name and what you ordered to drink, even the name of your girl and where she ended up.  If you know enough to show respect, you will be treated well and only hustled a little.  On the other hand, if you act like an asshole, it will never be forgotten.   You will always be an asshole, from the moment you walk in the door until the day you die.

Party Time

Party Time, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Four gay guys from New York, for some reason, partying in a Patpong bar full of girls, who knows why.  Maybe just a whim on their way to Boy’s Town a few blocks further on.  The girls know right away there’s nothing in it for them.