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.

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.

Beer Bar Soi 22

Beer Bar Soi 22, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

The beer bars and KTV’s opposite Queens Park on Soi 22 are pretty low-key, only one stop above Soi Zero.  The girls are either straight off the farm and barely dressed for the city or in shabby retirement from a ten year stint at Nana or Soi Cowboy.  The guys are nothing special, staying in the hotels or cheap apartments nearby.  They’re usually there for the beer, a little chat, and to fill out their day.  No one has any expectations and it is impossible to be let down.

Two Dancers

Two Dancers, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

They’re watching him.  Is he a player or just someone passing through.

Upstairs at Baccara

Upstairs at Baccara, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Plenty of room to sit, smoke, chat, buy Lady Drinks, listen to the Club sound track…..and watch the Japanese business guys throw their hard-earned money at the feeding frenzy of stylish, clever and hi-income Baccara girls…............

Blond Gogo Girl

Blond Gogo Girl, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

                                       

She has a power beyond herself, a dancer in the Bangkok Night…..dark brown skin, dyed blond hair, blue lenses in her eyes, she’s more mythic than real and the guys are there to worship and adore………..

Number 26

Number 26, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Number 26 has a magic about her as she floats through the Bangkok Night.  A commodity for sale, holding onto her pole, she retains her smile and sense of humor as she constantly examines her world.  She likes the men who understand her distance, her value beyond herself, who know that knowing her for a night or two can change their lives and point of view.  No matter who and where we are in life, we are all holding onto a pole and we are all for sale and we must all examine our lives.  And we must still be able to smile.

What Your Name

What Your Name, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

What your name, where you from, first time in Bangkok?  The girls are like police, checking out the guys.  Sometimes the abbreviated English makes the guys forget how complex these girls are in Thai.  They let their guard down and become easy marks.  But why not, the girls need the money and they guys have way too much.

Lighting Up

Lighting Up, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

At what moment does a guy’s brain click?  What button does she need to push.  He’s young, looks pretty good and has a wallet full of cash.  How does she stand out, get his attention, focus him on her.  There are so many girls.

Dancer Agogo

Dancer Agogo, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

For a thousand nights, she’s danced in a daze of smoke, sparkling disco balls and the thumping beat from gigantic Bose woofers.  She has seen the faces of a hundred thousand men, their eyes caressing every inch of her flesh.  Tall, short, handsome, ugly, dark, tan, yellow and white, obese and thin, some of them in wheelchairs, others with stutters,  old and young, every kind of man, from every country on earth.  What are they thinking and what do they want, why are they there, in the Bangkok bar where she works and lives and dreams?

Happy Happy

Happy Happy, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Thais are taught to smile as kids, in a hundred different ways.  No matter how happy, afraid, angry or sad, they always know a smile costs nothing and will lubricate their path.  The world is so full of trouble and the power of a smile can light up someone’s day.  In Bangkok, a city full of smiles, it is hard not to smile back.

Jackpot

Jackpot, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Tonight she’s hit the jackpot.  Next month’s rent, school fees for her son and daughter, money to send to her mother, a chance to pay off the Indian loan shark.  Her guy’s from Australia, in Bangkok for the first time, fresh, excited by what he sees.  He’s come to the bar every night for four nights, paid the bar fine and taken her to his room.  He may be an awkward lover but she loves him just the same.

Beer Garden Girl

Beer Garden Girl, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

She works in a beer garden off Soi Nana, the early shift from eleven AM until nine PM. For two weeks, every day, a German man has come to see her.  He buys her a few drinks and they go to a nearby hotel. He gives her more than she asks. He talks to her in broken English, almost the same as hers. He’s over 50 and kind, also nice to her friends. Tonight he’s flying back to Germany and gave her some flowers when he said goodbye.  He promised to come back, he’s not sure when.  She smiled and wished him good luck. Inside she’s crying.

Lai

Lai, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Lai came to Bangkok from Ubon near the border with Cambodia when she was eighteen.  She was recruited to work at a Soi Cowboy bar after she won a local beauty contest.  Her monthly salary is eight thousand Baht but so many men want her, she sometimes makes as much as forty thousand Baht a month.  In two years, she’s had hundreds of men, a few of them more than once.  So many men, she’s lost track of who they are and how they look.  Already, she has built a new house for her family back in Ubon and bought a pickup truck for her father and brother.

Showing Off

Showing Off, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

A couple of Isan bargirls looking for attention, trying to provoke, bored and predatory.