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…

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…….

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.

Lazy Afternoon Lone Star Saloon

 

Lazy Afternoon Lone Star Saloon, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

It’s a lazy afternoon at the Lone Star Bar where Brian’s been a regular for thirty years.  The girl’s worked there for fifteen years. Both of them well past their expiration dates, happy to share a smoke and a few beers.

G-Spot Girl

G-Spot Girl, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Working at G-Spot on the 2^nd floor of Nana Plaza, she has learned to watch men very carefully.  Even though she only understands a little English, she listens to them talk with great attention, closely following their cadence and intonation.  She notices each hand gesture, detail of their clothing, fingernails and hair.  There is so much you can learn about a man  without saying anything at all.

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.

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.

Flirting

Flirting, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

She likes the guy so much, she’s like a young girl flirting in school, sticking out her tongue and pushing him away in order to get his attention.  If he’s got any brains and can think after drinking so much beer, he will realize how incredibly sweet she is and how wonderful she can be.  But, surrounded by so many other girls, he will probably break her heart.  That is, if she lets him.

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.

Pat

Pat, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

Pat used to work as a dancer, now she works serving drinks.  Her kids are ten and twelve, living with her mother in Udon.  She visits them once a year for a week, taking the bus for eight hours each way.  Her life has been exhausting, more than most middle-class women from Europe or North America could imagine or endure.  At eighteen, she was beautiful and could catch a man with just her smile.  Now, she’s wearing out, with many years still to go.

Showing Off

Showing Off, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

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

Happy Hour Tilac Bar

Happy Hour Tilac Bar, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Happy Hour at Tilac Bar, before the real punters show up and everyone just pretending…….

Suzy Wong Bar

Suzy Wong Bar, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

Too many girls, too few guys, it’s rainy season at Suzie Wong Bar on Soi Cowboy.  Soon, some of the girls will start drifting back to their villages in the Northeast to visit their kids, families and friends.

Norman

Norman, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Living in Bangkok makes Norman feel alive 24/7, at a constant peak, feeding off the relentless energy flowing all around.  His older sister back in London disapproves.  She worries that he’ll never come back and settle down.   When’s the last time you had a girlfriend who was your own age and white, she says.  What will happen when you’re old? What can Norman say, he’s become a Bangkok addict, needs his Thai energy fix every day. Going back to England would leave him cold.

Tilac Agogo

Tilac Agogo, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

The girls at Tilac Bar are often mothers of one or two young children left back in dusty farming villages with grandparents.  They finished school at the end of sixth grade, had their babies before they turned 20 and came to Bangkok after their husbands died or left, looking for a way out, trying to be stylish, hoping for the best and sending 5000 Baht a month back home.  Sometimes they get lucky and end up in California, Germany, England or Australia.  Sometimes they don’t and disappear off the face of the earth.

Oil Worker from Saudi

Oil Worker from Saudi, water color on paper, 18x24 inch

He’s a supervising engineer at one of the petroleum loading ports in Saudi Arabia, originally from Oklahoma, earning big tax free dollars under a very hot sun.  Every three months, he flies over to Bangkok for two weeks of beer, sex and rock and roll, booking into the Nana Hotel and chasing cute Isan bargirls 24/7.  They tell him he’s not just a Butterfly, he’s a Helicopter, flying between girls so fast.  For them, he’s the perfect guy, loaded down with cash and happy to spend it all, polite and kind to a fault.

Hungry Guy

Hungry Guy, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

He’s been in Bangkok a hundred times, knows a bunch of Thais as well as Expats. He’s got a Bangkok mobile and stays at the Rembrandt Suites. His first night, he always heads over to his club, orders a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black and soaks up the scene.  Beautiful girls, smiling, dancing, whispering into their mobiles, Resident Expats, business guys passing through from Europe, Japan, the Middle-East, Australia and the U.S..  After a while, he spots Som, her bright white smile, tanned face, black Armani top, washed out jeans, thin waist perfect butt.  His mobile rings. “I wait you”, she says.

Norwegian Guy at Dali Bar

Norwegian Guy at Dali Bar, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

In Bangkok for a week, he’s an engineer specializing in mobile phone towers.  He comes out once every 3 months to run training seminars.  Back in Oslo, it’s minus ten degrees and the sidewalks are full of snow.  In Bangkok, the hot night air’s fragrant with the smells of Southeast Asia.  He’s staying at the Novotel on Soi 33. Every night, he wanders into Dali Bar to drink beer and flirt with the girls, mostly young and beautiful, dazzling smiles and soft dark skin.  If not for his wife and two kids back in Norway, he would fall in love and never go back.

Tony at Spasso

Tony at Spasso, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

Spasso’s at the Erawan, one of Bangkok’s top hotels.  The cheapest room’s 200 dollars a night, a month’s salary for the average Thai. For Tony, it’s not worth thinking about, he makes a million dollars a year plus stock options. He always stays at there. He likes the location and at the end of a long day of tough negotiations, Spasso is only a step away.  It’s stylish and deluxe, Tony’s kind of place.  A lot of the guys are hi-income types, from all over the world. The band rocks and the Thai girls look like fashion models.  Smiling, friendly, slim and sexy. They cost less than the room.

Drink Too Much

Drink Too Much, water color on paper, 5x7 inch

He’s young and handsome but drank too many beers.  The girls are pretty kind, trying to take care of him, and one of them will help him get back to his hotel.  Although it would be easy, the chances are she will leave the money in his wallet intact.  Sometimes they don’t understand why the foreign guys are so lacking in experience, so naïve and unprotected, what kind of world they live in before they come to Bangkok and how they manage to survive.