Two Expats Walkabout Bar Phnom Penh Night.............

"Two Expats Walkabout Bar Phnom Penh Night" - Chris Coles

Beer Bar Sukhuimvit Soi 22..................

"Beer Bar Sukhumvit Soi 22" - Chris Coles

Party Time Patpong 2............

"Party Time Patpong 2" - Chris Coles

Young NGO Guy at WTF in the Bangkok Night

"Young NGO Guy at WTF in the Bangkok Night" - Chris Coles

In the heart of Bangkok's trendy Thonglor District, WTF bar/cafe/gallery is a beacon for well-heeled young Thais either going or having gone to universities in North America, UK, Europe or Australia and youngish Expats from the West trying to do Bangkok without the noir......everybody's hip, well-intentioned, alert and educated....lots of female Expats too, happy to have found at least one place in the Bangkok Night where not only are they welcome but actually noticed, approached and appreciated...........

Freelancer Girl at Q Bar

"Free lancer Girl at Q Bar" - Chris Coles

She works Q Bar's upscale venue on Soi 11 almost every night....mingling with the Expats who've got Bangkok jobs and condos as well as the hi-end tourist crowd....on the lookout for likely targets and ready to strike.....

Phnom Penh Noir - Freelancer Girl at Heart of Darkness Disco

"Freelancer Girl at Heart of Darkness Disco" - Chris Coles

Heart of Darkness Disco, Street 51 in the hot Phnom Penh night...male and female Western backpackers in their 20's, unwashed, unshaven and mostly stoned on cheap weed, dancing their hearts out, some NGO-types in Cambodia to "do good", a motley collection of lo-end Sexpats and Expats with jobs, from low-pay, low-status teaching English to managers for Western multi-nationals......outside the entrance door, tough Khmer security guys, off-duty police and army, patting everyone down for drugs, guns and knives.....inside Khmer Freelancer girls moving slowly through the crowd, looking for customers, like colorful fish hunting for food  around a coral reef.........

Phnom Penh Noir - Beer Garden Girl Street 51

"Beer Garden Girl Street 51" - ChrisColes

The Street 51 Beer Garden attracts hundreds of people every night, high to low to homeless street kids.....Expats, Khmers, backpackers, NGO-guys....hookers, ladyboys, staff and food vendors...no rules, no boundries, Premier League on plasma tv's, multiple music tracks, pool tables....it's funky and fun......but beneath the surface, there's a river of noir.........

Phnom Penh Noir - Walkabout Bar

"Phnom Penh Noir - Walkabout Bar"- Chris Coles

Open 365, 24/7, Walkabout Bar on Street 51 is dark and dingy, without decoration or any thought given to the lighting, cement counters, stone floor.....sometmes it's full sometimes empty, Khmer girls and Expats.....a beacon in the Phnom Penh night........

Phnom Penh Noir - Two Expats at Walkabout Bar

"Two Expats at Walkabout Bar Phnom Penh" - Chris Coles

Nothing much to do, just chat, drink beer, play pool and chase Khmer girls....another night in the hot tropical heat....

Phnom Penh Noir - Walkabout Bar

"Phnom Penh Noir - Walkabout Bar" - Chris Coles

On Street 51, aka Avenue Pasteur, Walkabout Bar is Expat Central....food served 24/7....still going at 4AM every night of the year...kind of dark....the Khmer girls waiting and waiting, sometimes checking their mobile phones, chatting or playing pool, sometimes giving up and wandering off to some other spot where there might be more game.....

Australian Guy at Walkabout Bar Phnom Penh

"Australian Guy at Walkabout Bar Phnom Penh"- Chris Coles

Walkabout Bar is one of the "landmarks" of the Phnom Penh Night.....packed with burly Expats, some pretty old, others almost elderly.  Cement counters, a floor that's never washed, open 365, 24/7...Angkor Draft for $1.25...sports on tv....a nice selection of newspapers....and a constantly changing cast of Khmer girls....

Street 51 Girl Phnom Penh

Street 51 Girl Phnom Penh - Chris Coles

In the hot Phnom Penh night, Street 51 is busy until 4 or 5am, hundreds of Expats, male and female, old and young, decrepit and healthy, from NGO types to hardened Sexpats, hundreds of Khmer girls, mostly freelancers, lots of food stalls, a beer garden, hostess bars, a couple of discos, Pontoon and Heart....tuk tuk and motorcycle taxi guys in abundance, selling rides, girls, boys and hashish, some African guys selling the more serious stuff...litter and garbage in every direction.....

(my Night Vision show opens at Meta House in Phnom Penh 6PM Friday, February 22nd....the Phnom Penh music group KROM performs at 7PM, my talk on German Expressionism and the Noir Vision in SE Asia starts at 8PM.......link for details:  http://www.khmer440.com/k/events/5402/chris-coles-night-vision-meta-house/ )

Soi Cowboy

"Soi Cowboy" - Chris Coles (100 x 80cm acrylic on canvas)

Saturday night on Soi Cowboy, a neon lit block of gogo bars and music places, thousands of girls, mostly from Isan, tens of thousands of Expats, many of them long-term residents living and working in Bangkok. Food carts, stray dogs, beggars, outside terraces to sit, drink beer and watch the world of the Bangkok Night flow by.......

From a series of 100cm x 80cm acrylic on canvas paintings I am doing for an upcoming show in Bangkok this coming October.......